The Kyoho Famine

A great famine lasted from the autumn of 1732 (Kyoho 17) until the spring of the following year. In the summer of 1732, swarms of locusts appeared mainly along the Seto Inland Sea coast, causing great damage to rice cultivation west of Kinai, particularly in eastern Kyushu, Chugoku, and western Shikoku. 46 domains suffered the majority of the damage, losing nearly three-quarters of their average annual tax income over the past five years. Other domains and Shogunate territories also suffered severe losses, with 2.65 million people affected and 12,000 people dying of starvation. The effects of the poor harvest spread to major cities from the end of that year until the following spring, causing rice prices, which had been falling for years, to skyrocket several times, threatening the lives of residents in Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo and creating an atmosphere of anxiety. On January 25, 1800, about 1,700 poor Edo residents, enraged by rumors that Takama Denbei, a rice merchant who was the shogunate's official supplier, was hiding a large amount of rice, destroyed his house. This was the first such destruction in a major city. The unrest calmed down during the next wheat harvest, but this incident marked a setback for the austerity and treasury expansion policies of the Kyoho Reforms.

[Tatsuya Tsuji]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1732年（享保17）秋から翌年春にわたる大飢饉。32年夏、瀬戸内海沿岸を中心にバッタの大群が発生し、とくに九州東部、中国および四国の西部を中心に、畿内(きない)以西の稲作は大損害を受けた。損害が過半に及んだ藩は46藩、過去5年平均の年貢収入の4分の3近くを失い、その他の藩や幕領も甚だしい減収となり、被災民265万人、餓死者1万2000人に達したという。凶作の影響はこの年の暮れから翌春にかけて大都市にも波及し、連年低落を続けてきた米価が数倍に暴騰し、大坂、京、江戸の住民の生活を脅かし、不安の空気を生じた。33年正月25日には、幕府の御用米商高間伝兵衛(たかまでんべえ)が大量の米を隠匿しているとの噂(うわさ)に怒った江戸の窮民約1700人が伝兵衛宅を破却した。大都市最初の打毀(うちこわし)である。混乱は次の麦の収穫期から鎮静に向かったが、享保の改革の緊縮・府庫充実政策を一頓挫(とんざ)させた事件であった。

［辻　達也］

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