(Japanese) Japanese verse.
The word waka is made up of two parts: wa meaning ‘Japanese’ and ka meaning ‘poem’ or ‘song’.
Waka is a short form of poetry that contains 31 syllables. In English it is typically divided into five lines of 5,7,5,7 and 7 syllables.
In the 13th century in Japan, people began to believe that waka were dharani or spells that could achieve supernatural effects..
Waka, as written by the Meiji Emperor, is one of the components of Mikao Usui’s teachings.
The waka Mikao Usui used in his teachings are written down in the Reiki Ryôhô Hikkei, a manual used by the Usui Reiki Ryôhô Gakkai.
Kaiji Tomita, a student of Mikao Usui, wrote in his 1933 book that the technique hatsurei hô included the student becoming One with the essence of the waka.
Toshihiro Eguchi, a friend and student of Mikao Usui, also used the Meiji Emperor’s waka in his teachings according to the author Mihashi Kazuo.
It was a popular cultural social interaction at the turn of the 20th century and was very common among well-educated sections of the population.