In the latter half of the eighteenth century, hanashi (comic stories) began to be collected in Kamigata by people who wrote zappai (a lighthearted form of literature which originated from haiku, a Japanese poem in seventeen syllables having a 5-7-5 syllabic form) and kana zoshi, a story book written in kana characters.
18世紀後半になると、上方では雑俳や仮名草子に関わる人々が「咄（はなし）」を集め始めた。