Return - Replacement

Japanese: 起返 - おきかえり

In local Edo-period jargon, this refers to restoring fields that have become devastated due to disasters such as floods or the abandonment of cultivation due to labor shortages to their original state. It can also be read as "okoshikaeri" or "okikaeri." Fields that have become "kikaeri" are called "kikaeri land" or "kikaeri place." When fields that have been assigned rice yields through land surveys become wasteland, they are registered as "eire" (permanently desolate land) and are excluded from the tax assessment, which naturally leads to a decrease in tax collection. This phenomenon occurred throughout the Edo period, but it can be said that it was around the Kanbun and Enpo periods (1661-81) that it became a major problem in the Shogunate's agricultural policy and that significant policies to promote "kikaeri" began to be implemented.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

江戸時代の地方（じかた）用語で，洪水などの災害や労働力不足による耕作放棄などのために荒廃した田畑を，再び元のように復興すること。〈おこしかえり〉〈おきかえり〉と読むこともある。また起返になった田畑を起返地あるいは起返場所と言う。検地によって石高をつけられた田畑が荒地化した場合，その田畑は永荒（えいあれ）地として登録され年貢賦課の対象から除かれるので，当然年貢収納量の減少を招くことになる。このような現象は江戸時代を通じてあるが，幕府の農政の上でこのことが大きく問題となり，起返を促進するための顕著な施策がみられるようになるのは，だいたい寛文･延宝期(1661‐81)ごろと考えてよい。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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