Once, in a time of emperors and fortresses, there lived a girl, pure of mind and stout of heart. When she lost her beloved mother at a young age, her father remarried a widow from the next prefecture. This new woman had only enough love for her own two half-grown daughters; there was none left for the girl.

Years passed and the girl’s father joined her mother in the family graveyard. Left in the sole care of the step-mother and her daughters, the girl gradually became a servant.

She was made to fetch and carry, weave and sew, cook and clean—until no one remembered her real name. The sisters called her “Cinderyella” because they frequently found her dusted with coal from the brazier after a cold night in the courtyard.