In 1666, author Asai Ryoi responded to the Edo period craze for kaidan, spawned largely by the popular game Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, by adapting the more spectacular tales from "Jian Deng Xinhua" into his own book "Otogi Boko" ("Hand Puppets"). At the time, Japan was a closed society, and very little was known outside of its own borders, so China was viewed as a mysterious and exotic nation. Asai removed the Buddhist moral lessons and gave the stories a Japanese setting, placing "Botan Dōrō" in the Nezu district of Tokyo.