The yose (storytelling theaters) of Japan originated during the Tokugawa period as small roadside shacks wherein itinerant professional storytellers would tell their tales to passersby for a small fee. By the Meiji period, they had become village and neighborhood theaters with a small stage that featured not only storytelling but also variety acts, such as magicians, comedians, and musicians. As Tokyo grew in the 1870s and 1880s yose increased in number and in popularity among the immigrants from the countryside. With the invention of Japanese shorthand (sokki), fledgling publishing houses in the 1880s turned to the yose as a source of transcribed narrative to serialize in magazines and newspapers. Storytellers initially benefited from the publicity, but over time were replaced by musicians and rakugo performers. As cinema, radio, and eventually television became more available, theaters decreased in popularity. Today yose can only be found in large cities and are few in number, with the majority specializing in rakugo.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.