Kan'ei Great Famine
The Kan'ei Great Famine (寛永の大飢饉 Kan'ei no daikikin), was a famine which affected Japan during the reign of Empress Meishō in Edo period. The estimated number of deaths from the starvation is 50,000–100,000.[1] It is considered to have begun in 1640, and lasted until 1643. It was named after the Kan'ei era (1624–1644). The ruling shōgun during the famine was Tokugawa Iemitsu.
Events leading to the famine
Due to large amount of internally displaced persons in the aftermath of the Shimabara Rebellion, the rinderpest epizooty which broke out in Kyushu in 1638 was impossible to contain, therefore the mass death of cattle in Western Japan has started from 1640, reducing agricultural productivity because of scarcity of working animals. Also, the motivation of farmers was weakening due extreme impoverishment of low-ranking samurai class members. The increase of spending after 1635 reformation of Sankin-kōtai (increasing frequency of daimyō travels to Edo to once per year) did not help either. The diversion of labour to the completion of Tōkaidō highway and economical disturbance caused by abortive monetary reform in 1641, has further reduced the margin of the agricultural productivity, making the famine imminent.
Events on the famine
The eruption of Hokkaido Koma-ga-take in June 1640, resulting in heavy ashfall and plants poisoning in Tsugaru Peninsula and nearby areas, has triggered the local crop failure, continuing to 1642. The early 1641 has a lot of abnormal weather events in East Asia. In Japan, drought has happened in Kinai, Chūgoku region and Shikoku. Cold wind and heavy rain has happened in Hokuriku region. Elsewhere, the abnormal patterns of heavy rain, flooding, drought, frost (in particular, frost happened in Akita in August)[2] and insect damage has drained food reserves on markets to zero.[3] Overall, the heaviest crops failure has happened in Tōhoku region areas facing the Sea of Japan.[4]
By June 1642, the starving peasants have started to either run away or sell their lots en masse, alerting Shogunate on the scale of the famine. The Shogunate reaction was the ordering the re-planting of tobacco plantations with food crops, restricting alcohol production (no new breweries, suspension of production of rural breweries, and halving production of urban and highway breweries), and prohibition of land lots sale. Also, manufacture and sale of non-essential food products - the millet udon, wheat flour, sōmen, manjū, confectionery and soba was prohibited. The improvement of rice distribution system and recalling rice-retaining daimyō to Edo were also practiced, along with the emergency food distribution sheds.[5] Despite the government and clans best efforts, the number of people dying from hunger steadily increased in 1642-1643 winter. The large displacements of people has resulted in wild fluctuations of population of Edo and three other major cities of Japan, as crowds searched the least starving area.
One of the most damaged areas was Aizu in now Fukushima Prefecture, where local farmers performed infanticide of all children below 7 years and lend older children, often to pimps. Due high interest rates, the lending frequently turned into permanent slavery. Would the child slave escape, the peasant parents were obliged to repay a double amount of gold or to provide another slave. In one of the villages, of 127 persons 60 were sold into slavery in the span of four years (even if sellers were not paid), because becoming the slave was the only option to escape the starvation.
According to the Fukuza Monogatari (福斉物語)", the situation in Kyoto was terrible. The usual stoves smoke at down and dusk has disappeared, people were wandering in gang-like formations, the dead bodies were piled on the streets, the infants were abandoned under eaves to starve until death or to be devoured by dogs.[6]
In Nakatsugawa, Gifu, 90 of the 700 population has died of starvation during Kan'ei Great Famine.[7]
With the crops yield in 1643 close to average, the famine has gradually ended.
Aftermath of the famine
The Bakufu government used the practices tried during the Kan'ei Great Famine for the management of the later famines, most notably the Tenpō famine in 1833. Also, together with the expulsion of Christianity from Japan, Kan'ei Great Famine set a template how Bakufu would address the country-wide problems, bypassing a daimyō layer. The governing structures of several clans were streamlined. Finally, the greater protection of peasants from arbitrary taxes of local lords was implemented.
Notes and references
This article incorporates material from the article 寛永の大飢饉 in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on 28 June 2017.
See also