—The author explores the complex political landscapes and passions of Taiwan, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, and China.

The author explores the complex political landscapes and passions of Taiwan, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, and China through the “lens” of three musical instruments – the Chinese sanxian, the Okinawan sanshin, and the Japanese shamisen. This story’s three female protagonists, raised in very different environments, are similarly burdened by the weight of kinship, marriage, and worldly cares. Their paths cross because of these instruments and, swept up in the ebb and flow of cultural and historical change, they are caught in the tug of war between the desire to preserve tradition and the pressures to change with the times. The flow of this work traverses the four seasons and provocatively examines both the clash and reconciliation of cultures and the essence of art.