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Kanazōshi was a form of popular literature that was written with little or no kanji, thus accessible to many. Though it spanned many genres, a common theme in Kanazōshi works was the celebration of contemporary urban life. Ukiyo was the concept that life is transitory and nothing worldly lasts forever.

The seriousness of the samurai is satirized and the liveliness of the townsman lauded.

"Hand Puppets" (御伽婢子,, 1666) is an adaptation of the more spectacular tales from a Chinese Book of moralistic short stories, Jian Deng Xin Hua ("New Tales Under the Lamplight"). The stories are changed to reflect contemporary urban life.

Foreign example, in "The Peony Lantern," the original tale"s protagonist died horribly as a result of giving in to sexual pleasure with the spirit of a dead girl - the moral message is the need to accept impermanence and not be consumed by worldly desires. In Ryōi"s version the protagonist almost saves himself from such a fate, but in the end chooses to die in his ghostly lover"s arms rather than die pining for her - a celebration of real human emotions.

The stories in fulfilled a thirst for supernatural tales and expressed the dichotomy between social obligations, or giri, and the reality of the human experience.