Shoyo said, 'In short, I started to write this work with a view and ambition in my mind to inspire noble, hero- and lady-oriented, intellectual audience, who like historical dramas, the maruhon shiki (style of complete set of books) and kusazoshi-style featuring common, rude people and having a lot of ordinary and interesting scenes--contrary to the characteristics of those audiences--and imply my ambition to support the so-called kokugeki shiki (national drama style)--a non-doctorine, loose, and neutral style--to foreign aesthetes, who hold a strict and rigid view.'
逍遥の言葉「・・・要するに、彼の貴族的な、英雄本位、淑女本位の高尚がりの活歴派に対しては、それとは反対の、平民的な、不作法な、凡人沢山、風情沢山の丸本式、草双紙式を発揚し、厳格な、窮屈な外国の審美論に対しては、無主義の、放埒な、いわば不即不離の国劇式を、暗に擁護しようという主張と抱負とが内心にあって、彼の作を書き始めたのである。」