haiku: A Japanese verse form, rendered in English as 3 unrhymed lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables respectively, often on some subject of nature.

Issei: First-generation Japanese immigrant in America.

kendo: Japanese traditional fencing, in which a bamboo sword is used.

kenjin: Prefecture.

Kibei: American-born person of Japanese ancestry sent to Japan for formal education and socialization when young and later returned to the U.S.

Nisei: American-born children of Japanese immigrants; second-generation Japanese Americans.

-san: Mr. or Mrs.

Sansei: American-born grandchildren of Japanese immigrants; third-generation Japanese Americans.

senryu: Japanese joke poem: witty epigrammatic Japanese poem containing seventeen syllables.

tanka: A Japanese verse form of 31 syllables in 5 unrhymed lines, the first and third having 5 syllables each and the others having 7.