Honkadori: borrow and twist
Honkadori (hon-ka-doh-ri) is a way of writing a poem by taking a line or an idea from a famous old poem (the "honka", the base poem) and building a new poem around it.
Rules of the game: borrow only a small part, and add something new, so the new poem is not a copy. The reader needs to know the old poem to feel the echo, so poets chose poems that everyone knew.
Mitate: seeing as
Mitate (mi-ta-teh) means "seeing one thing as another". The poet looks at one thing and says it is like another thing, though they are not the same.
- Falling snow seen as blossoms.
- White waves seen as flowers on the sea.
- Stars seen as spilled rice.
It makes the reader look twice at an ordinary thing and enjoy a surprise.
Other devices poets use
- Simile: says "like" or "as". "Her smile was like sunrise."
- Metaphor: says one thing is another. "The classroom was a beehive."
- Personification: gives a human feeling to a thing. "The wind whispered."
- Repetition: repeats a word for feeling.
Mitate is close to metaphor, but it is often shown through a picture the poet sees in the scene.
Try it yourself
Honkadori game: pick one line of a song or poem your class knows. Keep that line. Write three new lines around it with a new twist (a new place, a new time). Mitate game: look out of the window. Pick one thing (rain, a kite, a cloud) and write: "I thought it was ... but it is ...". In the 3D, press the three boxes and say aloud what changed each time.
Key formulas and definitions
- Honkadori = borrowed line + new twist
- Mitate = see A as B
- Simile uses "like" or "as"; metaphor says "is"
- The reader must know the old poem to feel the echo
Worked examples
1. A new poem keeps the line "one lamp stays lit" from an old poem but makes the lamp a phone screen. Which technique is this?
Honkadori. A line is borrowed (one lamp stays lit) and given a new twist (phone screen in a hostel room).
2. "The moonlight on the lake was scattered coins." Is this simile, metaphor or mitate?
It says moonlight is coins, not "like" coins, so it is a metaphor. It also shows mitate: the poet sees the light as coins.
3. Why must a honkadori poet pick a famous old poem?
Because the pleasure comes from the reader noticing the borrowed line. If the reader does not know the old poem, the echo is lost.
Common mistakes
- Thinking honkadori means copying a poem fully. It must add a new twist.
- Using a little-known poem, so the reader cannot hear the echo.
- Mixing up simile and metaphor: simile has "like" or "as".
- Saying mitate when the poet only describes a thing with no "seeing as".