This particular post has been a long time coming. Sure, I could keep trying to update it on a week to week basis, but with little to say that other blogs, particularly blogs that are able to comment on events as they happen, have already explained in detail, to follow these up seems a little redundant. So at the risk of losing followers, I am going back to what I started this blog for in the first place, as a outlet for my observations of pre-modern Japan and its various unique traditions. As part of that process, I am once again looking at Shimizu Katsuyuki`s 「大飢饉、室町社会を襲う！」, which I introduced in a previous blog post. This book examines the effects of natural and other disasters on people of the Muromachi period, and how they responded to such dangers and calamities. The particular translation included below comes from the final chapter, that dealing with the coming of Spring, which for the people of the era was a period of hardship before Summer brought with it the promise of more produce. As it was in Europe so was it in Japan. With the passing of Winter all of the food stocks remaining in villages across the nation would have been exhausted, and thus a number of weeks had to be endured with little to nothing to eat, thus bringing on a ravenous, desperate level of hunger that could not be satiated.
The climax of the great famine
Many people of the Middle Ages period died with the coming of Spring. Tamura Noriyoshi shed light on this phenomenon using the Kakochō records (this was a book that recorded the year, month, and day of death, along with the posthumous name of the deceased) of the Nichiren-sect affiliated Hondoji located in Matsudo City in Chiba Prefecture. According to Tamura, for those people of the Middle Ages who weren`t able to harvest enough produce during Autumn, they would engage in planting, suppress their appetite, and try to stay alive until the following year. Yet unable to wait until the wheat harvest at the beginning of Summer, when Spring came these people began to die one by one. During the Middle Ages period, even if a famine was not in progress, in the period between the harvesting of rice (in Autumn) and the harvesting of wheat (at the beginning of Summer) there were an extraordinarily large number of deaths stemming from either starvation or else from disease that often accompanied the weakening of the immune system from malnutrition. The Middle Ages certainly played host to cruel famines (p.170)
As we see from the origins of the great famine of the Ōei period, the real tragedy did not start following the harvest season, but began in the Spring of Ōei 28 (1421). The `Yearly Record of Eikōji` of Noto province noted in Ōei 27 that the region had suffered from a `great drought`, and recorded in the following year that `many have died of starvation`. At the estate of Fushimi in the same year, it was recorded on the fifteenth day of the first month (under the modern calendar the 26th day of February) that the scale of the estate`s traditional procession (in which a number of residents of the estate ordinarily dressed up in costumes and took part in a procession) was smaller than usual. The reason given was that `in this year a famine throughout the realm robbed the people of their strength`. In the 2nd month, rather than lacking in strength it seems a number of people appeared who were suffering from illnesses. On the evening of the 30th of the 2nd month (the 11th of April), a fire suddenly broke out in the house belonging to one of the shrine maidens of Go Gōnomiya, the guardian of Fushimi estate. Embers from the fire intermingled with acrid black smoke that rose up into the air (pg.170-171)
At the time, there were a lot of ill people within the village of Ishii on the Fushimi estate. Sadanari (the author of the Fushimi estate diary) saw this thick, black smoke accumulate over the village of Ishii, and concluded in his diary that the `fire wagon` of hell, used to transport the dead to the underworld, was making a stop at Ishii. (pg.171) On the 10th of the 3rd month (the 21st of April), the residents of the Fushimi estate petitioned Sadanari to postpone the `Sarugaku` entertainments of Go Gōnomiya, which would normally take place in Spring, until Autumn. The reason given was that there was `a great famine in the realm`. Indeed, within the estate a large number of residents had already `arrived at Shuyō` (meaning they had died from starvation), and so those that were left did not have enough revenue to be able to afford a professional `Sarugaku` performer to take part in proceedings (up until now, most historians have interpreted the phrase 「首陽に赴く」as meaning that people `went to Kyoto`, yet the phrase is an idiom whose origins lie in the incidents at Shuyōzan in China, which meant `death from starvation`).(pg.172)
