Editing Module:Tenpō (section)

==Great Tenpō Famine==
[[File:天保の大飢饉.jpg|thumb|[[Tenpō famine]]]]
The Great Tenpō famine of the 1830s was a devastating period in which the whole of Japan suffered rapidly decreasing temperatures and loss of crops, and in turn, merchant prices began to spike. Many starved to death during this grim time: "The death rate for a village in the northeast rose to thirty-seven per thousand and that for the city of Takayama was nearly forty-five".<ref>Hall, John Whitney. (1991). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6RBXXJixf-sC&q=tempo The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 4, p. 699]</ref> As crops continued to decline in the countryside, prices increased, and a shortage of supplies left people competing to survive on meager funds.<ref name="The Emergence of Meiji Japan, p. 5">Jansen, Marius B. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lwPxgoaNVWEC&dq=tempo+famine&pg=PA5 The Emergence of Meiji Japan, p. 5]</ref> The rising expense of rice in particular, a staple food of the Japanese, was a firm blow to both the economy and the people, who starved because of it. Some even resorted to "eating leaves and weeds, or even straw raincoats".<ref name="books.google.ca">Jansen, Marius B. (1989). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6wKCn-Ykj7IC&dq=tempo+famine&pg=PA117 The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 5, p. 119]</ref>

The samurai also suffered the effects of the famine, dealing with lower wages from the Japanese domain governments in anticipation of fiscal shortfalls to come. To further the already dire conditions of the famine, illness eventually began to spread, and many who were starving could not resist pestilences such as smallpox, measles and influenza.<ref name="The Emergence of Meiji Japan, p. 5"/> Thousands died from hunger alone at the peak of the crisis in 1836–1837.<ref name="books.google.ca"/>