Form
Typically, a hokku is 17 moras (or onji) in length, composed of three metrical units of 5, 7 and 5 moras respectively. Alone among the verses of a poem, the hokku includes a kireji or "cutting-word" which appears at the end of one of its three metrical units. Like all of the other stanzas, a Japanese hokku is traditionally written in a single vertical line.
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