Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 17

Book excerpt: In Eisner-nominated Fumi Yoshinaga’s alternative history of Edo-era Japan, the men of Japan are dying out, and the women have taken up the reigns of power—including the shogun’s seat! In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the shogun's Inner Chamber... Prince Kazu is not the consort shogun Iemochi was expecting, but the young ruler is determined to make their relationship a good one. And despite her initial distaste for Edo and everything about it, Prince Kazu finds herself warming to her spouse. But the world beyond the safety of the Inner Chambers is a cruel one, and the risk of discovery is not the only danger that threatens them.