An illuminated manuscript, it was originally made up of a long paper scroll decorated with paint and calligraphy, and is now separated into four parts, all of which are held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Secluded in a tower, Kibi had to accomplish three tasks: write an exegesis of a voluminous Chinese anthology, win a game of Go, and provide a commentary on a sophisticated and tortuous poem.

It is similar in style to the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, which dates from around the same time, and is attributed to Tokiwa Mitsunaga  [fr; ja]; that work has brilliant colours used for costumes and accessories, but is in a more realistic than poetic tone.

[8] Mitsunaga was a late Heian and early Kamakura period Yamato-e master: the records, and also the similarities in pictorial style, suggest that he was also the author of the Kibi Daijin Nittō Emaki, but that hypothesis is questionable according to art historians, because of the stylistic variations and the artistic superiority of the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba.

[3][12] The artist seems to have had limited knowledge of the ancient Tang dynasty China, where the story takes place: rather the work is inspired by Japanese Buddhist paintings of the 11th and 12th centuries, usually based on Chinese models.

Kibi, for his part, is painted in a manner close to hikime kagibana: a white and expressionless face with a few features for the eyes, nose and mouth, a refined method in vogue in the works of the aristocrats of the Imperial Court such as the Genji Monogatari Emaki, here modified in relation to some details such as the moustache and the eyelids.

[6] For a long time, the Kibi Daijin Nittō Emaki, together with, notably, the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, belonged to a Shinto shrine dedicated to Hachiman (Hachiman-gū) in the former province of Wakasa, before being acquired by the Sakai clan.