The Banraku emergence

In the 18th century, Bunraku managed to outshine kabuki. Its popularity gained because of their famous playwrights caused the audience to say that kabuki has ceased to exist. Once more the actors searched for ways to gain the upper hand or at least to regain their old glory.

There were a lot of factors that led to change the inclination of kabuki to realism and one of this is the switch of cultural centre from Kyoto and Osaka to Edo. The audience now has a different preference for the onnagata. It used to be that onnagatas trained in Kyoto had the soft, gentle nature of that city, was replaced by the characteristics of the Edo women, strong and proud has taken the audience. With this development, the spectators demanded for more debauch scenes typical in ghost plays and of murder scenes in the early 19th century.