A review by misssusan
Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 4 by Fumi Yoshinaga
3.0
a bit less engaging then the previous volumes. i suppose it can't be helped, volume 1 and 2 were a perfect storm of things to appeal to me with its combination of examining gender roles, sociology, and the strong characters of yoshimune and iemetsu.
this is more of a transitional volume, following the court under iemetsu's successors: ietsuna and tsunayoshi. the focus seems to now be on rulership and the exercise of power. i'm not sure how interpret the poor showing both ietsuna and tsunayoshi make in comparison to iemetsu -- i think yoshinaga might be saying something about the kind of leaders that can survive during peace. neither iemetsu and kira were very good people but they were formidable and i suspect their development was meant to showcase what kind of people could survive such calamities as the overhaul in japanese society brought about by the red pox
3 stars
this is more of a transitional volume, following the court under iemetsu's successors: ietsuna and tsunayoshi. the focus seems to now be on rulership and the exercise of power. i'm not sure how interpret the poor showing both ietsuna and tsunayoshi make in comparison to iemetsu -- i think yoshinaga might be saying something about the kind of leaders that can survive during peace. neither iemetsu and kira were very good people but they were formidable and i suspect their development was meant to showcase what kind of people could survive such calamities as the overhaul in japanese society brought about by the red pox
3 stars