Highly educated people of the early Meiji period played important roles in the Tanka Composers' Society, as represented by the Outadokoro School and Keien School, but people who intended waka reform (Shiki MASAOKA, Tekkan YOSANO, and so on) criticized both the style and elegant poetic devices of daiei (poetry composed on a given theme), and thus there emerged a new style of waka suitable for the new era.
明治時代初期の歌壇は、御歌所派や桂園派などの江戸期からの伝統的な文化人たちが担ってきたが、和歌改革を志す人々（正岡子規や与謝野鉄幹ら）によって題詠による作歌・風雅な趣向が批判され、新時代に相応しい新しい和歌が生まれた。