In the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when a member of Sekkan-ke (the families which produced regents) the Northern Branch of the Fujiwara family, FUJIWARA no Michikane and Renjo UTSUNOMIYA (Rensho UTSUNOMIYA or Yoritsuna UTSUNOMIYA) built a villa at Sagano of Kyoto, they commissioned a master of poetry FUJIWARA no Teika (1162-1241) to choose outstanding waka for decorating the shikishi (square piece of fancy papers) of the fusuma (papered sliding doors) of the villa (later it was called Ogura-sanso Villa); Teika selected one hundred tanka, each one by distinguished poets and arranged them in chronological order from Emperor Tenji of the period of Jodai (before Taika no Kaishin of 645 which Tenji conducted when he was still a prince) until Emperor Juntoku of the Kamakura period; that has been said to be the prototype of "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu."
摂関家藤原北家藤原道兼・宇都宮蓮生（宇都宮頼綱）が京都嵯峨野に建築した別荘、小倉山荘の襖色紙の装飾の為に、蓮生より依頼を受けた鎌倉時代の歌人藤原定家が、上代の天智天皇から、鎌倉時代の順徳天皇まで、百人の歌人の優れた和歌を年代順に一首ずつ百首選んだものが小倉百人一首の原型と言われている。