Books 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of the ''Man'yōshū
include sōmon
sections, and the total number of sōmon
poems in the collection comes to 1,750, or more than a third of the 4,516 poems in the collection. (Non-romantic sōmon
poems account for only around 80 of the poems in the collection.) Poems exchanged between lovers are the majority, but the term also covers solo compositions and traditional songs that exhibit folk-tale characteristics. These are further subcategorized, based on their method of expression, into groups such as seijutsu-shinsho-ka (正述心緒歌, also shōjutsu-shinsho-ka
), kibutsu-chinshi-ka (寄物陳思歌), and hiyu-ka'' (譬喩歌). These poems expressing private emotions provide a broad basis for poetic composition, and gave rise to much lyrical poetry.
Zōka were primarily "public" poems composed for official ceremonies and occasions, while
sōmon-ka were more personal in their communication of romantic sentiments, and so are generally placed after
zōka in the ordering of poems in each book. However,
sōmon-ka on the four seasons were mixed in with
zōka on the seasons in books 8 and 10. The
sōmon categorization does not appear in
court anthologies or
personal collections, which grouped romantic exchanges in with their love poems, so the poems expressing the feelings between friends and blood relatives began to be classified in the miscellaneous poems. == References ==