He considered that plays should above all please the eyes, and be written so as to be understood by women and children. Although his pieces were not distinguished for literary qualities, they made up for this lack in the spectacle provided for the eye. Denkichi must have been a better stage manager than a writer of plays, for under him the settings made great improvement. At this time, there was Arashi Seisaburo, an illegitimate son of the second Nakamura Kansaburo, half-brother of the leading actor, Nakamura Hichisaburo. He collaborated with Danjuro, and one of his best plays is _Ryujo Sanjuniso_, or the Thirty-two-Faces-of-a-Dragon. There were also Nakamura Seigoro, a follower of Nakamura Denkichi, and Tsuuchi Jihei. Kabuki’s wholesale borrowing of plays from the Ningyo-shibai began in 1717. The play that started this movement was _Kokusenya Kassen_, or The Battle of Kokusenya, by Chikamatsu. It had as hero a warrior whose mother was Japanese and father Chinese. The warrior went over to China to restore an emperor to the throne, performing the most amazing feats. The piece was full of Chinese ideas, and as a breath of the outside world, must have been appreciated at this time. Whatever the attraction of this Chikamatsu piece, it ran for seventeen months at the Takemoto-za, the Osaka Doll-theatre. The second Ichikawa Danjuro gave this play in Yedo, and it was produced in Osaka and Kyoto. After this all the plays that proved successful in the Doll-theatre were quickly adapted to the needs of Kabuki. Namiki Shozo (1730–1773) was one of the most prominent sakusha in Kyoto, during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. He studied under one of the best Ningyo-shibai playwrights, Namiki Sosuke, and wrote for the dolls as well as for the actors. In his time the vogue for the Doll-theatre had already begun to wane, and allured by the superior attractions of Kabuki he wrote more for the latter than for the dolls. His plays were full of complicated situations that tested the actor’s ability, a technique he had acquired as a result of his apprenticeship to the ningyo school, which demanded many situations to keep the movements of the marionettes full of significance, for otherwise their dollships would have become all too apparent. In Osaka during the Horeki period the leading sakusha was Nagawa Kamesuke, and he was followed by Tatsuoka Mansaku and Namiki Gohei. Mansaku was the son of an onnagata, and lived in Kyoto until he was 51 years of age, when he went to Osaka. He died at 68, in 1809. His talent was best expressed in historical plays, but as the authorities prohibited the use of real facts upon the stage, he contented himself with making over historical events, which he did in a way very satisfactory to the playgoer.