Yanagihama — "willow shore" — is a self-sufficient river town of some 225 souls at the meeting of the Keyaki and Ayuri rivers, ringed by the forested hills of the Yūreimori and watched over by the three peaks of the Trimountains, the lowest crowned by the ancient Great Willow. Founded in 2,927 AC to support the building of the Okusugi Monastery, the town outlived the monastery, survived the lumber lords, and shrugged off the Severing — the empire forgot Yanagihama long before the empire forgot Akanegumo.

Two districts face each other across the water: Southbank, the older quarter of the founding families, and Northridge, the terraced commercial rise built in the lumber era. The Eternal Lantern, the founder Shan Lian's undying gift, burns at Dawnstep Bridge; the stone spider Ugly Cute guards the eastern gate with an ordinary lantern in her fangs; and the town keeps its year by its festivals — the Reenactment Festival on spring's last day, the Eight Practices through the ghost season, First Long Night at the autumn equinox.

Since the Severing, the lumber lords' estates rot on the ridge (the town politely lets the forest take them), the tax collectors have stopped coming, and Governor Wen Zhao-Lin — decent, forgotten by his empire — keeps what passes for order. Life is good, if you don't mind the ghosts.