Famine and infanticide in 18th century Japan

"There is, among the customs of Hitachi Province, one of crushing a newborn to death at its birthplace, called 'culling' children."
- Kubo Akamizu, 1773 report to Mito Clan

War, filth, famine, infanticide - in A Farewell to Alms⁵, Gregory Clark argues that, before the Industrial Revolution, the world's societies were in Malthusian traps. Their populations needed control of some sort. In Europe, this control was by war, filth and occasional famine; in the rest of the world less by war and filth, more by famine and infanticide. After the Tokugawa family took control of Japan in 1615, war was essentially absent, and, by Clark's accounts, hygiene in Japan surpassed that the rest of the world. This left population control to famine and infanticide.

Any reader tempted to derive a morality tale from the documents described below should keep in mind that, before the Industrial Revolution, all societies of the world were in Malthusian traps.