The narrator, who had been planning a to write a historical novel about the Nanboku-chō (Northern and Southern Courts) period, is drawn instead to the personal story of a mother's love which is revealed by his friend Tsumura who guides him in Yoshino in autumn.
[4] Tanizaki stayed at the ryokan Sakura Kadan on Mount Yoshino, travelled to Okuyoshino by car, conducted research, and wrote Arrowroot.
The fictional work is written in the style of an essay and, modeled on the novelist Kyokutei Bakin's Kaimaki Kyoukikyakuden, he had wanted to write the story of the historical Southern Court.
His writing progressed haphazardly and when first published it was a failure, or it was regarded as just an essay, although the novelist and literary critic Takitarō Minakami gave it a high evaluation.
In the 1970s, the author Akio Goto wrote Yoshino-dayu (吉野大夫, The Courtesan Yoshino) as a homage to Arrowroot, for which he won the 1981 Tanizaki Prize.