Small vertical poem cards, approximately 36cm long
x 6cm wide that may be decorated with colored designs, sprinkled with cut gold,
silver or mica or covered with silk. The origins of this form may be connected
to small slips of paper used for divining in ancient times. Another possible origin
of tanzaku comes from the Heian period, when small rectangular pieces of
paper, on which one poem was written, were used for poetry anthologies. The earliest
extant examples from the 14c are of waka 和歌 poems on tanzaku white
with no decoration. It was during the Muromachi period that tanzaku became
highly decorated with cloud patterns overlaid with cut pieces of gold and silver.
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