?oku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 2

In this 17th Century Japan the Shogun is a woman...and the harem is full of men. R to L (Japanese Style). 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 it's pages Yoshimune discovers the coming of the Redface Pox, the death of the last male Shogun, and the birth of the new Japan… In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Red Pox has begun to prey on the country’s men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen to a quarter of the total female population. 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…

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...

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 the new Japan...

Fumi Yoshinaga debuted in 1994 with Tsuki to sandaru (The Moon and the Sandals) and has won numerous awards, including the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for her series Antique Bakery, and the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Award for Ôoku.