The Tenma Incident

An uprising against Masusukego on the Nakasendo road, mainly by farmers from Bushu, took place from late December of leap year 1764 (Meiwa 1) to New Year the following year. It is also called the Tengu Uprising or the Bujo Uprising. In June 1764, the year before the memorial service for the 150th anniversary of the death of Toshogu Shrine, the shogunate decided to dispatch deputies to the local magistrate to investigate the actual conditions of the villages around 28 post towns, from Itabashi-juku in Bushu (Itabashi Ward, Tokyo) to Kozuke (Gunma Prefecture) and Wada-juku in Shinshu (Wada, Nagano Prefecture), due to the increase in traffic on the Nakasendo road.

On December 6, Junpachi Nomura and Ichiroemon Hiratsuka, who were clerks, instructed the village officials of 194 villages and 28 villages in the three districts of Nitta, Sai, and Nawa in Joshu, and six districts including Kodama and Kami in Bushu to report to Honjo with copies of village detailed accounts and tax allocations, as well as a rough map to Honjo. On the 19th, in front of the village officials, the two clerks ordered the villages to allocate six laborers and three horses per 100 koku of rice, but the Isesaki town officials returned to their villages only after submitting a request to see the notice. After that, many villages appealed to the road magistrate to be exempted from the Masusuke district, but all of their appeals were rejected, and the peasants' resentment gradually grew.

On the 16th of December in the leap year, several thousand farmers gathered at Jujogawara on the Minare River near Honjo-juku and resolved to make a strong petition to Edo. 22 They destroyed Honjo-juku and, with the support of opposing farmers in various places, advanced to Fukaya and Kumagaya, preparing to confront the shogunate directly. The shogunate was shocked by the seriousness of the incident and ordered Kanto Gundai Ina Hanzaemon to suppress it, but he resolved the situation by promising to fully accept the demands of the farmers. However, the farmers did not let up on their pursuit and went to destroy the homes of the inn wholesaler, local merchants, and village officials who had devised the plan, attacking about 20 houses from New Year's Eve to January 6th. This uprising, said to be the largest since the Shimabara Rebellion, grew to the largest scale in the Edo period, with 200,000 participants, and ended with a complete victory for the peasants. However, the shogunate's prosecution of the uprising was severe, and the headman of Sekimura, Kodama County, Bushu (Misato Town, Saitama Prefecture), Heinai, was executed as head of the village, and 369 other peasants from the four provinces of Bushu, Kozuke, Yashu, and Shinshu were punished.

[Akira Nakajima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1764年（明和1）閏(うるう)12月下旬より翌年正月にかけて起こった武州農民を中心とする中山道(なかせんどう)の増助郷(ましすけごう)反対一揆(いっき)。天狗(てんぐ)騒動、武上(ぶじょう)騒動ともいう。東照宮百五十回忌の法要を翌年に控えた1764年6月、幕府は中山道交通量の増大を理由にして武州板橋宿（東京都板橋区）から上州（群馬県）、そして信州和田宿（長野県長和町和田）に至る28宿周辺の村々に増助郷を命じるため、代官手代を派遣して村々の実態調査をすることにした。

　12月6日、手代の野村順八(じゅんぱち)と平塚市郎右衛門(いちろうえもん)は、上州新田(にった)・佐位(さい)・那波(なは)の3郡と武州児玉(こだま)・賀美(かみ)など6郡、あわせて194か村と助郷村28か村の村役人に村明細帳と年貢割付(ねんぐわっぷ)の写し、それに本庄(ほんじょう)宿までの略図を持って本庄へ出頭するよう指示した。19日、村役人を前にした両手代は、高100石につき人足6人・馬3疋(びき)の増助郷を村々に命じたが、伊勢崎(いせさき)町役人たちは触書(ふれがき)拝見の請書(うけしょ)を提出したのみで帰村した。以後、道中奉行(ぶぎょう)に対して増助郷免除を訴える村々が相次いだ。しかしそのすべてが却下されたので、農民の反感はしだいに高まっていった。

　閏12月16日、本庄宿周辺の身馴(みなれ)川の十条河原で数千人の農民が集会を開き、江戸への強訴(ごうそ)を決議した。22日本庄宿を打毀(うちこわ)し、各地で反対農民の支援を受けながら深谷(ふかや)・熊谷(くまがや)へと進み、幕府と直接対決する態勢を整えた。事件の重大化に驚いた幕府は、関東郡代の伊奈半左衛門(いなはんざえもん)に鎮圧を命じたが、彼は農民側の要求を全面的に受け入れることを約束して事態を収拾した。しかし農民は追及の手を緩めず、この計画を立案した宿問屋や在郷商人、村役人宅の打毀に向かい、大晦日(おおみそか)から正月6日にかけて20軒ほどを襲撃した。「島原の乱以来」といわれるこの騒動は、参加者20万人という江戸時代最大の規模に発展し、農民の全面的勝利に終わった。しかし騒動に対する幕府の追及は厳しく、武州児玉郡関村（埼玉県美里(みさと)町）の名主兵内(へいない)が頭取として獄門に、そのほか武州、上州、野州、信州4か国の農民369人が処罰された。

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