is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fumi Yoshinaga. It was serialized in Hakusensha's manga magazine Melody from June 2004 to December 2020, with its chapters collected in 19 volumes. The manga is licensed in North America by Viz Media. Ōoku: The Inner Chambers follows an alternate history of early modern Japan in which an unknown disease kills most of the male population, leading to a matriarchal society in which the Ōoku becomes a harem of men serving the now female Shogun.
It was adapted into two live-action films in 2010 and 2012 and a 10-episode Japanese television drama series in 2012. Another television drama series premiered in January 2023. An original net animation (ONA) series adaptation by Studio Deen premiered in June 2023 on Netflix.
By December 2020, the manga had over 6 million copies in circulation. Ōoku: The Inner Chambers won an Excellence Prize at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, a special prize at The Japanese Association of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy's fifth annual Sense of Gender Awards in 2005, and the Grand Prize of the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009.
Outline The world of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is modeled on the Edo period in Japan, and centers on the Ōoku of Edo Castle, where the basis of social management and power is shifted from men to women as a result of the rapid decline in the male population caused by a mysterious plague.
In this work, figures who are male in history, such as the Shoguns of the Tokugawa clan for generations and those who held important positions, are replaced by women, and figures who are female by men. The story is composed of detailed descriptions based on historical facts interwoven with fiction. As for descriptions based on historical facts such as a report by an Opperhoofd: "I had an audience with Iemitsu through a blind, and I thought his voice sounded like a boy's. In the audience, only young men were seated with him. I saw many women working in the city." The rough outline in the frontispiece and columns in the magazine "Melody" reads, "Gender reversal! Parallel historical drama" or "This is a story that approximates but is not identical to the Edo period in Japan," etc., and is positioned as a so-called science fiction work (historical alteration science fiction).
Story During the rule of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, a boy was attacked by a bear in a rural village in the Kantō region, which triggered the spread of a strange disease later known as the "redface pox." No cure or treatment was ever discovered for the disease, except that it "only affects young boys" and has an "80% fatality rate." As a result, the male population plummeted to about one-quarter of the female population, and the social structure of Japan was drastically changed. Boys were raised as scarce stallions and were forced to either go to grooms, be rented out to poor families who could not get grooms at any price per night, or sell their bodies in the brothels. On the other hand, women replaced men as the main labor force, and all family businesses were handed down from woman to woman. In Edo Castle, too, the shogunship was handed over to women after the third Shogun, Iemitsu, and the Ōoku attracted endangered young men as proof of the Shogun's prestige, creating a world of men commonly referred to as "three thousand beautiful men."
Characters and their storylines Yoshimune The story begins with the death of the seventh Shogun, Tokugawa Ietsugu, a young girl, and the subsequent reign of the eighth Shogun, Yoshimune. She appointed her entourage Kanō Hisamichi as her intermediator, and carried out various reforms of the shogunate administration. Her decisive reforms also extended to the Ōoku, where three thousand beautiful men were ridiculed as the wasteful spenders of the shogunate. One day, Yoshimune wondered why women had both female and male names. In official documents, all women were listed under male names, and even if they had husbands, they were either not mentioned, or they were purposely listed as wives under female names. She believed that this made it impossible to obtain accurate statistics for the country and harmed the shogunate administration. She met with Murase Masasuke, the head of Secretary, to view the logbooks recording everything in the Ōoku. Masasuke told her that the logbooks were named the Chronicle of the Dying Day by Kasuga, the founder of the Ōoku. Yoshimune asked him what kind of man Kasuga was, but Masasuke revealed that Lady Kasuga was a woman. Yoshimune was surprised and began opening the pages of the logbooks. She thought that reading them would explain why official records used male names even though women were running the country.
Iemitsu The Chronicle of the Dying Day, as read by Yoshimune, dates back to the rule of the third Shogun, Iemitsu. The redface pox was spreading throughout Japan. Arikoto, a handsome monk of noble birth who had come to Edo Castle from Kyoto, was forcibly returned to secular life along with a boy monk, Gyokuei, under threat from Lady Kasuga, and was admitted to the Ōoku to become Iemitsu's page. However, it was revealed that the original Iemitsu had already died of the redface pox and that Arikoto's entry to the Ōoku was so that Chie, Iemitsu's illegitimate daughter, could give birth to an heir. The truth is that for the sake of the continuation of the Tokugawa clan, the Ōoku had been rewritten by Lady Kasuga to be populated by men.
As Arikoto interacted with Chie, he learned of her difficult upbringing in which she was forced to take the place of the Shogun, and stripped of her life as a woman. Arikoto affirmed Chie's existence as a woman, and Chie also fell in love with him. Filled with affection, Chie began to show her original intelligence and talent for politics.
