The Great Kyoho Famine (2/2)The Great Famine that Affected 2 Million People

This incident, known as the "Kyoho riots (Takama riots)," occurred on New Year's Day in 1733 (the 18th year of the Kyoho era), and was attended by more than 1,700 people, who attacked Denbei's house and threw his belongings and rice sacks into the river. This incident is said to be the first riot in a city during the Edo period.

At the time, the following kyoka (traditional Japanese tale) was popular: "Rice was expensive, so he could only buy one sho and two go of it, but he made porridge, but he couldn't eat much, so he only had one bowl." The play on words is "expensive" = "Takama" Denbei, "many" = "Ooka," and "one bowl" = "Echizen" (Ooka Echizen no Kami Tadasuke).

Denbei was originally from Shunan Village, Shuwai County, Kazusa Province (Kimitsu City, Chiba Prefecture), and made loans using taxes as collateral. He then moved to Edo in the early Kyoho era, and became a large merchant with 24 rice storehouses in Isemachi, Nihonbashi (Nihonbashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo). He also cooperated with Tokugawa Yoshimune, and worked under Ooka Tadasuke as a rice price adjuster, buying up rice in Osaka from 1731 (the 16th year of the Kyoho era) to prevent the price of rice from falling. These actions before the famine led to the unexpected riots.

At the time of the riot, Denbei was safe because he was at his house in Shunan Village. After that, Denbei petitioned the shogunate to sell 20,000 koku of stockpiled rice at a low price in order to lower and stabilize the soaring rice prices, and his petition was approved.

Sweet potato cultivation spread due to the Kyoho famine

After the Great Kyoho Famine, Tokugawa Yoshimune encouraged the cultivation of sweet potatoes. This was in response to the fact that there were almost no deaths from starvation in areas where sweet potatoes were cultivated, such as the Satsuma Domain, during the famine.

Also known for his contributions to sweet potato cultivation is Aoki Konyo, also known as "Sweet Potato Professor," a Confucian scholar and agricultural scientist under the patronage of Ooka Tadasuke. While studying Confucianism in Kyoto, Konyo learned that sweet potatoes were a famine relief crop. In 1735 (the 20th year of the Kyoho era), he wrote "Sweet Potato Considerations," which described the types of sweet potatoes as a famine relief crop, as well as how to cultivate and store them, and recommended to Yoshimune that the cultivation of sweet potatoes be encouraged.

Sweet potatoes are resistant to natural disasters such as high temperatures, dryness, wind, rain, and typhoons, and can be grown even in barren land. They are rich in nutrients, mainly composed of carbohydrates such as starch, and contain a lot of vitamin C and dietary fiber, as well as calcium, vitamin B1, and vitamin B2.

It is thought to have originally originated in the area around Central America and Mexico, and was brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. It then spread from the Philippines to China, and then to Ryukyu (Okinawa Prefecture) in the early 17th century, and via Ryukyu to Satsuma Province (western Kagoshima Prefecture).

There are three routes by which it was introduced to Japan, the earliest being when it was brought back by soldiers of Shimazu Iehisa who dispatched forces to Ryukyu in 1611. Other routes include when Tanegashima Hisamoto, a retainer of the Satsuma domain, brought it back from King Sho Tei of Ryukyu in 1698, and when Maeda Riemon, a fisherman from the Yamakawa region of Satsuma, brought it back from Ryukyu in 1705.

Yoshimune, who understood the usefulness of sweet potatoes, appointed Aoki Konyo and ordered him to conduct trial cultivation in Maga Village, Chiba County, Shimousa Province (Makuhari, Hanamigawa Ward, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture), Koishikawa Botanical Garden (Hakusan 3-chome, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, now Koishikawa Botanical Gardens), and Fudodo Village, Yamabe County, Kazusa Province (Kujukuri Town, Sanbu County, Chiba Prefecture).

At first, there were people who opposed the cultivation of sweet potatoes due to rumors that "sweet potatoes are poisonous," and the seed potatoes could not withstand the cold of Edo and rotted, but Konyo succeeded in cultivating sweet potatoes, and the cultivation area gradually expanded. Due to these achievements, Konyo became a direct vassal of the shogunate in 1736 (the 21st year of the Kyoho era/the 1st year of the Genbun era) and was appointed as the "Satsuma Imo Goyōkan."

The Great Kyoho Famine led to the expansion of sweet potato cultivation areas, and sweet potatoes began to be grown not only in Kyushu but also in the Kanto region. They also played a role in reducing the number of people who died of starvation during the Great Tenmei Famine and the Great Tenpo Famine, saving the people.

The Edo Shogunate after the Great Kyoho Famine

The Kyoho famine hit western Japan hard, but fortunately the following year, 1733, was a bumper harvest, so the famine did not last long. Since the whitebacked planthopper and brown planthopper cannot survive the winter, the damage caused by planthoppers subsided.

However, the shogunate's finances, which had been temporarily restored thanks to famine relief efforts, began to deteriorate. The price of rice, which had once been soaring, also began to fall. Tokugawa Yoshimune then took the measure of recoining currency. With the "Genbun recoinage," which reduced the gold and silver content, prices gradually stabilized and the price of rice rose. The Edo economy had finally managed to pull itself out of a long period of deflation.