This is the story of a poor craftsman, Kazō (named Maebara Kōzan afterward), who lived in the Uwajima clan at the end of the Edo period, passionately taking in knowledge from overseas and succeeding in building a steamship only five years and seven months after the arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships.
Kazō was so talented that the founder of Japan's modern army, Murata Zōroku (named Ōmura Masujirō afterward), who worked with Kazō to build the steamship, is said to have mentioned that he could be a professor at a university if he lived in Europe.