Page 287 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 287
disaster management and integr ated economy in early modern japan
(Kyoho 17), mainly in western parts of the country, inducing severe short-
ages of rice and wheat on which the Tokugawa regime had been founded
upon. For example, the Ōzu han, a domain located in southwestern Japan,
in what is currently Ehime prefecture, had maintained a stable average of
38,000 koku (1 koku = 150kg of rice in volume or capacity) during the years
1727–1731 (Kyoho 12–16), but its land tax delivery dropped by approximately
two-thirds, to 13,000 koku in 1732 (Kyoho 17) (Higashi 2013, 244). The dam-
age was serious. The severity of the famine prompted a major conversion
in agriculture and manufacturing from monoculture to polyculture. In the
mid-18th century, many domains in Tokugawa Japan conducted research on
which products were available in their respective regions. The diversifica-
tion of listed local products implies the emergence of a new commercialisa-
tion scheme and the development of polyculture (Murayama 2014, 6).
Totman suggests “these large-scale rhythms of growth and stasis re-
flected human rhythms of polity, economy, society, and culture, but they
involved far more than people” (Totman 1993, 26). Because of a ceaseless in-
terplay of people and their environmental settings,
to explain the dynamics of this history requires […] much more
than an examination of the human record. It also requires scruti-
ny of farmlands, forests, wetlands, and the sea, and of the creatures
living therein. Unfortunately, it is impossible at present to study
this broader history satisfactorily because much of the story, par-
ticularly that of the nonhuman players, is barely recorded” (Tot-
man 1993, 36).
Indeed, Totman successfully integrated the stories found in the bi-
ographies of the elite, cultural developments and environmental and de-
mographic changes in Early Modern Japan on a macro level. However, we
should not forget that there was tremendous regional diversity not only
in ecological settings but also in the historical consequences of regionally
differentiated nature-induced disasters such as typhoons, monsoon down-
pours, earthquakes and epidemics.
1. Disasters and the demographic regime
in Early Modern Japan
European historical demography reveals that the Early Modern morta-
lity factors were chiefly epidemics, starvation, and war (Imhof 1988, 92–
102). Early Modern Europe embraced a decreasing population induced by
285
(Kyoho 17), mainly in western parts of the country, inducing severe short-
ages of rice and wheat on which the Tokugawa regime had been founded
upon. For example, the Ōzu han, a domain located in southwestern Japan,
in what is currently Ehime prefecture, had maintained a stable average of
38,000 koku (1 koku = 150kg of rice in volume or capacity) during the years
1727–1731 (Kyoho 12–16), but its land tax delivery dropped by approximately
two-thirds, to 13,000 koku in 1732 (Kyoho 17) (Higashi 2013, 244). The dam-
age was serious. The severity of the famine prompted a major conversion
in agriculture and manufacturing from monoculture to polyculture. In the
mid-18th century, many domains in Tokugawa Japan conducted research on
which products were available in their respective regions. The diversifica-
tion of listed local products implies the emergence of a new commercialisa-
tion scheme and the development of polyculture (Murayama 2014, 6).
Totman suggests “these large-scale rhythms of growth and stasis re-
flected human rhythms of polity, economy, society, and culture, but they
involved far more than people” (Totman 1993, 26). Because of a ceaseless in-
terplay of people and their environmental settings,
to explain the dynamics of this history requires […] much more
than an examination of the human record. It also requires scruti-
ny of farmlands, forests, wetlands, and the sea, and of the creatures
living therein. Unfortunately, it is impossible at present to study
this broader history satisfactorily because much of the story, par-
ticularly that of the nonhuman players, is barely recorded” (Tot-
man 1993, 36).
Indeed, Totman successfully integrated the stories found in the bi-
ographies of the elite, cultural developments and environmental and de-
mographic changes in Early Modern Japan on a macro level. However, we
should not forget that there was tremendous regional diversity not only
in ecological settings but also in the historical consequences of regionally
differentiated nature-induced disasters such as typhoons, monsoon down-
pours, earthquakes and epidemics.
1. Disasters and the demographic regime
in Early Modern Japan
European historical demography reveals that the Early Modern morta-
lity factors were chiefly epidemics, starvation, and war (Imhof 1988, 92–
102). Early Modern Europe embraced a decreasing population induced by
285
