Zenna's verse style, which followed the theme of 'Manyoshu' (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), was considered old-fashioned, and Gusai, his disciple and a leader of the next generation of Renga poets, did not acknowledge it.
善阿の句風は「万葉集」を基調としていたことから古風と評され、次の時代の連歌師指導者で門弟であった救済には受け入れられなかった。