Ôoku vol. 6.
Jun. 20th, 2011 17:18![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyYoshinaga Fumi. Ôoku. 7 vols. Tokyo: Hakusensha, 2005-2011.
Volume 6 brings Tsunayoshi's story to its protracted, painful close and ends with the death of the sixth shogun, Ienobu, whom we saw very briefly at the beginning of volume 1. The first time is tragedy, the second time is farce.
Among other things, this volume brings the question of dôseiai (homosexuality) amongst those who hold power in the Ôoku into sharper focus, if only in a postmortem fashion: Tsunayoshi's devoted retainer, whom I earlier suspected of being something of a masochist, strangles her while she's ill with measles, telling Tsunayoshi that she, Yoshiyasu, won't hand her over to men any longer. And Ienobu's devoted retainer Akifusa completely loses her shit over her lord's death, to the point where Ienobu's concubine is able to have his way with her in the excess of her mourning and only him telling her that she, Akifusa, has to look out for Ienobu's daughter keeps Akifusa (a former noh actor!) from committing loyalty suicide.
Before that, Yoshinaga flourishes her cards and etches the ending of Tsunayoshi and Emonnosuke's tortured relationship with painful irony: he dies (of an aneurysm?) the night after they admit that they love each other and have sex for the first and only time--this only after yet another attempt on Tsunayoshi's life is foiled. The Ôoku, clearly, is not a place one goes to be happy (a point which is driven home by Tsunayoshi's husband, whom I honestly didn't realize existed, showing up to try to strangle Tsunayoshi out of rage before Yoshiyasu shows up, kicks him out, and does it herself out of love). Tsunayoshi's beauty and brilliance has made everyone around her love her, but it doesn't make any of them happy. It seems telling that the only one who really walks away unscathed is Emonnosuke's right-hand man Akimoto, who briefly takes over management of the Ôoku after Emonnosuke's death and, after Ienobu succeeds to the shogunal seat, retires to go home to live out his days with his sister and their daughter.
And that's about as good as it gets. It does, however, bear out Emonnosuke's point, which offers a powerful revision to Tsunayoshi's impassioned claim that being shogun is the same as being a whore in volume 5 (the two incidents are staged almost identically): he tells her that being a woman isn't just about bearing children, but that instead, whether you're a man or a woman, the point of your life is about being alive.
Lest we think that incest is the road to happiness in a fucked-up world of unequal power structures, however, the volume closes with the doomed love triangle that is the relationship of Ienobu, Akifusa, and Sakyô, a former chônin (townsman) whom we meet winning drinking contests against women in Edo dive bars before going home to fuck his mother, not with any will. Sakyô is about to get the crap beaten out of him after a drinking contest when Ienobu, passing by in a palanquin, tells Akifusa to save the life of whoever's being jumped, and Sakyô begs for a position in Ienobu's household after waking up in her mansion. He's immediately taken with Akifusa, who only has eyes for Ienobu and eventually asks him to become Ienobu's concubine. After he leaves his mother's house, Sakyô never sees her or their two children (one of whom later dies of the red pox) again, and his daughter with Ienobu, Chiyo-hime, isn't long for the world, as we know from volume 1 and as is blatantly foreshadowed in this volume. The next volume promises the greatest scandal of the Edo period, which should be exciting.
Actually, while I wouldn't want to push this too hard, I do wonder to what extent the question of acting is becoming a motif in the series. Remember Tsunayoshi's passion for noh? And Akifusa being a former noh actress herself? And the scenes in the Genroku period when the kabuki watchers talk about women being able to play men better than men? At one point Akifusa tells Sakyô that, after he starts wearing the clothing appropriate to his status as Ienobu's concubine, he looks like the true scion of a hatamoto (bannerman) house. How the hell would she know? Everyone in this series is, to some extent, fulfilling roles that aren't actually their own. I suppose that's true of everyone, but the acting motif brings it explicitly into play.
For those keeping score at home, I should note that Ienobu repealed Tsunayoshi's law that only women can inherit warrior houses. Based on that snippet of information and what happened in actual history, I think I could hazard a guess as to how the manga will eventually end.
The movie, which apparently deals with the story of Mizunoshin and Yoshimune, came out last October. My hopes are not high. ETA: thanks toseichan for correcting me on the movie info! Has anyone seen it?
