"Kyogen Short Poems"

...In the early Middle Ages, kouta were mainly popularized by female entertainers such as puppeteers, prostitutes, and shirabyōshi (traditional Japanese dancers). According to the diaries of nobles and Zen monks of the time, kouta were sung in combination with dance by professional entertainers such as the head conductor of Heike storytelling troupes, renga poets, sarugaku performers, dengaku priests, and hōga masters who frequented the imperial court and the nobility. Eventually, kouta were also sung by the maids at banquets. Collections of kouta include the Kan'ginshu, compiled in 1518 (Eisho 15), and the Soan Koutashu and Ryutatsubushi Shoka, which were compiled during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1600). There are also other collections of kouta, such as the Kyogen Koutashu and many fragmentary kouta materials found scattered in various books. These include the Furyuu dance (kouta-odori) songs of the Warring States period, which were organized into female songs, maiko dance songs, and shamisen group songs in the early modern period, and their echoes extended to koto songs, ofunauta, popular songs, and folk songs. Kyogen Kouta [Asano Kenji]
[Early Modern Poems]
About 500 poems of Ryutatsubushi, which were popular from the end of the Muromachi period to the early modern period, remain today, and although many of these poems are in the modern style of four lines of 7-5-7-5, some in the early modern style of 7-7-7-5 are also found.

*Some of the terminology used in "Kyogen Koutashu" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…中世初期の小歌は，おもに傀儡女（くぐつめ），遊女，白拍子（しらびようし）などの女性遊芸者群によって広められたが，また当時の公家や禅僧の日記類によれば，宮廷，貴紳の間に出入りした平家語りの座頭や連歌師，猿楽者，田楽法師，放下師などの専門芸能者によって〈舞〉と結合して謡われた小歌が，やがて宴席に列する女中衆の口唱にものぼったことがうかがわれる。　小歌を集成したものとして，1518年(永正15)成立の《閑吟集》や，それ以後，安土桃山期(1573‐1600)にかけて編集された《宗安小歌集》《隆達節唱歌》などがあるが，他に《狂言小歌集》や断片的に諸書に散見する小歌資料も多く，これらは戦国時代の風流（ふりゆう）踊(小歌踊)歌を包含して，近世初期の女歌舞妓踊歌や三味線組歌に組織せられ，その余響はさらに箏歌（ことうた），御船歌（おふなうた），流行歌（はやりうた），民謡類にまで及んだ。狂言小歌【浅野 建二】
［近世小歌］
　室町末期から近世初期にかけてもてはやされた隆達節は約500首が現存しており，その歌には七五七五の4句からなる今様調が多いが，七七七五という近世調も散見される。…

※「《狂言小歌集》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報