What is the name of the 36-verse linked poetry form?

Kasen is the name for a 36-verse linked poetry sequence in the Japanese renga tradition. It is created collaboratively, with poets taking turns adding stanzas that connect to—but do not simply explain—the preceding verse.

Renga developed as a social art rather than a solitary poem. Its opening stanza, the hokku, traditionally established the season, setting, and tone. Later, the hokku could stand alone and eventually became the basis for modern haiku. A kasen therefore belongs to the larger history from linked verse to independent haiku.

The number 36 is significant because a kasen was conventionally structured as a compact, balanced sequence. Participants had to follow formal rules about stanza length, seasonal references, repetitions, transitions, and the placement of topics. The goal was not a single author’s continuous argument but a graceful chain of changing images and associations.

The distractors name related Japanese poetic forms. Senryu is a short poem resembling haiku, often about human behavior; tanka is a five-line poem; and renga is the broader linked-verse genre. Kasen is specifically the 36-verse format within that collaborative tradition.