Theatre historians have characterized shinpa as a transitional movement, closely associated with the Meiji restoration, whose primary rationale was the rejection of "old" values in favor of material that would appeal to a partially westernized urban middle class which still maintained some traditional habits of thought.
[2] After the dissolution of the Liberal Party in 1884, Sudō became a founding member of the Dainippon geigeki kyōfūkai ("Great Japan society for the reformation of theatre") as a means of an opposition against the conservative government, but its impact was only modest.
[3] Beginning in 1903, Kawakami and his wife Yakko Sada, who both had previously appeared on stage in Europe, introduced plays by Shakespeare, Maurice Maeterlinck and Victorien Sardou to Japanese audiences.
[2] Notable groups were the Seibikan, the Seibidan, the Isamiengeki and the Hongōza, and actors like Yōhō Ii, Minoru Takada and Rokurō Kitamura grew to fame and shaped the new movement.
[2][5] On the stage, shinpa was less successful after the Taishō era, but playwrights such as Matsutarō Kawaguchi, actresses like Yaeko Mizutani and actors like Kitamura and Shōtarō Hanayagi helped keep the form alive.