Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 2

This volume covers the start of the Chronicle of the Dying Day, an ancient scroll describing the beginning of women rule and the arrival of the Redpox illness. Yoshimune discovers the arrival of a monk named Arikoto and how he evolves in the Inner Chambers.This basically is the idea of the story, the Chronicle continues in the next volume, where we find out more about the Inner Chambers and the rule of the next Shogun. I highly recommend it!

fumi yoshinaga's writing is subtle and takes a while to pick up, but in the mean time, the scenes she creates are both charming and heartbreaking. The way that the shogun is written makes you both loathe and pity him and the historical notes in the back are interest and educational.

i got this manda for my daughter because the story is very nonWestern. fantastic!she is loving it and we are getting a volume each month.

The more I read this series the more I enjoy it! It is beautifuly drawn and is an engaging tale based on historical facts. I enjoyed learning more about how this world came to be in Japan. I can't wait to see how this story will unfold!

Beautiful art and interesting story. Book arrived in very nice and clean condition. Thank you.

tragic, beautiful, brilliant

I have read a number of comics and graphic novels but I don't keep up on them or read them up too fast. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find this manga at my local library. Having started with this one, the second in the series, I didn't feel too out of touch with the characters. I was immediately interested that the main character had previously been Buddhist and that he continues to attempt to follow his Buddhist path. Yoshinaga does a good job of creating an alternate Japanese timeline that is both interesting and true to history. Later, I found out this series is considered to be directed at Shojo, or teenage girls... but as a 25 yr old man I completely enjoyed the story line.

Viz Media's gorgeously-presented second volume of Fumi Yoshinaga's alternate-Edo saga "Ooku: the Inner Chambers" is (how is this possible?) even better than the first! Ruler of a gynocratic Japan in the deadly wake of the male-killing Red Pox, the shogun Yoshimune summons ancient scribe Murase, to read his secret chronicles of a ravaged society's gender-bending struggle to survive. As the (back)story opens, the ordained life of Arikoto, a young Buddhist abbot of great spiritual promise, takes a most unexpected turn when his physical beauty catches the beady eye of the full-service Lady Kasuga, shogun Iemitsu's former wet-nurse and present procurer. After an evening of cruel and bloody persuasion, he agrees to renounce his priestly vows and enter Edo Castle's Inner Chambers as one of the shogun's cloistered catamites. In the course of further hard lessons about identity, integrity, and the human inevitability of suffering and sacrifice - for even the most exalted - Arikoto arrives at his own noble truth: the austere, celibate monk's life is not the only path to nirvana (or nehan, in Japanese). As the shogun's consort, he has a vital role in securing the stability - indeed, the continued existence - of Japan. Now despite my yaoi-type plot summary (not so far-fetched - the real-life shogun Tsunayoshi apparently did maintain a male "harem" in the late seventeenth century), rest assured this is a thoroughly, thrillingly josei romance. In addition, the "M" rating is due more to sophisticated than to sexual content - three discreetly-rendered rapes are presented as the ugly assertions of dominance they are; and when it comes to love scenes, well, the pure and gracious Arikoto evinces more compassion than raw passion...but fear not, he'll learn! Elegant, smart and compelling, "The Inner Chambers" are the most enthralling destination in manga!