Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
VIZ Media LLC (2009), 200 pages
Description
"Curious about why female lords must take on male names, the shogun Yoshimune seeks out the ancient scribe Murase and his archives of the last eighty years of the Inner Chambers--called the Chronicle of the Dying Day. In its pages Yoshimune discovers the coming of the Redface Pox, the death of the last male shogun, and the birth of a new Japan."--P. [4] of cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member rivkat
After a plague leaves very few men alive in Edo-period Japan, the shogunate (as well as everything else) is controlled by women, and the shogun maintains an enormous group of men simply to serve her. The first volume deals with new entrants into the Inner Chambers when this system has been going on
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for decades, while the second flashes back to the beginning, when no one outside yet knew that the shogun was a woman and, at her whim, a young priest was conscripted into her service. It’s a very interesting story, though I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the convention of having semi-representational art turn cartoony at moments of anger/embarrassment. Warnings for rape. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jellyn
Well, I didn't get some of the apparent inconsistencies of policy from the first volume explained in this one. But, this manga takes us further back in time, to how the first woman ended up as shogun, and the origin of the Ooku, the inner chambers, being filled with men instead of women. So you
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actually learn some of the origin of the traditions and policies that led up to what the inner chambers were in volume 1.So that was all cool and everything. Unfortunately, I felt this volume relied too heavily on rape as a character device. It's been a little while since I've read it now, but I think it had at least 3 instances of rape or attempted rape. I can't really say any of it was gratuitous, as it served a purpose in the story, but it definitely started to annoy me.I will read the later volumes, but probably not immediately. Some of them aren't published in English yet, for one thing. For another, I'm going to have to buy them myself, I think. And I kind of want to buy Antique Bakery first, by the same mangaka. I hear good things about it. Show Less
LibraryThing member KarenIrelandPhillips
I am unfamiliar with this form, and tend to concentrate on the words. So I really had to slow down on this one, because the story is told in the drawings, not the words. Not to mention that despite a fascination with the Tokugawa period of Japanese history, there are cultural references that I know
The story itself is full of angst and honor, with behavior controlled by not only the samurai code but by the demands of class and gender. Slavery, betrayal and ultimately love play out against a background of plague and deceit.
I read this because the initial volume has been recommended to me a number of times, but I haven't been able to find it at the library. At some point I'm going to read the extant volumes starting with one - this is a fascinating story.
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I missed. The story itself is full of angst and honor, with behavior controlled by not only the samurai code but by the demands of class and gender. Slavery, betrayal and ultimately love play out against a background of plague and deceit.
I read this because the initial volume has been recommended to me a number of times, but I haven't been able to find it at the library. At some point I'm going to read the extant volumes starting with one - this is a fascinating story.
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LibraryThing member thatotter
Too much rape in this one for my taste.
LibraryThing member ritaer
This second volume returns in time to the first female shogun and her consort. Delicate drawings.
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
In this volume of Ooku we go back to the beginning of the plague and read about the beginning of the transition from a male run shogunite to a female run shogunite. The reader learns about how the customs seen in the first one were developed through the second one. There is another slew of great
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characters and a lot of serious themes, and although Nobu is mentioned in the description of this volume, she isn't actually a character in it which made me a little bit sad. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
In this volume of Ooku we go back to the beginning of the plague and read about the beginning of the transition from a male run shogunite to a female run shogunite. The reader learns about how the customs seen in the first one were developed through the second one. There is another slew of great
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characters and a lot of serious themes, and although Nobu is mentioned in the description of this volume, she isn't actually a character in it which made me a little bit sad. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
In this volume of Ooku we go back to the beginning of the plague and read about the beginning of the transition from a male run shogunite to a female run shogunite. The reader learns about how the customs seen in the first one were developed through the second one. There is another slew of great
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characters and a lot of serious themes, and although Nobu is mentioned in the description of this volume, she isn't actually a character in it which made me a little bit sad. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
In this volume of Ooku we go back to the beginning of the plague and read about the beginning of the transition from a male run shogunite to a female run shogunite. The reader learns about how the customs seen in the first one were developed through the second one. There is another slew of great
Show More
characters and a lot of serious themes, and although Nobu is mentioned in the description of this volume, she isn't actually a character in it which made me a little bit sad. Show Less
LibraryThing member EllsbethB
This interesting second volume goes into the past of the Inner Chambers and explains how they came into being. It is a good story and I enjoyed the art.
LibraryThing member emeraldreverie
This volume did not fuck around. Strikingly violent and dramatic. Fantastic art and driving story. I love it.
