In 1703, Chikamatsu Monzaemon's puppet play The Love Suicides at Sonezaki premiered in Osaka. Based on a recent real incident, it became a major success. The play helped establish domestic tragedy as a powerful form in Japanese theatre.

Chikamatsu brought the emotional lives of townspeople into high theatrical art. His work deepened jōruri and kabuki traditions, showing how popular performance could treat love, duty and death with poetic seriousness.