世話物

Sewamono ("domestic plays") took their material from the contemporary world of Edo townspeople—street gossip, scandals, and everyday manners. In contrast to the historical jidaimono, they portray life-sized people torn between love and duty, in the speech and dress of their own time. The most realistic among them are called kizewamono.

Among sewamono's celebrated speeches, the first to be named is Yosaburō's long monologue in the Genyadana scene of Yowa Nasake Ukina no Yokogushi, beginning "Shiganē koi no nasake ga ada"—"a wretched love's kindness turned to ruin"—spoken on meeting Otomi again after three years. Resentment and longing ride its lilting 7-5 meter, and the speech is said to have inspired the postwar hit song "Otomi-san," so deeply had it entered popular memory.

The appeal of sewamono lies in the vivid human reality that breathes within the stylization. The Danjūrō line is not aragoto alone: in the sewamono masterpiece Yowa Nasake Ukina no Yokogushi, the role of Yosaburō is said to have been created by Danjūrō VIII, and Danjūrō XIII takes on the role at the Kabukiza in December 2026.