Generally speaking, these are tsukuri monogatari (fanciful tale) in concept, but at the same time they include a wide range of tales such as uta monogatari (poem-tale), historical tales, and so on; they are often compared with novels and tales written in the medieval and early-modern times.
一般的には作り物語を中心とする概念であるが、歌物語や歴史物語などをも広く含みつつ、中世・近世の小説・説話類と対置することも多い。