Kansei reformMatsudaira Sadanobu's Severe Reforms

The Kansei Reforms are one of the three major reforms of the Edo period. They were implemented by Matsudaira Sadanobu, grandson of Tokugawa Yoshimune, from 1787 to 1793 in order to fix the shogunate's financial difficulties. Sadanobu was initially successful in his reforms by promoting frugality and enforcing discipline, but his harsh reforms caused growing public discontent, and he was eventually forced to resign. This time, we will provide an easy-to-understand explanation of the Kansei Reforms.

Causes of the Kansei Reforms: The Tenmei Famine and the Fall of Tanuma Okitsugu

The main cause of the Kansei Reforms was the long-term Tenmei Famine that occurred from 1782 to 1788. The person who led the government during the famine was Tanuma Okitsugu, who was highly valued by the 9th shogun, Tokugawa Ieshige, and the 10th shogun, Tokugawa Ieshige.

In an attempt to reform the shogunate, which was dependent on taxes, Ikenaga introduced a series of mercantilist policies that emphasized commerce. He actively recognized the "Kabu-Nakama," trade associations of merchants and industrialists, and made them pay taxes. He also worked to develop mines, reclaim Lake Inban to ensure water transportation from the Tone River to Edo, and actively promoted trade with Nagasaki to promote industry.

The reforms of Iehisa led to economic development and urban culture flourished. On the other hand, farmers who could not enjoy the benefits of the reforms abandoned farming due to the low profitability of farming and moved to the cities, leading to a widening of the economic gap in the cities and a deterioration of public safety. In addition, bribery became rampant and other negative effects also occurred.

As Ikenaga's reforms were progressing, a cold weather caused a poor harvest. The cold weather damage spread and developed into the Tenmei Great Famine. Furthermore, on July 8, 1783 (August 5, 1783), Mount Asama erupted, and volcanic ash damaged crops.

The Tenmei famine led to peasant uprisings and riots in urban areas, and calls for Tanuma Okitsugu to take responsibility grew louder. Furthermore, in 1784 (the 4th year of Tenmei), Tanuma Okitsugu's eldest son and young councilor, Tanuma Okitsugu, was slashed by a new guard, Sano Masanori, in Edo Castle, and died of serious injuries. The people of Edo were overjoyed, saying, "The hated Tanuma's son is dead!"

In August 1786, the 10th Shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, died and Tanuma Okitsugu was ousted. The 11th Shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, who succeeded him, appointed Matsudaira Sadanobu as the chief senior councilor.

Matsudaira Sadanobu, the leader of the Kansei Reforms

Matsudaira Sadanobu, who served as a senior councilor, was the lord of the Shirakawa domain and the grandson of the 8th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune. In fact, he competed with the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, for the position of shogun. Sadanobu was originally born into the Tayasu Tokugawa family, one of the three branches of the Tokugawa clan, and was considered a possible successor to the shogunate. However, Hitotsubashi Harumori, who wanted his son Ienari to become shogun, conspired with Tanuma Okitsugu to have Sadanobu adopted by Matsudaira Sadakuni, the lord of Shirakawa Castle.

Sadanobu succeeded as lord of Shirakawa Domain in 1783, but was soon hit by the Great Tenmei Famine. However, Sadanobu strived to live frugally and took measures to combat the famine, such as transporting rice from Echigo Province, a division of Shirakawa Domain that still had a surplus of rice, and purchasing rice from domains that had surpluses. These measures were successful, and it is said that there were an astonishing zero deaths from starvation. His skills were highly praised by the shogunate.

The person who particularly recommended Sadanobu for the shogun position was Hitotsubashi Harumori, who had previously been his rival during the battle for the shogun position. Harumori had a high opinion of Sadanobu's abilities and worked with the Gosanke to appoint Sadanobu as a senior councilor. With the backing of Harumori and the Gosanke, Sadanobu was appointed assistant to the shogun in 1788.

After Matsudaira Sadanobu became Chief Elder, he dismissed members of Tanuma Okitsugu's faction, dismissed corrupt officials, and promoted capable officials to carry out reforms. For example, in regards to the magistrate position responsible for local administration, including tax collection, he appointed 44 new people, or roughly three-quarters of the total, between 1787 (Tenmei 7) and 1794 (Kansei 6). Some of these people became "famous magistrates" and were later enshrined as gods, showing Sadanobu's ability to manage things by name.

Kansei Reforms 1. Thrift Order

The Kansei Reforms are strongly associated with frugality, but Matsudaira Sadanobu had been striving for frugality since his time as lord of the Shirakawa domain, and was an expert at it. Sadanobu's grandfather, Tokugawa Yoshimune, also issued frugality edicts and bans on extravagance during the Kyoho Reforms, but Sadanobu also issued frugality edicts and bans on extravagance.

