In volume nine of the Manyoshu Anthology, there was a poem composed by TAKAHASHI no Mushimaro at an utagaki festival held in Mt. Tsukuba, which reads, 'Let's go to kagai (dialect of "utagaki") where men and women gather to exchange poems, and I would interact with a married woman while my wife might be pursued by any other man・・・,' from which we can see how things were going on at an utagaki gathering at that time.
万葉集巻九の「〈……率(あども)ひて　未通女壮士(おとめおとこ)の　行き集(つど)ひ　かがふ刊歌(かがい)に　人妻に　吾(あ)も交はらむ　吾が妻に　人も言問(ことと)へ……」は、筑波山の歌垣で高橋虫麻呂が詠んだ歌であり、当時の歌垣の様子を伺い知ることが出来る。