The Japanese term for Chinese poetry written by Japanese poets is kanshi.
Kanshi literally means “Han poetry” and can refer broadly to Chinese poetry, as well as poetry composed in literary Chinese by Japanese writers. It was not simply a translation exercise: Japanese aristocrats, monks, officials, and emperors adapted Chinese poetic forms for their own courtly and literary culture.
The earliest surviving anthology of Japanese kanshi is the Kaifūsō, compiled in 751. It contains 120 poems by 64 poets, many connected with the imperial family, court, or Buddhist institutions. During the Nara and early Heian periods, literary Chinese held exceptional prestige, especially in official and elite settings.
Kanshi is often confused with waka, which denotes poetry in Japanese, or with renga, a linked-verse tradition. Its forms commonly followed Chinese conventions, including poems of four or eight lines with five or seven characters per line. Kanshi remained influential through the Edo period and was still written by figures such as Natsume Sōseki in the modern era.