Hina/Introduction

"When I was up there on the moon, doc, about a quarter of a million miles away from the real world, I felt a lot closer to it then, than I do now."

- Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man

"Have you ever had a dream? If you ask me, a dream is the same thing as a curse. To remove the curse, you have to make your dream come true. But... a person who can't reach the goal is a person who is always cursed."

- Naoya Kaido, Kamen Rider Faiz

Hina was an up and coming violinist in Sapporo, Japan, attending a prestigious music school. Some said she possessed the talent to be one of the very few that might reach the top. But it was never to be. A terrible accident led to nerve damage in her hands, ending both her career and education prematurely. After several years of rehabilitation she reappeared much more quietly as a skilled practitioner of the Tonkori and Zither, instruments used in the songs of her rediscovered Ainu ancestry. She has since embarked on a journey across America, visiting and trading songs and techniques with those indigenous cultures willing to share their musical traditions with her. Her goal seems to be to document and keep alive ancient musical traditions that are fading under the relentless onslaught of the modern era.

She'll still play the Violin for pay, though she would claim not as well as she once did, and her growing skill as a luthier, a crafter of stringed instruments, has advanced far beyond the amateur level.

But its clear her passion seems to no longer be the new, modern, and European, but instead the old, traditional, and native.

Most of this is even true... but one would be hard pressed to look at her beautiful, flawless hands, and see any trace of debilitating injury...