Ôoku: The Inner Chambers: Volume 1

by Fumi Yoshinaga, 205 pages

After a strange smallpox-like disease leaves the male population of medieval Japan a mere quarter that of the female, a shift occurs in the culture and politics of the country's traditionally patriarchal society. By the time Mizuno Yunoshin grows into adulthood, he knows nothing but a political system led by women, including the shogun, and a culture in which children--and the limited number of males around to contribute to their existence--are highly sought and deeply cherished. Coming from a poor if respectable family, Yunoshin's marriage prospects do not include the wealthy merchant's daughter O-Nobu with whom he has been mutually in love his entire life. When his parents announce a suitable match has been found for him, he takes the opportunity to make an announcement of his own--he intends to satisfy both his filial and patriotic duties by foregoing marriage and entering the Ôoku, the Shogun's highly restricted harem of servants and concubines, in order to provide a stipend for his family whom he'll never see again and to avoid having to stick around and watch O-Nobu eventually marry someone else. He takes his leave of his loved ones and enters the secretive, sheltered, complicated, and often dangerous world of the shogun's court.

The Ôoku is lifted right from history, only the real one was populated entirely by women instead of men. Yoshinaga flips the gender roles around but without pretending that they were never otherwise. Yoshimune, the Eighth Tokugawa Shogun, takes over when her seven-year-old predecessor passes away and finds that, despite being nominally "in charge," the traditional rules of the court--from naming conventions to greeting foreign dignitaries--all seem to originate from and promote a male-centric agenda. Neither does it escape her attention that her male advisors in the Ôoku and elsewhere in court have a tendency to try to steer her back into those traditions whenever she attempts to exert her authority. This does not sit well with her in the least. I think I'm going to like her.

As Yunoshin and Yoshimune learn about their new roles, the reader learns about their complex society right along with them. In such a rigid, rule-defined environment, the tiniest of oversights can have huge, life-affecting (even life-ending) consequences. The reader finds herself tiptoeing alongside the characters, worrying over who can or cannot be trusted. The history (real and creative) and social commentary are fascinating and the characters intriguing, though visually differentiating between the many, many similarly-uniformed male characters can be a bit of a challenge. Already a fan of Yoshinaga after reading her considerably fluffier but well-regarded Antique Bakery series (just thinking about it is making me hungry for luxurious cake), I am excited to see her exploring such important themes and look forward to following the series.

Ôoku is something different. It was nominated for the Manga Taishô award in 2008, and for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize three years in a row before winning the Grand Prize in 2009. It has also won an Excellence Prize in the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival, a special prize in the Japanese Association of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy's 2005 Sense of Gender Awards, and other honors in Japan. YALSA listed this first English volume on its 2010 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens list and the first two English volumes also won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award "for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender."