Haiku is the most traditional poetic form of the Japanese culture. In its formal definition, haiku is a poem of 17 syllables written in three metrical lines with 5, 7 and 5 syllables containing a season word, with a reference to nature and must be able to cause thought.

It is probably the shortest poetic form in the world, and its development is native to Japan, with no influence from either the West or China. The traditional haiku poet must be concise because of the brevity, while concentrating deep spiritual understanding into the poem. The haiku poet usually takes up the changes of nature which have impressed him in order to express the intangible world of the spirit.