Ooku volume 14 - such fine reading.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi Readers and Typers,

Ooku volume 14, the Shogun gets a husband from
Satsuma and he helps her in ways unexpected.
This parallels our history in which the Shogun
got a wife from Satsuma and she helped him in ways
unexpected.
We have the same clash of interest groups with
Mito wanting to name Yoshinobu to be the next Shogun.
The Senior Councillor Abe dies and her replacement
is not up to the job.
The only problem is that the volume is too short.
What a great author Fumi Yoshinaga is! All her
writing are among my favorites.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

[Bobbie Sellers]

Reading volume 17 yesterday. Story maintains
interest as the female shogun assures the Emperor Komei
that she will defend his realms and himself as long as
possible. The forces at work on the announcements of the
Emperor are clarified as well as Satsuma and Choshu
alliance.

This is a very educational work as it
examines the forces driving Japanese History which
forces are revealed, some no more than long grudges
held by the Outside lords(daimyo) who did not fight
at the Tokugawa side in the battle of Sekigahara.
On the other side of the equation are the wealthy
modernizers who want merely to overthrow the
Tokugawa to avoid colonization and shogunal
restraints on their independent trade with
the West, mainly with European and Chinese
traders.

My admiration for the author grows.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi readers and typers,

Finished off Ooku volume 18 a day or so back.
This is the point where the history of Japan becomes
part of World History again as the last Tokugawa
shogun resigns and restores government to the
Emperor.
This is a fine last volume as the Ooku
men and women relate stories about the changing
times and what moves it. I say the last volume
but this was alternative history of the Japan
under the Shogunate of Tokugawa where the men are
supplanted by women as the Red Face pox an invented
illness kills most of the men, and at the stories
end the Tokugawa shogunate is over.

The whole series it worthwhile.

bliss