Sōmon (poetry)

Books 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of the Man'yōshū include sōmon sections,^[3] 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.^[2] (Non-romantic sōmon poems account for only around 80 of the poems in the collection.^[1]) Poems exchanged between lovers are the majority, but the term also covers solo compositions and traditional songs that exhibit folk-tale characteristics.^[1] 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).^[2] These poems expressing private emotions provide a broad basis for poetic composition, and gave rise to much lyrical poetry.^[3]

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.^[1] However, sōmon-ka on the four seasons were mixed in with zōka on the seasons in books 8 and 10.^[1] The sōmon categorization does not appear in court anthologies or personal collections,^[1] 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.^[1]