on for four years. It is recorded
that when the famine was at its height, rice could not be obtained in
some parts of the country for less than forty ryo a koku. Sanguinary
riots took place in Yedo, Kyoto, Osaka, and elsewhere. The stores of
rice-merchants and the residences of wealthy folks were plundered
and, in many cases, destroyed. To such extremities were people driven
that cakes made from pine-tree bark served as almost the sole means
of subsistence in some districts, and the Government is found gravely
proclaiming that cakes made of straw were more nutritious. There are
records of men deserting their families, wandering into other
provinces in search of food and dying by thousands on the way. An
official who had been sent to Matsumae, in the province of Mutsu, to
observe the state of affairs, reported that the villages to the east
of Nambu had been practically depopulated and the once fertile fields
converted into barren plains. "Although farmhouses stood in the
hamlets, not a solitary person was to be seen on the road; not a
human voice was to be heard. Looking through a window, one saw dead
bodies lying without anyone to bury them, and sometimes skeletons
covered with quilts reposed on the mats, while among the weeds
countless corpses were scattered."

THE ELEVENTH SHOGUN, IENARI

Among these terrible conditions the tenth shogun, Ieharu died, in
1786, and was succeeded by Ienari, a son of Hitotsubashi Harunari and
a great-grandson of Yoshimune. Ienari was in his fifteenth year, and,
of course, at such a tender age he could not possibly deal with the
financial, economic, and administrative problems that presented
themselves at this, the darkest period of Tokugawa sway. Fortunately
a man of genius was found to grapple with the situation. Matsudaira
Sadanobu, son of Tayasu Munetake and grandson of Yoshimune, proved
himself one of the most capable administrators Japan had hitherto
produced. In 1788, he was appointed prime minister, assisted by a
council of State comprising the heads of the three Tokugawa families
of Mito, Kii, and Owari. Sadanobu was in his thirtieth year, a man of
boundless energy, great insight, and unflinching courage. His first
step was to exorcise the spectre of famine by which the nation was
obsessed. For that purpose he issued rules with regard to the storing
of grain, and as fairly good harvests were reaped during the next few
years, confidence was in a measure restored. The men who serv