Which statement, if true, would most strongly support the claim in th…

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Ningyo joruri is a form of theater that was popular in eighteenth-century Japan and that unites puppetry with playing of the shamisen, a stringed musical instrument. The popularity of ningyo joruri was due to a puppetry method called sannin zukai, in which three puppeteers operated a single puppet that was large, detailed, and capable of extensive movement and nuanced emotional expression. Over the ensuing centuries, audience interest in ningyo joruri began to decline and sannin zukai became prohibitively expensive to mount, so that sannin zukai puppeteers could no longer make the profession a full-time career. Eventually, ningyo joruri productions resorted to cheaper forms of puppetry, such as kuruma ningyo, which involves only one puppeteer.

Which statement, if true, would most strongly support the claim in the underlined sentence?

The kuruma ningyo puppeteering method is not easy: it requires fewer puppeteers to manipulate puppets that are as large as those used in sannin zukai, but each puppeteer's work is more complex.

The costs of building sannin zukai puppets were very high until the advent of machine-based production methods in the nineteenth century made them comparable to the costs of building kuruma ningyo puppets.

In 1872, Japanese puppeteer Nishikawa Koryu developed a technique called kuruma ningyo, or cart puppetry, in which puppets have wooden pegs on their feet that the puppeteer can manipulate by moving his own feet.

The few remaining theatrical companies with sannin zukai performers in the present day are mostly amateur troupes, in which members have other forms of employment that serve as their primary source of income.