04 Jul / Ōoku: The Inner Chambers (vol. 3) by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Akemi Wegmüller
Award-winning Fumi Yoshinaga’s dramatically entertaining gender-bender series, which offers an alternate history of premodern Japan, concludes the story began in volume 2 of how the first female shogun inherited her post and rose to power as recorded in the Chronicle of a Dying Day.
Having grown to elegant maturity – only with the taming, loving influence of the former monk Arikoto by her side – the young new Lord Iemitsu must produce an heir. Regardless of her lofty station in life, she remains but a glorified womb whose ultimate purpose is to carry on the royal bloodline.
While Iemitsu and Arikoto have only hearts for one another, the shrewd Lady Kasuga quickly realizes that Arikoto’s service in the royal bedchamber will not produce the necessary results. In spite of the lovers’ devotion to each other, the peace of their nation – not to mention the very future of their country – depends on birthing a male heir. The Redface Pox has not abated and the male population continues to plummet.
From Arikoto-look-alikes to well-bred young men, the bedchamber becomes a busy venue. Iemitsu has no choice but to comply … but even as she must perform her royal duties, she also begins to develop into a strong, capable, determined leader.
Meanwhile, as the all-powerful Lady Kasuga ages and weakens, she is determined to ensure her country’s future with the royal bloodline to which she remains forever loyal. Who she was before she arrived into the Inner Chambers of the Ōoku, why she remains so invested, is all revealed in these swiftly moving pages. Volume 4 can’t come out soon enough!
For other installments of this surprising series, click here.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2010 (United States)
Ōoku © Fumi Yoshinaga
Original Japanese edition published by Hakusensha, Inc.