The story, which takes place in the fictional medieval empire of Saiunkoku, follows the adventures of Shuurei Kou, a descendant of a noble family that has fallen on hard times. Her father works as a librarian in the Imperial palace, a post which offers prestige and respect, but little compensation. Shuurei teaches in the temple school and works odd jobs to make ends meet, but her dream is to pass the imperial examinations and take a post in government, a path forbidden to women. Shuurei's plans come to an abrupt halt when the Emperor's Grand Advisor makes a startling offer, which is joining the imperial household for six months as the young Emperor's consort, and teach the Emperor to be a responsible ruler. If she succeeds, the financial reward will be great. The story details Shuurei's growing relationships with the Emperor and other members of the court, the intrigues that surround imperial politics, and her commitment to better herself and her country. Note: This entry consists of 18 regular volumes, 4 volumes consisting of side stories, and a single volume consisting of short stories.
Japanese study overview
Saiunkoku Monogatari is a Japanese novel of 89,663 characters, with 6,279 unique words and 1,625 different kanji. Its difficulty rating on Jiten is hard, 3.5 out of 5. The full vocabulary list ranks all 6,279 words by how often they appear, and you can study them on Jiten or download them as an Anki deck.
Similar Media
xx% = content similarity
Vocabulary highlights
Here are some of the words that appear most often in this media, as well as a sample of its rarer vocabulary.
- 秀麗Shuurei×551
- 静蘭Seiran×231
- 私I×227
- 思うto think×182
- 王king×161
- 彼he×160
- 言うto say×127
- 霄Oozora×116
- 茶tea×111
- 男man×110
- 顔face×105
- 香鈴Kaori×90
- 太師Senior Grand Tutor (senior-most of the top three civil positions of the Zhou dynasty)×89
- 太保Grand Protector (lowest of the top three civil positions of the Zhou dynasty)×85
- 翠green×82
- 主上emperor×57
- 宋San×47
- 府庫treasury×46
- 公子young nobleman×45
- 後宮inner palace (reserved for women)×42