After the bubble economy burst in 1991, disillusionment and emptiness were felt throughout Japan. When "Pilgrim" was first performed in 1989 by The Third Stage Theater Company, however, most people foresaw only continuing prosperity, fueled by rising stock and property prices and the strengthening yen.
At that time The Third Stage was one of the leading contemporary drama companies, prominent among the many which had attracted a youthful following since the shogekijo (small-scale theater) movement began in the early 1980s. The company's playwright and director, Shoji Kokami, formed The Third Stage with friends from his theater circle at Waseda University, which was then a thriving center of such groups. That year, the new company's debut staging was Kokami's masterly "Asahi no Yona Yuhi o Tsurete," a version of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" set in contemporary Japan.
From then on, Kokami enjoyed great success in luring young people from cinemas to the theater with his sophisticated and entertaining plays. These typically featured good-looking actors and actresses, flashy dance numbers, up-to-the-minute scripts and deftly comic plots.