Volume 6 brings Tsunayoshi's story to its protracted, painful close and ends with the death of the sixth shogun, Ienobu, whom we saw very briefly at the beginning of volume 1. The first time is tragedy, the second time is farce.
Among other things, this volume brings the question of dôseiai (homosexuality) amongst those who hold power in the Ôoku into sharper focus, if only in a postmortem fashion: Tsunayoshi's devoted retainer, whom I earlier suspected of being something of a masochist, strangles her while she's ill with measles, telling Tsunayoshi that she, Yoshiyasu, won't hand her over to men any longer. And Ienobu's devoted retainer Akifusa completely loses her shit over her lord's death, to the point where Ienobu's concubine is able to have his way with her in the excess of her mourning and only him telling her that she, Akifusa, has to look out for Ienobu's daughter keeps Akifusa (a former noh actor!) from committing loyalty suicide.
Before that, Yoshinaga flourishes her cards and etches the ending of Tsunayoshi and Emonnosuke's tortured relationship with painful irony: he dies (of an aneurysm?) the night after they admit that they love each other and have sex for the first and only time--this only after yet another attempt on Tsunayoshi's life is foiled. The Ôoku, clearly, is not a place one goes to be happy (a point which is driven home by Tsunayoshi's husband, whom I honestly didn't realize existed, showing up to try to strangle Tsunayoshi out of rage before Yoshiyasu shows up, kicks him out, and does it herself out of love). Tsunayoshi's beauty and brilliance has made everyone around her love her, but it doesn't make any of them happy. It seems telling that the only one who really walks away unscathed is Emonnosuke's right-hand man Akimoto, who briefly takes over management of the Ôoku after Emonnosuke's death and, after Ienobu succeeds to the shogunal seat, retires to go home to live out his days with his sister and their daughter.
And that's about as good as it gets. It does, however, bear out Emonnosuke's point, which offers a powerful revision to Tsunayoshi's impassioned claim that being shogun is the same as being a whore in volume 5 (the two incidents are staged almost identically): he tells her that being a woman isn't just about bearing children, but that instead, whether you're a man or a woman, the point of your life is about being alive.
Lest we think that incest is the road to happiness in a fucked-up world of unequal power structures, however, the volume closes with the doomed love triangle that is the relationship of Ienobu, Akifusa, and Sakyô, a former chônin (townsman) whom we meet winning drinking contests against women in Edo dive bars before going home to fuck his mother, not with any will. Sakyô is about to get the crap beaten out of him after a drinking contest when Ienobu, passing by in a palanquin, tells Akifusa to save the life of whoever's being jumped, and Sakyô begs for a position in Ienobu's household after waking up in her mansion. He's immediately taken with Akifusa, who only has eyes for Ienobu and eventually asks him to become Ienobu's concubine. After he leaves his mother's house, Sakyô never sees her or their two children (one of whom later dies of the red pox) again, and his daughter with Ienobu, Chiyo-hime, isn't long for the world, as we know from volume 1 and as is blatantly foreshadowed in this volume. The next volume promises the greatest scandal of the Edo period, which should be exciting.
Actually, while I wouldn't want to push this too hard, I do wonder to what extent the question of acting is becoming a motif in the series. Remember Tsunayoshi's passion for noh? And Akifusa being a former noh actress herself? And the scenes in the Genroku period when the kabuki watchers talk about women being able to play men better than men? At one point Akifusa tells Sakyô that, after he starts wearing the clothing appropriate to his status as Ienobu's concubine, he looks like the true scion of a hatamoto (bannerman) house. How the hell would she know? Everyone in this series is, to some extent, fulfilling roles that aren't actually their own. I suppose that's true of everyone, but the acting motif brings it explicitly into play.
For those keeping score at home, I should note that Ienobu repealed Tsunayoshi's law that only women can inherit warrior houses. Based on that snippet of information and what happened in actual history, I think I could hazard a guess as to how the manga will eventually end.
The movie, which apparently deals with the story of Mizunoshin and Yoshimune, came out last October. My hopes are not high. ETA: thanks to
seichan for correcting me on the movie info! Has anyone seen it?![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-20 14:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 07:49 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-20 16:59 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 07:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-20 11:37 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-20 11:39 (UTC)I'll have to try to check it out somehow. Still have very low hopes. First off Mizunoshin's hairpiece looks really fake.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-20 12:18 (UTC)