Since the oldest extant editions of 1489 and 1491 CE are from the Entoku era, that may approximate the time of original compilation.
Each head kanji entry gives katakana annotations for readings in on'yomi Sino-Japanese to the right and native kun'yomi Japanese below the character.
This format is similar with the Jikyōshū, except that the Wagokuhen does not semantically subdivide characters within a radical division.
Bailey notes that the textual variations are usually divided into four types, depending upon the sequence of the first four radicals in the edition.
The Wagokuhen was popular until the Edo period when Japanese dictionaries began to include compounds as well as individual characters.