A lot of sokyoku music pieces have lyrics since the most formal style of sokyoku as early-modern traditional Japanese music is 'kumiuta,' which is composition style of songs with vocals only, and sokyoku have been developed along with jiuta.
近世邦楽としての箏曲は本来「組歌」という歌のみの楽曲形式による曲を最も正式なジャンルとし、またその後も地歌とともに発展したため、歌のついている曲が多い。