Yashiro the Blind

In sixteenth-century Japan, human life was held cheaply as relentless warfare consumed the land. It was an era poised precariously between tradition and innovation, spanning over a century of conflict from the age of Oda to that of Toyotomi, before a new wave of change swept across the nation. Yet, following contact and conflict with the Nanban, or Southern Barbarians, the victorious Tokugawa Shogunate ultimately chose a policy of national isolation that would endure for centuries. Not until the arrival of the Black Ships forced the country’s doors open did the tide turn again, by which point it was too late to reverse the course of history. But these distant events—whether past or future—hold no immediate relevance for Yashiro. She is merely a young blind girl who has inadvertently traveled to ancient Japan, having never possessed the gift of sight since birth. In such a ruthless era, what can a vulnerable child with no one to rely on possibly achieve? Deciding to set a modest goal for herself, Yashiro clenches her small fist tightly as she picks at the dry, unappetizing food before her, resolving to survive one step at a time.