A classic trope of yuri manga is that (Japan being blissfully ignorant of the ways of Christendom) our lesbian couple usually meets at a Catholic girls' school. This school is traditionally named after Saint Engrish, something feminine-sounding that's not actually from any Indo-European language.
Never is it a Japanese name.
I'm going to stand that on its head. Meet Saint Sakura.
She's not actually a saint. If she was ever canonized in the first place, she's totally getting decanonized by 2000, for the very good reason that I'm not sure she has miracles attributed to her. Or verifiably existed in the first place, or something. She definitely isn't the kind of good Catholic lady a saint is expected to be. (Or, for that matter, a good Japanese lady, although if she's early enough into the last shogunate she could be.)
What she is is a mythic figure of Japanese history, as much as any of the 47 Ronin in the Chushingura. Something integrally part of the Japanese national mythos, which is important when Daiwakoku gets its history on.
This is her story.
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