Kanshi (poetry written in Chinese) and kanbun (prose in Chinese)[2] had remained popular since the Nara period, and the influence of the Tang poet Bai Juyi (Haku Kyoi in Japanese) on Japanese kanshi in this period was great.
Even in the Tale of Genji, a pure Japanese work composed entirely in kana, particularly in the chapter "Kiritsubo", the influence of his Song of Everlasting Regret has been widely recognized.
Sugawara no Michizane, who taught at the Daigaku-ryō before becoming Minister of the Right, was known not only as a politician but as a leading kanshi poet.
Diaries had been written by men in Chinese for some time, but in the early tenth century Ki no Tsurayuki chose to write his Tosa Nikki [6] from the standpoint of a woman, in kana.
Partly due to the Tosa Nikki's influence, diaries written in Japanese became increasingly common.