When the steam of the black ship completely tore apart the last tranquility of the Tokugawa shogunate.
At the center of the storm of the times is the young emperor who stepped down from the thousand-year altar. He is no longer an illusory "human god" in the deep palace of Kyoto, but a monarch who shoulders the fate of the entire country and is struggling amidst the huge pull between reform and conservatism. Under his throne, there is the burning gaze of the reformers eager for change, the deep sigh of the old nobles nostalgic for the past, and the confusion and search of the entire Yamato nation at the crossroads. He is the "light" of the new era, but he is also the loneliest shadow under this light.
An accidental encounter intertwined light and shadow. It was not a simple love, but a silent soul contract.
This book paints a grand panorama of the Meiji Restoration through this relationship that was obscured by the clouds of history. Every scene in the story is closely connected with the pulse of the country: from the voyage of the Iwakura Mission to the smoke of the Southwest War; from the promulgation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan to the completion of the first railway. Every private meeting they have may become a secret conversation that affects national policy; every separation they have coincides with the withdrawal of a class or an idea.
This is not only the story of a man and a woman, but also an epic of an ancient empire reborn in the fire. It explores: When a country is forced to break with its past, where will its soul rest? How can one person's love carry the weight of a country? In the vortex of power and the torrent of the times, is the warmth of human nature and the beauty of tradition the ultimate salvation or an inevitable sacrifice?
