A Comparison of Pictures and Poems about Gourd Vines (Eguchiai Fukube no tsuru)

The Osaka artist Matsukawa Hanzan created the illustrations for this large set of poems written by artists of various groups. The illustrations highlight featured poems, and the name of each poet is carefully noted in the illustrations along with the name of his group. Anthologies such as this were popular at the time and indicate the large number of poets and poetry groups in Japan. The members clearly identified themselves with the Japanese poetic traditions of the past, particularly the classical waka poetry of the Heian court.