The laws and regulations restricted people's clothing, prohibited luxury items such as flashy combs and tobacco, and prohibited mixed bathing in bathhouses, placing a strain on people's lives. As a result, dissatisfaction gradually grew, especially among the common people.

Sadanobu also worked to streamline personnel and cut various expenses within the shogunate, continuing a strict austerity mode. Sadanobu also made cuts to the Ooku. During the Kyoho Reforms, Yoshimune is known for laying off around 50 beautiful women, but Sadanobu also tightened the screws on the hugely expensive Ooku, working to reduce personnel and cutting finances to one-third of what they were. As a result of these austerity measures, by the end of the Kansei Reforms the shogunate's finances had gone from deficit to surplus, and it is said they had managed to save around 200,000 ryo in reserves.

Kansei Reforms 2. The Order to Abandon Donations

At the time of the Kansei Reforms, samurai were suffering from debts to the Sadazashi, merchants who took a commission to buy the rice that was given to hatamoto and gokenin as wages, and who also engaged in usury.

To deal with these debts from the satsuji, Sadanobu issued the "Order to Abandon All Credits" in 1789. The Order ordered that all debts from six years ago or older be written off, in other words, forgiven, and that interest rates be reduced for debts from after that. It is said that the debts of the satsuji that were written off as a result of the Order amounted to approximately 1.18 million ryo.

One-sided burdens on the bill splitters could have caused anger among them and led to them being reluctant to lend to samurai, but Sadanobu had put in place a solution to help the bill splitters. This was the Saruyacho Loan Association, which he established in Saruyacho, Asakusa (now Asakusabashi 3-chome, Taito-ku, Tokyo), which offered loans to bill splitters at a low annual interest rate of 10%. Ten of Edo's wealthy merchants were investors as purveyors to the accounting office, and the office was also in charge of running the business. As a result, there was a reluctance to lend to samurai when the donation order was first issued, but this calmed down by the end of the year.

These purveyors to the accounting office were also responsible for adjusting the price of rice, and when the price of rice rose sharply, they would use their enormous funds to purchase rice and intervene in the market. One of the distinctive features of the Kansei Reforms was the involvement of these wealthy merchants.

Kansei Reforms 3. Rice Enclosure System as a Measure against Famine

Matsudaira Sadanobu implemented the "encircled rice" system to stockpile rice as a measure against famine. He ordered feudal lords to set up shrine and government storehouses in their regions and to stockpile 50 koku of rice for every 10,000 koku of land they had in their territories every year.

In Edo, the "Seven Tenths of a Deposit Fund" was also implemented. This was related to the saving of "town expenses," the expenses necessary for the operation and maintenance of each town. Sadanobu ordered that town expenses be reduced and that 70% of the reduction be set aside in the town council as a fund that could be used for natural disasters, famines, etc. He called for the surplus to be used as rice funds for the town council and low-interest loans for landowners in financial difficulty. The accounting office's purveyors were also in charge of managing this Seven Tenths of a Deposit Fund.

By the way, the seventy percent wage system continued until after the Meiji Restoration, and the Meiji government later tried to use it as a source of government revenue. However, due to opposition from Tokyo Governor Okubo Kazuo, it was decided to use it for the benefit of the people of Tokyo, and Eiichi Shibusawa was put in charge of using it.

Kansei Reforms 4. Protecting farmers to revitalize rural areas

During the Kansei Reforms, the shogunate was in the red due to the peasant uprisings and riots caused by the Tenmei famine, the negative legacy of the Tanuma Okitsugu era, an increase in abandoned farms, and a decrease in annual taxes due to the shrinking of rural areas. For this reason, Sadanobu embarked on physiocratic reforms that placed emphasis on agriculture in order to rebuild the shogunate's finances.

First, in order to restore the rural population, the government issued the "Former Return to Farm Order" to encourage former peasants who had abandoned farming and moved to Edo, but found themselves in poverty without work or homes, to return to farming or their villages. The shogunate provided travel expenses and subsidies to encourage people to return to farming. In addition to restoring the rural population, this was also intended to reduce the number of impoverished former peasants and curb the population growth of Edo. However, it seems that it was not very effective.

Former peasants, along with disowned townspeople and petty criminals, were known as "homeless people." The "Rinsoku Yoriyaba," a vocational training center, was established in Ishikawajima (now Tsukuda 2-chome, Tokyo) with the aim of supporting these homeless people and maintaining order in Edo. It was created at the suggestion of Hasegawa Heizo, the Arson and Theft Control Officer.

