Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/46

16 ). He also became proprietor of the theatre when Gidayū retired. He wrote thirty-two excellent pieces. In 1723 appeared his maiden work, the Ōtō no Miya Asahi no Yoroi, which he wrote in collaboration with Matsuda Bunkōdō. It was revised by his master Monzayemon. Among his best works are the Yoshitsuné Sembonzakura, the Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, and the Kanadehon Chūshingura, or "The Treasury of Faithful Retainers," which is a version of the famous story of the Forty-seven Rōnins. The Chūshingura is such a favourite with the Japanese that any theatre, whose audiences are remarkably falling off, can regain its popularity by performing one or two acts of this drama.

Matsuda Bunkōdō, who wrote the Ōtō no Miya Asahi no Yoroi in collaboration with Izumo, was also the author of twenty other dramas, the best of which are the Ki-ichi Hōgen Sanryaku no Maki and the Danno-ura Kabuto Gunki. But most of them were joint works written with Miyoshi Shōraku and Haségawa Senshi. Miyoshi Shōraku, who was first a priest and then a physician, took