This proved to be so much fun poets were soon writing poems of 1,000 and even 10,000 links.

Horrors! What did they do when they reached the dreaded 100 threshold? Soft carriage return?

Or red alert? Guess not. That was before Mao's time. :) [It was also before the younger Bush's time, that seems fair to state.]

From Maverick's link:

Because of the popularity of renga and the extreme necessity for a really good hokku (starting verse), poets began to collect a backlog of "good" hokku to stick up their sleeves in case anyone asked them to start a renga.

Anyone got a "good" hokku up their sleeve?

Who would want to tanka with a renga without a good hokku?