In Eisner-nominated Fumi Yoshinaga's alternative history of Edo-era
Japan, the men of Japan are dying out, and the women have taken up the
reigns of power--including the shogun's seat!
In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface 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...
The aging shogun Tsunayoshi must name an heir, but her senile father is
blocking the ascendance of the most likely candidate in favor of a
young, untried lord. But politics and the shogun's own unpopularity may
soon take the choice out of her hands.