The Thirty-Six Immortal Poets are outstanding Japanese poets, five of whom are women, from the time of the 8th century Man'yoshu anthology to the end of the 10th century. They were first listed as a group in an 11th century compilation of poems by the influential critic and poet Fujiwara no Kinto (966-1041).

Earliest known depiction of the thirty-six immortal poets in the screen format is a pair dating from the first decade of the 17th century with painting in the style of Kano Takanobu (d. 1618) and calligraphy attributed to Konoe Nobutada (1565-1614). When the poets were transferred from the scroll to the screen format, it became apparent that artists were no longer content with simply lining them up in a row; areas of overlap began to threaten the independence of the single poet and eroded the traditional format. The new trend toward arranging the poets in a group collage suggests a shift in attitude toward classical poetry