The Kan'ei Great Famine ( ') was a famine which affected Japan during the reign of Empress Meishō in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. The estimated number of deaths due to starvation is between 50,000 and 100,000. The famine is generally considered to have begun in 1640 and lasted into 1643. It was named after the

Kan'ei was a after '' Genna'' and before ''Shōhō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1624 through December 1644. The reigning emperors and single empress were , and .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 411./re ...

era (1624–1644). The ruling ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

'' during the famine was

Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who acted as his political adviser and was at the ...

Events leading to the famine

Due to large numbers of internally displaced persons in the aftermath of the

Shimabara Rebellion The , also known as the or , was an rebellion, uprising that occurred in the Shimabara Domain of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan from 17 December 1637 to 15 April 1638. Matsukura Katsuie, the ''daimyō'' of the Shimabara Domain, enforced unpo ...

, and the

rinderpest Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, African Buffalo, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wilde ...

epizooty, which broke out in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

in 1638 and was impossible to contain, led to mass deaths of cattle in Western Japan, which reduced agricultural productivity in 1640 due to the scarcity of

working animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while oth ...

s. Also, motivation among farmers was weakening due to the extreme impoverishment of low-ranking samurai class members. The increased spending after the 1635 reformation of

Sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

(increasing frequency of ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' annual trips to Edo) did not help either. The diversion of labour to the completion of the Tōkaidō highway and economical disturbances caused by abortive monetary reforms in 1641 further reduced the margin of agricultural productivity, making famine inevitable.

Events during 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, triggered local crop failures which continued into 1642. Early 1641 had already seen a high number of abnormal weather events in East Asia. In Japan, drought hit the

Kinai is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kin ...

and

Chūgoku region The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 7,328,339 ...

s as well as the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. Cold winds and heavy rains afflicted the

Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...

. Elsewhere, the abnormal patterns of heavy rain, flooding, drought, frost (in particular, frost hit in Akita in August) and insect damage sent food reserves plummeting toward zero. Overall, the heaviest crop failures occurred in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

in areas facing the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

. By June 1642, starving peasants had started to either flee or sell their lots ''en masse'', which alerted the shogunate to the scale of the famine. The shogunate reacted by 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 prohibiting land lot sales. Also, the manufacture and sale of non-essential food products, such as

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

udon Udon ( or ) is a thick noodle made from wheat flour, used in Japanese cuisine. There are a variety of ways it is prepared and served. Its simplest form is in a soup as with a mild broth called made from dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. It is usual ...

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...

, sōmen, manjū,

confection Confectionery is the art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two broad and somew ...

s, and

soba Soba ( or , "buckwheat") are Japanese noodles made primarily from buckwheat flour, with a small amount of wheat flour mixed in. It has an ashen brown color, and a slightly grainy texture. The noodles are served either chilled with a dipping sau ...

, was prohibited. Improvements to the rice distribution system and the recall of rice-retaining ''

'' to Edo were also put into practice, along with emergency food distribution sheds. Despite the government's and clans' best efforts, however, the number of people dying from hunger steadily increased during the 1642-1643 winter. The large displacement of people resulted in wild population fluctuations in Edo and three other major cities of Japan, as crowds searched for the places where starvation was least likely. One of the most heavily afflicted areas was Aizu in what is now Fukushima Prefecture, where local farmers performed

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of re ...

on all children below 7 years and lent older children as slaves, often to pimps. Due to high interest rates, this lending frequently turned into permanent slavery. Should the child slave escape, the peasant parents were obliged to repay a double amount of gold or to provide another slave. In one village of 127 persons, 60 were sold into slavery in the span of four years (even if sellers were not paid), because becoming a slave was the only option to escaping starvation. According to the ", the situation in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

was particularly awful. The usual stove smoke at dawn and dusk disappeared, people were wandering in gang-like formations, dead bodies were piled on the streets, and infants were abandoned under eaves to starve to death or be devoured by dogs. In Nakatsugawa, Gifu, 90 out of a population of 700 died of starvation during the Kan'ei Great Famine.寛永大飢饉の金石碑文
/ref> With the crop yield in 1643 closer to average, the famine gradually ended.

Aftermath of the famine

The

Bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

government used the practices learned during the Kan'ei Great Famine for the management of the later famines, most notably during the Tenpō famine in 1833. Also, together with the expulsion of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

from Japan, the Kan'ei Great Famine set a template for how the

would address country-wide problems, bypassing ''

''. The governing structures of several clans were streamlined. Finally, 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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kan'ei Great Famine Famines in Japan Natural disasters in Japan 1640 in Japan 1641 in Japan 1642 in Japan 1643 in Japan 17th-century famines

Events leading to the famine

Events during the famine

Aftermath of the famine

See also

Notes and references