L'histoire se passe dans la deuxième moitié du XIXème siècle de l'ère Meiji. Nitaroh, 8 ans, fils de pécheur attrape la variole.Il tombe gravement malade et devient aveugle. Un jour, lorsqu'il se promenait en ville il rencontra une joueuse de shamisen qui lui appris à en jouer Nous suivrons son parcours pour se perfectionner au shamisen et pour réussir à jouer non pas un shamisen classique, mais son propre style.
A quintessential example of the period "ghost cat" (bakeneko or kaibyo) movie, this was one of at least six such titles released by the studio Shinko Kinema between 1937-40 featuring Japan's first scream queen, Sumiko Suzuki. Here she plays Mitsue, the possessive onna-kabuki actress betrothed to apprentice shamisen player Seijiro. When one day Okiyo, a beautiful young girl of samurai class, is led to Seijiro's house by his lost cat Kuro, she becomes besotted with him. Dark jealous passions are invoked in Mitsue, which are intensified when Seijiro gifts Okiyo his precious shamisen. The cat is the first to suffer at the end of Mitsue's hairpin, but returns from the grave to assist Okiyo's younger sister Onui avenge her sister's murder.
Based on a true story, a Japanese homeless man who used to be a shamisen master in the past tries to get back on his feet in Los Angeles. His traumatic past, however, haunts him again and things go out of his hands.