The Waka are not only by famous poets and court nobles, but also many poems showing unassuming sentiments of local farmers such as azumauta (poems in ancient Japan in the dialect of the eastern region) and sakimori-no-uta (poems by soldiers deployed for boarder defenses) and many of the latter are excellent ones which appeal to human sentiment.
著名な歌人や宮廷人の作品ばかりではなく、東歌や防人歌など、地方の農民の素朴な感情をあらわした作品も多く収められており、このなかには心に訴える優れた歌が多くみられる。