One does not need dance to live. In 1374, during the turbulent age when the Northern and Southern Courts were locked in conflict, the Northern Court’s shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, was becoming an increasingly dominant force. Born the son of Kanami, head of the Kanze troupe of sarugaku performers, Oniyasha drifts through his days with a hazy question lodged in his heart: Why do people dance? His spirit remains clouded, until the day he encounters a dance that is truly “good.” Curious, sensitive, and strikingly beautiful, the boy meets people, laughs, cries, confronts his own weaknesses, and slowly begins to shape a new form of dance for a world steeped in impermanence.