Page 231 - Changing Living Spaces

Agricultural Crises Due to Flood, Drought, and Lack of Sunshine

1793
1794*
1795
1796*
1797
1798
1799
1800*
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811*
1812
1813*
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
0 3 6 9 12
Rain making rituals Flooding evens
Figure 5 Annual Number of Rainmaking Ritual Days and Flooding Events,
1793–1818
Source Original digitised database from Amakusa-cho Kyoiku-iinkai (1985–1998);
UkM, Ueda Yoshiuzu Diaries.

when these events were observed annually. Flooding also occurred when
villagers and village officials were very concerned about water shortages.
The diaries also tell us about bad harvests because the villages had to
pay taxes, especially on the amount of rice harvest. The first column of
table 1 shows us the years in which bad harvests occurred. Within the
observed 21 years, there were seven bad harvest years: 1799, 1801, 1803,
1806, 1809, 1816, and 1818. The reasons for the bad harvests were compli-
cated. In 1799, there was a combination of drought and water shortage;
in 1801, there was flooding and water shortage; in 1803, there was flood-
ing; in 1806, there was flooding and water shortage; in 1809, there was
drought and water shortage; in 1816, no explanations were given; and in
1818, there was drought and water shortage.
What we need to pay attention to here are the records from 1817. Since
we have counted the number of drought days that appear in the diary,
an entry stating that the ‘drought could be avoided’ was counted as well.
This was the case in 1817. There was no bad harvest. The reason was that

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