Those Snow White Notes

Sawamura Matsugorou, the grandfather of a young Tsugaru shamisen player, Sawamura Setsu, has died. In losing the grandfather whom he'd always admired, Setsu has lost his own sound, and so he has gone to Tokyo with no plans other than to search for what he's lost. When he gets caught up in some trouble, he's saved by Tachiki Yuna, a woman who works at a hostess club. Events progress, and Setsu...

Setsu's unconventional mother, Sawamura Umeko, has suddenly descended and forced him to enroll at Umezono Academy. In helping to assemble a shamisen which has lain long disused, he meets Maeda Shuri, a girl in the same grade as him. While all this is going on, Setsu reunites with his older brother, who he hasn't seen in a while, and they play shamisen together...

Shuri is caught listening to music during class and has her cellphone confiscated. The song heard through her earphones is Setsu's grandfather, Matsugoro's, improvisation piece "Shungyou." How? How does she know that song? When Setsu asks about it, Shuri tells him that's a song that holds precious memories for her and her grandmother.

Shuri wants her grandmother to be able to hear "Shungyou: Spring Dawn" again, but Setsu tells her it isn't something he's capable of playing and ends up denying her request to perform. After Setsu confronts "Shungyou" once more, he finds his own way of playing it and heads off to where Shuri's grandmother lives. At last, it's time for Setsu's "Shungyou" to resound through the air...

After being so deeply moved by Setsu's performance, Shuri decides to seriously pursue playing the shamisen. With Setsu at the center, Shuri, Shuri's childhood friends Yamazato Yui and Yaguchi Kaito, and the addition of Nagamori Rai, a fellow student with shamisen experience in a different style, the Tsugaru Shamisen Appreciation Club is formed! But with everyone being new to Tsugaru shamisen,...

The owner of a shop selling traditional Japanese instruments, Oodawara Hiroshi, has taken the Tsugaru Shamisen Appreciation Club to Aomori for a training camp. The members start practicing right away, but Shuri falls into a slump and Setsu, caught up in his own worries, doesn't seem very interested in helping her out. Then, Oodawara tells them a little of the history of Tsugaru shamisen and i...