LibraryThing member PhoenixTerran
The second volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, originally published in Japan in 2006, was released in an English edition by Viz Media’s Signature imprint in 2009. That same year the series won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and the first two volumes published by Viz received
What was once thought to be a localized problem, the Redface Pox has steadily become a more widespread epidemic, reaching even Edo. The disease affects men, particularly young men, and due to its high mortality rate the male population has been decreased to almost half of what it once was. When the Shogun unexpectedly falls victim to the illness, those closest to him are determined to keep it a secret, supposedly for the sake of the stability of the government and country although there are also other more personal motivations involved. Arikoto, a young nobleman known for his devotion as well as his beauty, had been recently appointed as the Abbot of Keiko-in when he is swept up in the political machinations of those representing the shogunate. He unwillingly gives up his religious vows to lead a secular life and is forced to enter the Inner Chambers. There he learns the shogunate’s secret and is confronted with the realization that he is not the only one to have been placed in an unwanted and desperate situation.
I did not anticipate how intense, violent, and brutal the second volume of Ōoku was going to be. The Edo period tends to be romanticized in historical fiction, but Yoshinaga doesn’t shy away from some of the more unsavory aspects of the era’s society. The main story in the second volume takes place a few decades after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. Although the regime’s power has a firm foundation by this point, there is still some reluctance and class strife among the people. And in Ōoku’s version of history, they also have to deal with a devastating plague on top of the already existing political and clan turmoil. Particularly evident in the second volume of Ōoku is the class conflict between the nobility and samurai. Because of the helpful notes included in the Viz edition, it is not necessary to be well-versed in Japanese history, but not everything is explained in depth. Those who are already familiar with the Edo period and culture will probably get even more out of reading Ōoku than those who are not.
The second volume of Ōoku can be read completely separate from the first. However, there are still significant connections between the two: O-Man, who is only briefly mentioned in passing the first volume, plays a prominent role and the origins of many of the Inner Chamber’s customs and traditions, some of them quite troubling, are revealed. I still find the English translation, a sort of “Fakespearian” English, to be awkward and distracting although I do understand why and how it is being used to indicate the varying levels of formality in speech. The characters in Ōoku are forced to deal with terrible and unfortunate circumstances. They don’t always face their fates well and they don’t always make the best decisions, but they do what they can to bear the unbearable. While I enjoyed the first volume of Ōoku, I personally found the second to be even better and incredibly good. It is not always an easy read, and it can be emotionally draining as well powerful, but it is excellent.
Experiments in Manga
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the year’s James Tiptree Jr. Award. Ōoku has also been honored with a Japan Media Arts Award and a Sense of Gender Award. I read the first volume of Yoshinaga’s gender reversing alternative history of the Edo period and quite enjoyed it. Despite some unfortunate decisions made with the English translation, I was very much looking forward to reading the second volume of Ōoku. The series has earned a fair amount of critical acclaim with which I agree and I think the second volume is an even stronger work than the first.What was once thought to be a localized problem, the Redface Pox has steadily become a more widespread epidemic, reaching even Edo. The disease affects men, particularly young men, and due to its high mortality rate the male population has been decreased to almost half of what it once was. When the Shogun unexpectedly falls victim to the illness, those closest to him are determined to keep it a secret, supposedly for the sake of the stability of the government and country although there are also other more personal motivations involved. Arikoto, a young nobleman known for his devotion as well as his beauty, had been recently appointed as the Abbot of Keiko-in when he is swept up in the political machinations of those representing the shogunate. He unwillingly gives up his religious vows to lead a secular life and is forced to enter the Inner Chambers. There he learns the shogunate’s secret and is confronted with the realization that he is not the only one to have been placed in an unwanted and desperate situation.
I did not anticipate how intense, violent, and brutal the second volume of Ōoku was going to be. The Edo period tends to be romanticized in historical fiction, but Yoshinaga doesn’t shy away from some of the more unsavory aspects of the era’s society. The main story in the second volume takes place a few decades after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. Although the regime’s power has a firm foundation by this point, there is still some reluctance and class strife among the people. And in Ōoku’s version of history, they also have to deal with a devastating plague on top of the already existing political and clan turmoil. Particularly evident in the second volume of Ōoku is the class conflict between the nobility and samurai. Because of the helpful notes included in the Viz edition, it is not necessary to be well-versed in Japanese history, but not everything is explained in depth. Those who are already familiar with the Edo period and culture will probably get even more out of reading Ōoku than those who are not.
The second volume of Ōoku can be read completely separate from the first. However, there are still significant connections between the two: O-Man, who is only briefly mentioned in passing the first volume, plays a prominent role and the origins of many of the Inner Chamber’s customs and traditions, some of them quite troubling, are revealed. I still find the English translation, a sort of “Fakespearian” English, to be awkward and distracting although I do understand why and how it is being used to indicate the varying levels of formality in speech. The characters in Ōoku are forced to deal with terrible and unfortunate circumstances. They don’t always face their fates well and they don’t always make the best decisions, but they do what they can to bear the unbearable. While I enjoyed the first volume of Ōoku, I personally found the second to be even better and incredibly good. It is not always an easy read, and it can be emotionally draining as well powerful, but it is excellent.
Experiments in Manga
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Awards
Otherwise Award (Winner — 2009)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2006-12-04
Physical description
200 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
2505007136 / 9782505007135