The contest gradually and increasingly became more like a kukai (gathering for composing poems), and the referee was chosen freely from among veteran poets and even the 'Yanagidaru' fell so low as to function as a mere publication of the results of kukai.
次第に句会としての形式を強め、選者もベテラン作者が任意に行なうようになり、「柳多留」も句会発表誌の役割になりさがった。