Hm. Thought I'd got farther into Oo-oku than just vol.2, but evidently not. Picked up vols 6-8 yesterday, when I went to get my taxes, because they had Yoshimune in them. Discover that Yoshimune is purportedly a murderer from the age of 12 or so, Hi Izuru fashion. Or maybe we're to assume Ienobu's Lord of Echizen is the one who had Yoshimune's sisters done in, and Yoshimune just followed suit with the heirs to the other Tokugawa houses? Whatever, I think it just a bit much.
But I may go back and read 3-5 just for the hints of I'm getting of 'everyone loves Iemitsu' (everyone most certainly does *not*, in the samurai dramas) which is as WTF as 'everyone loves the Dog Shougun so much they all try to kill her.' (The real Tsunayoshi was supposedly killed by his wife; I doubt he was actually killed by his childhood lover, as Yoshinaga has it.)
The translation is still a painful stylistic mishmash but not as bad as I recall. Then again, maybe I recall badly.
