The only knowledge we have of this contest is the fact that two of its poems were included in Kokinshū, and one, by Sosei, is included in his personal collection with a slightly variant and more informative headnote. The identity of the Chūjō Lady of the Bedchamber is also unclear: it is possible that she could have been an Imperial Concubine (kōi 更衣) to Emperor Kōkō 光孝 (830-887; r. 884-887), but due to where Sosei’s poem is situated in his personal collection, where the dates of composition of the surrounding poems are more clear, it is also not possible to discount the theory that she was a concubine of Emperor Uda 宇多 (866-931; 887-897). It is also not possible to say definitively that this was a full contest which actually took place: it might be that these were poems which were composed with a mind to inclusion in another contest and then not used.

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