Woodblock printed books published during the Edo period, from the Kan'ei 寛永 to the Kyōhō 享保 eras (1624-1736).
These small red and green books contained texts of performances called kojōruri 古浄瑠璃, the old jōruri 浄瑠璃 which dated up to and included the early work of Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653-1724) and Takemoto Gidayū 竹本義太夫 (1651-1714). Jōruri was a type of performance with either puppets or humans typified by musical accompaniment of storytelling on the shamisen 三味線. This type of book used the texts of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's gidayūbushi 義太夫節 (recitation by or in the manner of Takemoto Gidayū) which were associated with Osaka jōruri. Early examples of the red and green colored eiri jōruribon are Takatachi たかたち (1625), Setsukiyau karukaya せつきやうかるかや (1631) and Hanaya はなや(1634). These were published in the Kyoto-Osaka regions. Eiri jōruribon began to be produced in Edo in the Manji 万治 era (1658-61).
There are common names for several types of eiri jōruribon. The Kyoto-Osaka area published a type called shiramihon 虱本, which featured extremely small writing and illustrations and a more refined style than those produced in Edo. The typical Edo publication, which succeeded the shiramihon, was called *kinpirabon 金平本. The rokudanbon 六段本 literally 'six act book,' so named for the number of dan 段 (acts) also appeared at this time. All of these types died out during the Kyōhō era. The print-designers for the illustrations of early versions of these books are unknown, but later ones included illustrations by Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣 (c. 1618-94), Torii Kiyonobu 鳥居清信 (1664-1729), and Kondō Kiyoharu 近藤清春 (fl.c. 1704-20).