Waka () or Yamato uta is a genre of Japanese poetry. Waka literally means""Japanese poem"" in Japanese. The word "waka" was originally created by poets during the Heian Period to make clear the difference between native Japanese poetry and the "kanshi" (, "Chinese poems"). This meant that they put together several different styles, one of them being tanka ( lit. "short poem") and the other chōka ( lit. "long poem"). There are others: bussokusekika ( lit. "rock of the Buddha's footprint poem"), sedōka ( lit. "whirling head poem") and katauta ( lit. "poem fragment").