Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1 (Ōoku: The Inner Chambers / 大奥 #1)

Lovely gender role mess: men as vicious, gossiping, jostling concubines in a matriarchal Japan. Not gentle, except by comparison to other samurai stories. The cod Shakespeare translation, all the “on’t” and “thy”, is a little grating, but it has enough charm to make up for it.