

The objects in the upper right of this image represent a pair of seashells. In the past, people wrote a poem on a shell and the picture that describes the poem on the other shell. This “shell-matching”, kai-awase, is a game that was popular among nobility during the Heian-period (late 8C-late 12C). Shells often imply a man and a woman because there is only one piece of shell that matches the other.