A review by pagesofpins
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga

5.0

An alternate 1700's Japan in which a deadly disease affecting only men has caused a role reversal in which women are the matriarchs, and the few surviving men often bought and sold either as marital property or, among the poor, for reproductive purposes. Mizuno enters the inner courts of the now-female Shogun because he cannot be married to his love, and a life of celibacy serving under the seven year old Shogun seems better than being married off to a stranger. Many unexpected changes ensue.