Although he was a government official, this awareness allowed him to write many poems by keenly observing the weak among society, such as farmers burdened by heavy taxes, or a wife whose husband was recruited as a sakimori (soldiers deployed for boarder defenses), and therefore was known as a socialist poet that was rare in that period.
そのため、官人という立場にありながら、重税に喘ぐ農民や防人に狩られる夫を見守る妻など社会的な弱者を鋭く観察した歌を多数詠んでおり、当時としては異色の社会派歌人として知られる。