Since even minor nobles would be able to have the honor of being selected if they were skilled at waka (a traditional Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables), especially utaawase, it is said that some of the people of low birth were desperate to come up with good poems, literally for their lives.
歌合などでは、小貴族であっても和歌の腕がよければ選ばれて光栄に浴することも出来たので、身分の低い参加者のうちには文字通り命がけの覚悟で歌を練るものもいたと言う。