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Shosagoto—also called furigoto—are pieces built around dance. The word shosa means expressive movement, and the genre is said to have emerged in the Genroku era as dance with a story. It began as the art of onnagata, who danced the course of love to nagauta music; in time, male-role actors joined them.

Masterpieces such as Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji and Kagami Jishi represent the form, accompanied by nagauta, tokiwazu, or kiyomoto ensembles. Costume transformations like hikinuki and bukkaeri, unfolding mid-dance, are pleasures unique to shosagoto.

Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji, honoured as the summit of the genre, is said to have been first danced in 1753 by Nakamura Tomijūrō I at the Nakamura-za in Edo. From the kudoki that pours out a girl's love to the hikinuki change into white robes for the dance with jingling suzudaiko—the shirabyōshi Hanako's dance weaves in every element of the onnagata's art, surveying the riches of shosagoto within a single work.

For the Danjūrō family, the great example is Kanjinchō—premiered by Danjūrō VII on a Noh model—which stands at the heart of the Kabuki Jūhachiban as a dignified dance drama. The house of aragoto has left deep footprints in the world of dance as well.