Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

R to L (Japanese Style). 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...Fumi Yoshinaga is a Tokyo-born manga creator who debuted in 1994 with Tsuki to Sandaru (The Moon and the Sandals). In 2006, she was named one of the top twenty creators who have contributed to the world of shojo manga by Professor Masami Toku in her touring exhibit Shojo Manga: Girl Power! Yoshinaga 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.