Nightsong of Splendor

The story unfolds in Tokyo during August and September of 1923, a city caught between old and new-where horse-drawn carts share the streets with motorcars, swords clash with pistols, and the wealthy rub shoulders with the poor. A high-society woman becomes drawn to Taka, a handsome young man entangled, along with his younger brother, in the city’s criminal underworld. When her maid, Sara, also encounters him, tensions rise, setting the stage for tragedy, passion, and disgrace. As the days pass, an inevitable disaster looms-the Great Kanto Earthquake, which struck on September 1 at 11:58 AM, devastating Tokyo and claiming nearly 100,000 lives in one of history’s worst calamities.