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How did renga develop from tanka poetry during the Muromachi period?

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Yellow letter tiles on a teal background spell 'what is a haiku?' with abstract calligraphic scribbles in the background — Japanese literature Three lines. Five, seven, five.

During the Muromachi period, renga (linked-verse poetry) evolved from its origins as a simple collaborative tanka—a 31-syllable poem where one person composed the first three lines and another provided the final two.12

Initially, these short, lighthearted compositions (tan renga) were a popular pastime. By the 15th century, however, the form matured into a sophisticated art practiced by court poets who established formal "codes" to govern its composition. These rules dictated technical aspects, such as the frequency of specific imagery and the grammatical structure of links, effectively transforming renga into a complex, standardized genre that often reached a length of 100 verses.132

This development led to a distinction between ushin renga (serious linked verse), which adhered to traditional court poetry conventions, and mushin renga (or haikai), which intentionally broke those conventions. Despite the rigid formalities, masters like Iio Sōgi created masterpieces characterized by shifting lyrical impulses, where the mood drifted subtly as poets built upon each other's thoughts. Eventually, the opening verse of these sequences evolved into the independent haiku form.123