Red Light District and the Inner Palace: Maomao From Apothecary Diaries Sees Little Difference

The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) spoilers ahead!

Summary

• Maomao believes that the Inner palace is not very different from the Red light district she grew up next to.
• She calls them both a “beautiful garden” and a “cage,” and they can be argued to be just that.
• The world of The Apothecary Diaries is not very fair to women.

Despite wishing to return home, Maomao finds the Inner palace and the Red light district she grew up next to very similar in that they are both a beautiful garden and a cage.

A Beautiful Garden

The obvious reason why Maomao calls the Red light district and the Inner palace a garden is because the women trapped in both of them are often compared to flowers. Even the opening theme of The Apothecary Diaries by Ryokuoushoku Shakai can be translated as "Become a Flower."

Maomao can appreciate the beauty of both gardens, and the Inner palace probably wins extra points due to being a particularly high-end brothel. But, in essence, it is still a brothel, just for one single man, who holds all the power in this world.

A Cage

Despite their beauty — or possibly because of it — the women of both the Red light district and the Inner palace are usually caged inside by debt or other circumstances. As Maomao’s own history shows, they might not even be responsible for the debt. They can be just kidnapped and forced to work off a debt that someone else takes advantage of.

The concubines of the Emperor can never leave the Inner palace at all, even though they are typically caged by their debt before their own families, and it is not always money. Having a daughter become the concubine of the Emperor is very prestigious, after all.

In any case, women are not free to leave the Red light district nor the Inner palace, so Maomao is correct in calling them cages.

Outside the Red Light District and the Inner Palace

The Red light district and the Inner palace are cruel and unforgiving to women, but to be fair, the entire world of The Apothecary Diaries is not very kind to them. If anything, there is some safety in the red light district, where a woman is a valuable property, and the Inner palace, where the woman is a possession of the Emperor. But it is still an unfair existence, and Maomao shows that the two options are not that different in the end.