After the death of Lady Kasuga, Chie announced the death of the original Iemitsu to all the feudal lords in Japan and declared that she would assume the title of Iemitsu herself and rule the country as a female Shogun. The lords, who had been suffering from a decline in the number of male heirs, followed suit, and it became the basic rule that women would inherit the governorship.
Chie, who was unable to have any children with Arikoto, died at the age of 27 after having three children with her concubines, including Gyokuei. Upon Chie's death, Gyokuei was ordained and changed his name to Keishō-in, but Arikoto was not ordained and remained in the Ōoku as the general director under Chie's last will.
Ietsuna Chie's eldest daughter, Chiyo, became the fourth Shogun, Ietsuna, at the age of 11. She was nicknamed "Lady Do So" because of her lack of interest in politics and her "You may do so" attitude toward the advice of shogunate officials. However, with the help of Arikoto and other outstanding vassals from her mother's time, her shogunate maintained stability.
On the night of the Great fire of Meireki in Edo, Ietsuna is alone with Arikoto while evacuating the castle, and suddenly confesses her love for him. After Arikoto helped to restore the Ōoku from the fire, he was ordained, changing his name to Eikō-in and left the Ōoku. Ietsuna died without an heir, and the fifth Shogun was Tsunayoshi, the daughter of Chie and Keishō-in.
Tsunayoshi Tsunayoshi became the fifth Shogun, and together with her Chief Retainer, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, she demonstrated political skills that were a complete change from those of her predecessor, while at the same time using her lovely and bewitching appearance to lead a wild sex life. Tsunayoshi fell in love with Emonnosuke, a candidate for a Concubine brought from Kyoto by her Official Husband, Takatsukasa Nobuhira, but Emonnosuke declined the position due to his age, and instead accepted the position of the General Director of the Ōoku.
Just then, Tsunayoshi was forced to have another child due to the sudden death of Matsu, the only heir she had already had. This led to an intensified power struggle for Tsunayoshi's favor between her father Keishō-in, Emonnosuke, and the Concubines who represented each of them. Tsunayoshi could not ignore her father's affection for her, continued to have sexual intercourse with young men even after she reached menopause, and her reputation declined in Edo, aided by the Akō Incident and the Edicts on Compassion for Living Things. Tsunayoshi, who was unable to rule well and produce an heir, wondered why she was still alive, but Emonnosuke told her that the relationship between a woman and a man was not limited to procreation. Tsunayoshi, who was united with Emonnosuke, broke the curse of her father and nominated Ienobu, the daughter of Tsunashige, whom her father disliked, as the next Shogun, but Emonnosuke died suddenly soon after.
Later, her father, Keishō-in, died, and Tsunayoshi contracted measles and became critically ill. Her Chief Retainer, Yoshiyasu, visited Tsunayoshi on her sickbed and suffocated her to death while confessing her secret feelings for Tsunayoshi. Her death was officially ruled as death by measles, and Yoshiyasu left Edo Castle as Ienobu assumed the shogunate.
Ienobu The story takes place a little further back in time, during the rule of Tsunayoshi. Katsuta Sakyō, who was living a life of idleness in Edo, was picked up after being injured in a betting dispute by Manabe Akifusa, Ienobu's Chief Retainer. Sakyō eventually fell in love with Akifusa, but she intended to make him Ienobu's Concubine. Sakyō met Ienobu and was impressed by her personality, and they had a child together, Chiyo, who would later become her successor.
Ienobu, who became the sixth Shogun, struggled to correct Tsunayoshi's maladministration and was expected by the common people to be a stateswoman, but due to frailty, she died three years after assuming the shogunate. At this time, Sakyō had a half-hearted one-night stand with Akifusa, who was disturbed by her proprietress's death, which became the prelude to the Ejima-Ikushima affair.
Ietsugu Upon Ienobu's death, Ienobu's Official Husband, Kunihiro, changed his name to Ten'ei-in and Sakyō changed his name to Gekkō-in, and both became ordained. Ienobu and Gekkō-in's daughter, Chiyo, became the seventh Shogun, Ietsugu. Ietsugu, only four years old, was so sickly that she was in danger of failing to reach adulthood, and there was a conflict in the Ōoku between Ten'ei-in of Yoshimune in the Kishū Domain faction and Akifusa and Gekkō-in of Tsugutomo in the Owari Domain faction over who should be the next Shogun. At that time, Ejima, the General Director of the Ōoku, who was on Gekkō-in's side, was captured as a result of the Ejima-Ikushima affair. It was a plot by Yoshimune's faction to force him to testify against Gekkō-in and Akifusa for their infidelity, but Ejima denied everything and was sentenced to death. Gekkō-in asked Ten'ei-in to spare Ejima's life and maintain the treatment of Akifusa after the change of Shogun in exchange for Yoshimune's nomination as the next Shogun, which Ten'ei-in accepted.
As a result, Yoshimune was chosen as the eighth Shogun. Ietsugu then died of illness at the age of seven.
Ieshige