Pawnbroker's Controversy

A form of peasant uprising in which tenant farmers use violence to take back pawned land certificates from their landlords. Typical examples of this type of uprising include the riots in 150 Tenryo villages in the Kubiki district of Echigo (Niigata Prefecture) in October 1722, which were triggered by the prohibition on pawning land issued in December 1721 (Kyoho 6) (some say April of the following year), and the riots in the Tenryo village of Nagatoro in Uzen Murayama district (Higashine City, Yamagata Prefecture) in February 1723. Both were triggered by village officials suppressing the communication of this law, which the peasants understood to be a tokuseirei (decree of amnesty) that allowed them to get their pawned land back. In Nagatoro village, the pawnbrokerage relationship was running deep, with 46 creditors and over 300 debtors, 320 documents totaling 3,980 ryo. Under these circumstances, rumors spread that a tokuseirei (decree of amnesty) had been issued, which would have allowed the public to forgive all debts, and the farmers gathered together in a joint petition, which escalated from petition to actual use of force. The unrest in Echigo also dragged on, but the shogunate made the area a deposit for the Takada Domain and other clans, and suppressed it with the force of the domain's soldiers. In the midst of this chaos, the shogunate revoked the decree in August 1840, but many of the farmers who had participated in the uprising were also condemned.

[Tamotsu Nagakura]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

田畑の質地証文を質地小作人たちが暴力によって金主から奪還する百姓一揆(いっき)の一形態。この騒動の典型としては、1721年（享保6）12月（一説に翌年4月）公布の質流地(しちながれち)禁止令に誘引されて22年10月に起こった越後(えちご)（新潟県）頸城(くびき)郡一帯の天領150か村の暴動、23年2月の羽前(うぜん)村山郡の天領長瀞(ながとろ)村（山形県東根(ひがしね)市）の騒動がある。ともに村役人がこの法令の伝達を握りつぶし、農民たちも質地を取り戻せる徳政令と理解したことに端を発する。長瀞村では質地関係が深く進行し、債権者46人、債務者300余人を数え、証文数は320通、金額は3980両に上った。この状況下で、債務のいっさいを公権力が免除する徳政令が発動されているとの噂(うわさ)が流れ、農民たちは連判状に結集、訴願から実力行使に発展した。越後の騒動も長期化したが、幕府は当地を高田藩などの預地として藩兵の力で鎮圧した。この混乱のなかで、幕府は23年8月この法令を撤回したが、一揆加担の農民も多数が断罪された。

［長倉　保］

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