On the 24th of the 3rd month (the 5th of May), one of the shrine officials at Go Gōnomiya came down with a fever from a virulent disease. A rumour soon spread that this was `divine judgment` for postponing the Sarugaku activities indefinitely. The people of the estate, rendered speechless by the suddenness of this `divine judgment`, quickly assembled for a meeting in front of the shrine of Go Gōnomiya. (pg.172) As a result of this meeting, a decision was made to not to wait until Autumn and have the Sarugaku performed on the 10th day of the 4th month (the 19th of May). This particular episode demonstrates just how much confusion the people at the time experienced, and how their lives were disrupted by the arrival of a natural disaster. Until the wheat was harvested at the beginning of Summer the people of the time had to try to survive the Spring as best they could. It was something that everyone of the time had to go through. And so the great famine headed towards its climax. (pg.172)
The climax of the great famine
Many people of the Middle Ages period died with the coming of Spring. Tamura Noriyoshi shed light on this phenomenon using the Kakochō records (this was a book that recorded the year, month, and day of death, along with the posthumous name of the deceased) of the Nichiren-sect affiliated Hondoji located in Matsudo City in Chiba Prefecture. According to Tamura, for those people of the Middle Ages who weren`t able to harvest enough produce during Autumn, they would engage in planting, suppress their appetite, and try to stay alive until the following year. Yet unable to wait until the wheat harvest at the beginning of Summer, when Spring came these people began to die one by one. During the Middle Ages period, even if a famine was not in progress, in the period between the harvesting of rice (in Autumn) and the harvesting of wheat (at the beginning of Summer) there were an extraordinarily large number of deaths stemming from either starvation or else from disease that often accompanied the weakening of the immune system from malnutrition. The Middle Ages certainly played host to cruel famines (p.170)
As we see from the origins of the great famine of the Ōei period, the real tragedy did not start following the harvest season, but began in the Spring of Ōei 28 (1421). The `Yearly Record of Eikōji` of Noto province noted in Ōei 27 that the region had suffered from a `great drought`, and recorded in the following year that `many have died of starvation`. At the estate of Fushimi in the same year, it was recorded on the fifteenth day of the first month (under the modern calendar the 26th day of February) that the scale of the estate`s traditional procession (in which a number of residents of the estate ordinarily dressed up in costumes and took part in a procession) was smaller than usual. The reason given was that `in this year a famine throughout the realm robbed the people of their strength`. In the 2nd month, rather than lacking in strength it seems a number of people appeared who were suffering from illnesses. On the evening of the 30th of the 2nd month (the 11th of April), a fire suddenly broke out in the house belonging to one of the shrine maidens of Go Gōnomiya, the guardian of Fushimi estate. Embers from the fire intermingled with acrid black smoke that rose up into the air (pg.170-171)
At the time, there were a lot of ill people within the village of Ishii on the Fushimi estate. Sadanari (the author of the Fushimi estate diary) saw this thick, black smoke accumulate over the village of Ishii, and concluded in his diary that the `fire wagon` of hell, used to transport the dead to the underworld, was making a stop at Ishii. (pg.171) On the 10th of the 3rd month (the 21st of April), the residents of the Fushimi estate petitioned Sadanari to postpone the `Sarugaku` entertainments of Go Gōnomiya, which would normally take place in Spring, until Autumn. The reason given was that there was `a great famine in the realm`. Indeed, within the estate a large number of residents had already `arrived at Shuyō` (meaning they had died from starvation), and so those that were left did not have enough revenue to be able to afford a professional `Sarugaku` performer to take part in proceedings (up until now, most historians have interpreted the phrase 「首陽に赴く」as meaning that people `went to Kyoto`, yet the phrase is an idiom whose origins lie in the incidents at Shuyōzan in China, which meant `death from starvation`).(pg.172)
On the 24th of the 3rd month (the 5th of May), one of the shrine officials at Go Gōnomiya came down with a fever from a virulent disease. A rumour soon spread that this was `divine judgment` for postponing the Sarugaku activities indefinitely. The people of the estate, rendered speechless by the suddenness of this `divine judgment`, quickly assembled for a meeting in front of the shrine of Go Gōnomiya. (pg.172) As a result of this meeting, a decision was made to not to wait until Autumn and have the Sarugaku performed on the 10th day of the 4th month (the 19th of May). This particular episode demonstrates just how much confusion the people at the time experienced, and how their lives were disrupted by the arrival of a natural disaster. Until the wheat was harvested at the beginning of Summer the people of the time had to try to survive the Spring as best they could. It was something that everyone of the time had to go through. And so the great famine headed towards its climax. (pg.172)
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