Uta-awase

At the end of the contest, the poems were arranged around the suhama, those about mist being placed in the hills, those on the bush-warbler upon a blossoming bough, those on the cuckoo upon sprigs of unohana, and the remainder onto braziers hanging from miniature cormorant-fishing boats.

[1][2] Elements common to uta-awase were a sponsor; two sides of contestants (方人, kataudo), the Left and the Right, the former having precedence, and usually the poets;[clarification needed] a series of rounds (番, ban) in which a poem from each side was matched; a judge (判者, hanja) who declared a victory (勝, katsu) or a draw (持, ji), and might add comments (判詞, hanshi); and the provision of set topics (題, dai), whether handed out at the beginning or distributed in advance.

[1] In general, anything that might introduce a discordant tone was avoided, while the evolving rules were 'largely prohibitive rather than prescriptive', admissible vocabulary largely limited to that of the Kokinshū, with words from the Man'yōshū liable to be judged archaism.

With a sutra transcriber as judge, a physician, blacksmith, sword polisher, shrine maiden and fisherman competed against a master of Yin and Yang, court carpenter, founder, gambler and merchant, each composing two poems on the themes of the moon and love.

[8][9] Jika-awase (自歌合), practised by the likes of poet-priest Saigyō, was a development in which the contestant 'played a kind of poetic chess with himself', selecting the topics, writing all the poems, and submitting the results to a judge for comment.