演劇コミュニティ. Japanese Performing Arts Resource Center. KABUKI. Invitation to Kabuki. There are various ways to classify the Kabuki repertoire. The classification here uses 2 representative sections. Jidaimono means the Kabuki works describing the world of samurai and kuge (court nobles) in periods earlier than the Edo period, including works such as "Kanadehon chushingura" based on incidents that occurred in the Edo period, but were rewritten as if they occurred before the Edo period.
This alteration of historical era was made because the Tokugawa Shognate prohibited the dramatization of historical acts that occurred in and after the late Sengoku period (the age of civil wars in old Japan). Kabuki works based on stories from the Heian period or earlier are called Ochomono or Odaimono (tales of royalty/tales of the imperial era) .