Shiho Fujimura

Endo Reiko visits the city of Nagaoka and listens to a motley cast's stories. She learns about the fireworks in the city and its history, how war ravaged and changed the city and the narrator's lives. In the process much obscure info

Akira, a teacher from Tokyo, has just arrived in a small rural town to begin his new job. Soon after arriving, he meets, and begins to fall for, Miki, a papermaker and part of a large and unusual family. When he learns of an ancient legend that the family carries the curse of the Inugami, or Dog God, he brushes it off as silly superstition. After a series of mysterious deaths, however, the townspeople begin to grow restless, and Akira must confront the truth about Miki and her family.