30137
While playing a Japanese video game, I became curious about the layout of
these book pages that appear each time you finish a chapter of the game.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NDvYm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NDvYm.jpg)

The text of each page summarizes one of the chapters, and is laid out in six
lines. Each line contains 13 characters, grouped together into 4-4-5 character
long units, resulting in a column-like look.

For example, the first two lines read,

> そだって あばれた ガソリンゴ
>
> なんとか たおした いのちがけ

Since the form is so schematic I thought this might be modeled to be a kind of
Japanese poem. Knowing next to nothing about Japanese poetry, I researched the
Wikipedia article on the topic, but couldn't find anything that would
correspond with this scheme.

Is the layout of this text supposed to be reminiscent of a form of poetry, or
is it more likely to have been made up by the writer?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-28T21:34:08.270
30106
2015-12-29T23:14:46.653
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
3527
question
poetry
Is the layout of this text supposed to resemble a style of poem?
Yes, this 4-4-5 (or 4-4-7) rhythm has a nice ring (語呂がいい) to the ears of
Japanese. Nicopedia even maintains a [list of words which happen to have such
4-4-5
beats](http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%94%E8%AA%BF%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%80%E8%91%89%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7).

Kitahara Hakushu's [あめんぼの歌](http://mikumaku.com/nihon/02amenbo.htm) is one of
the best-known poems which uses this pattern throughout the lines. The lyrics
of the theme song of [水戸黄門](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mito_K%C5%8Dmon)
([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhDHkB-GQhg); [full
lyrics](http://www.utamap.com/showkasi.php?surl=F04410)) follow this 4-4-5
pattern.

オリエンタルラジオ is a comedy duo that uses this 4-4-5 (or 4-4-7) beats in their bits
([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92UD5Gb8Y0)). You can hear that
their punch lines basically follow this rhythm:

[![4-4-5](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DXMHp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DXMHp.png)

Nicopedia says this pattern can be called 七五調【しちごちょう】, but I'm not sure about
that, because 七五調 usually refers to the 5-7-5 pattern of haiku/waka.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-29T23:14:46.653
30137
2015-12-29T23:14:46.653
5010
30106
answer