The long strands of calligraphy were inscribed without lifting the brush from the paper. Such “unbroken-line” (renmentai) brushwork, considered de rigueur for ladies of the palace during the age of The Tale of Genji (early 11th century), came to characterize much of the period’s poetic inscriptions. The “cloud paper” (kumogami) was made using indigo-dyed pulp, resulting in undulating blue or purple patterns favored as an attractive backdrop for poems.