In addition, the tax cut system, which had been imposed on villages around post stations for the requisition of horses and men, known as "sukego," was reduced. The "noyaku" business, which had been a commission-based business that delivered rice as tax to the shogunate's storehouse, was abolished.

He also banned the practice of infanticide in areas with declining populations and instituted a system of providing child-rearing allowances to families with many children. In 1790, he provided one ryo of gold for the upbringing of a second child.

Matsudaira Sadanobu also provided public loans, lending money to feudal lords and wealthy merchants at a 10% interest rate, and using the interest to support and restore rural areas, such as by providing childcare subsidies to increase population, redeveloping abandoned farmland, and building agricultural water supplies.

Kansei Reforms 5. Prohibition of all teachings other than Neo-Confucianism

Matsudaira Sadanobu provided various forms of support to the people during the Kansei Reforms, but at the same time he exercised ideological control and suppressed freedom of speech. One of these was the "Kansei Prohibition of Heterogenous Learnings," which banned all learning other than Neo-Confucianism.

Sadanobu sought to use Neo-Confucianism, which places importance on hierarchical relationships and order of status, to control learning and thought in order to cultivate people loyal to the shogunate. In 1790, he made Neo-Confucianism an officially recognized academic field of study for the shogunate, and prohibited the teaching of anything other than Neo-Confucianism at the Seido Gakumonsho (located in Yushima, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo), which was associated with the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.

The school later became the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, directly controlled by the shogunate, in 1797. Although Sadanobu did not ban any studies other than those of Neo-Confucianism, the school's influence across the country was so great that other studies were suppressed.

Furthermore, Sadanobu implemented an examination system called the "Academic Examination" to promote talented personnel. Originally, it was aimed at shogunate officials and their children, testing their knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics and other Confucian teachings, but as those with the best results were promoted, it came to be seen as an important exam that could lead to social advancement.

Kansei Reforms 6. Publication Control Order

In addition to censoring ideas, Matsudaira Sadanobu also implemented censorship of speech to prohibit criticism of the shogunate. In 1790 (the second year of the Kansei era), the same year as the Kansei ban on heretical learning, the Publication Control Order was issued, which banned the publication of erotic books and joke books that corrupted public morals, as well as yellow-covered and humorous books that contained political criticism or current affairs satire. At this time, the order required that the real names of the author and publisher be included in the colophon of newly published books.

The victims of this Publication Control Order were bestselling authors and artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro, Houseidō Kisanji, Koikawa Shunchō, and Sankyōden. Incidentally, the Publication Control Order also applied to ukiyo-e, so Utamaro's portraits of beautiful women, which at first glance may seem exempt, were subject to various restrictions as they were deemed to "disturb public morals."

Tsutaya Juzaburo, the protagonist of the 2025 taiga drama "Berabou ~ Tsutaju Eiga no Yumebanashi ~", was also a victim. Juzaburo, famous as a media mogul in the Edo period, was active as a publisher and bookseller, but was arrested by the magistrate's office for continuing to publish yellow-covered books and sharebon books, and was given a large fine in 1791 (Kansei 3).

End of the Kansei Reforms

Matsudaira Sadanobu undertook various initiatives in the Kansei Reforms, but his strict financial reforms and restrictions on frugality led to economic stagnation and cultural decline, and he came to be criticized not only by common people but also by samurai. There is a kyoka poem from that time that goes, "Even the fish cannot live in the clear Shirakawa River, I long for the muddy Tanuma Lake." The reforms, which were too pure and honest, were painful for the people.

Furthermore, Sadanobu's position worsened as financial and political conflicts between him and the Ooku worsened, and as the reforms progressed, Sadanobu became increasingly dictatorial, leading to conflicts between the Gosanke and Hitotsubashi Harusabu. His relationship with the Imperial Court was strained when Emperor Kokaku refused to bestow the title of Retired Emperor on his father, Prince Kan'innomiya Norihito (the Retired Emperor), in what was known as the "Retired Emperor Incident." In fact, behind the scenes of the "Retired Emperor Incident," Tokugawa Ienari had requested that his father, Hitotsubashi Harusabu, be made Taigosho, and it seems that the title was refused in part to prevent Harusabu from intervening in politics any further. This also worsened his relationship with Ienari.

Thus, in July 1793, Sadanobu was dismissed from his position as a senior councilor and fell from grace politically. In fact, Sadanobu submitted his resignation many times during his term, but was persuaded to stay on each time. It seems that he submitted his resignation in part to confirm his relationship with Ienari, but this fifth time, his resignation was accepted.

After that, Sadanobu devoted himself to the administration of the Shirakawa domain. Meanwhile, Tokugawa Ienari held real power in the shogunate, and even after Tokugawa Ieyoshi became the 12th shogun, he continued to hold the reins as taiko until his death.