oku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 5

In Eisner-nominated Fumi Yoshinagas alternative history of Edo-era Japan, the men of Japan are dying out, and the women have taken up the reigns of powerincluding the shoguns 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... Gyokuei, who first arrived at the Inner Chambers as a young novitiate monk, has risen to become one of the shogun Tsunayoshi's advisors. He hopes to protect the shogunate the same way his mentor Arikoto once did. But the numerous intrigues of the Inner Chambersand the shogun herselfare pushing Gyokuei's patience and cunning to the breaking point.