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 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...
Released at a rate of a volume per year, Ooku is an epic that will take time to unfold. As of December 2008, Yoshinaga-sensei has completed and published Volume 4 of a planned 10-volume series. Ooku has won the Excellence Award for manga at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival, and was nominated for the 11th annual Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in 2007.
Other critically-acclaimed titles from Fumi Yoshinaga include Antique Bakery, Flower of Life and Don’t Say Anymore Darling.