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.

String of disasters kills up to one million Japanese

Eruptions started in April 1783 and became increasingly severe during June and July. Mt. Asama's major eruption on 6-7 August and maximum eruption on 8 August killed between 20,000 and 30,000 people. Pyroclastic flows obliterated Kamaharamura 12 km to the north. Volcanic ash, 400 million cubic meters, blanketed northern Kanto, 90 centimeters in Matsuido, 30 in Fujioka and Takasaki, even 10 centimeters in Sakura near today's Narita Airport.

Bodies carried downstream washed ashore at Shibamata on the Edo River; their graves are at Shibamata Taishakuten Temple in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward. Other graves are at Zenyoji in Edogawa Ward, and Ekoin in Sumida Ward.