otogi zōshi 御伽草子

Popular stories which flourished from the late Kamakura to the early Edo period. The name derives from an early 18th-century collection of twenty-three short stories entitled Otogi bunko 御伽文庫 (The Companion Library) collected and printed by Shibukawa Seiemon 渋川清右衛門, a publisher in Osaka. The title was changed to Otogi zōshi (The Companion Book) in a later version published in 1801. Once introduced, the term quickly became generalized to include a whole body of popular stories such as folk-tales, didactic narratives, war stories, etc.
Because these stories were appreciated by people from all levels of society, they were frequently illustrated and made into scroll paintings *emaki 絵巻 and picture books *nara-ehon 奈良絵本 dating from the Muromachi to the early Edo periods. The stories were also recited by chanters and priests sometimes with the help of illustrations *etoki 絵解. The illustrations were painted in a naive style using bright colors, usually by anonymous artists. However, official painters produced a limited number of refined illustrations for the families of emperors and shoguns.
Otogi zōshi were the forerunners of Edo period *kana zōshi 仮名草子 (a story book in kana 仮名 script) and *ukiyo zōshi 浮世草子 (a story book of the floating world). Literary scholars today prefer using the terms Muromachi jidai monogatari 室町時代物語 (Muromachi period tales) or chūsei shōsetsu 中世小説 (short stories of the Middle Ages) to more precisely describe these short stories.