Kyoho Famine

Date: 1732

The Kyôho famine, brought on by hordes of locusts, struck the Seto Inland Sea region and Kyushu in 1732, causing rice prices throughout the region to increase by a factor of seven. Roughly 22% of the population of Fukuoka han, or 70,000 people, died due to the famine; among certain classes and communities, the proportion was as high as 45%. Fukuoka's population did not recover to pre-famine levels until the Bakumatsu period.

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References

Arne Kalland, Fishing Villages in Tokugawa Japan, University of Hawaii Press (1995), 54-55.