A "Goze" is a blind entertainer who travels to various places singing stories while playing the shamisen (Japanese three-stringed lute). Becoming a goze due to her blindness at seven-years-old, Haru was strictly trained with a parent's affection by her once kind mother, Tome.
Misako Watanabe (渡辺美佐子) (b. 23 October 1932) is a Japanese actress. She is a graduate of the Haiyuza Theatre Company. In 1997 she received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and in 2004 the Order of the Rising Sun.