This collection is in the form of a poetry competition of excellent poems by 36 poets from "Manyoshu" (the first major anthology of early Japanese poetry) to the mid-Heian Period, who were later called 'Sanju-roku Kasen' (the thirty-six immortal poets).
これは、『万葉集』の時代から、平安時代中期までの歌人36名の秀歌を集めて歌合形式としたもので、これら36名を後に「三十六歌仙」と称するようになった。