What is the name of a traditional form of Japanese street theatre in the form of picture card storytelling?

"Kamishibai" (Japanese: 紙芝居, "paper play") is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the twentieth century. "Kamishibai" was told by a "kamishibaiya" ("kamishibai narrator") who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that they placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing each image. "Kamishibai" has its earliest origins in Japanese Buddhist temples where Buddhist monks from the eighth century onward used "emakimono" ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey a story.

The popularity of 'kamishibai' declined at the end of the Allied Occupation and the introduction of television, known originally as 'denki kamishibai' ("electric kamishibai") in 1953. With television bringing larger access to a variety of entertainment, many kamishibai artists and narrators lost their work, with the former turning to drawing "gekiga" (Japanese term for comics), bringing new talent and narrative to this growing genre. Although this Japanese art form has largely disappeared, its significance and contributions have allowed "kamishibai" to be attributed as an origin for manga ( comics or graphic novels originating from Japan).