At the beginning of the Taisho era, after Japan had opened its doors to the West, people were exposed to Western culture and musical ideas; awareness grew of opera and operetta as artistic expressions of modern Western culture. Over time, these Western musical influences were developed into a unique form of Japanese operetta in Tokyo’s sole entertainment district of Asakusa. Thus, Asakusa Opera was born in the early 1900s, an expression of Taisho Romanticism. By the 1910s, many opera houses and theatrical companies had been established.