ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Fūyō Wakashū

Okay, kiddo! A fūyō wakashū is a special kind of book from a long, long time ago in Japan. It was full of little poems that had to follow very special rules about how many syllables each line should have. The poems were written by lots of different people, but they all fit into a special group called the "fūyō" style.

These poems were usually about love or nature, and were really popular back then. People would write them in special calligraphy and share them with their friends or loved ones. The fūyō wakashū book was like a big collection of these poems, so you could read lots of them at once!

In the book, each poem had a little title and sometimes some extra notes to help you understand what it was about. People would read these poems and think about them, or maybe even try to write some of their own in the same style.

So, that's what a fūyō wakashū is! It's like a book full of special little poems that people wrote a long time ago in Japan. Pretty cool, huh?