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Samurai Movies (7)

November 4, 2021

One of the most unique policies of the Edo period was rice. The Tokugawa Shogunate rated each daimyo, feudal lord, depending on their rice producing ability. Precisely it was the government before the Tokugawa Shogunate, called the Toyotomi Shogunate spanning 2 decades, that measured each han's rice fields, and made a list of them. They decided to name the unit 'koku'. 1 koku equals 180 liters or 150kg of rice. 1 koku of rice is equal to the amount of rice in which a person eats in a year. Smaller units of koku is 'to', 18 liters; 'shou', 1.8 liters; and 'gou', 180cc. Even now people in this country use the measurement 'shou' for shoyu and sake, 'gou' for sake and rice, and 'to' for cans of liquid. Still people use 'gou' to measure rice. From 1 gou of rice, 2 bowls of steamed rice are produced. If you eat 1 ~2 rice bowls of rice during every meal, and if it is 0.5 liters of rice every day, 0.5 liters × 365 days = 182.5 liters, it would be about 1 koku. At that time, to make 1 koku of rice, one would need 1,000�u of rice fields. The measurement unit of 1,000�u was called a 'tan', and 10 'tan' was called 1 'chou'. These measurements are still used among farmers today. The Tokugawa Shogunate was called 'Tokugawa 8 million koku'. It meant that the Tokugawa Shogunate had lands and farmers which could produce 8 million koku. There were about 270 hans at that time, and the Tokugawa Shogunate rated each han by the quantity of their koku. The biggest han was Kaga-han, now Fukui prefecture, it was called 'Kaga 1 million koku'. His han was called 'Nambu 200,000 koku'. 200,000 koku was ranked 22nd out of the 270 hans. There were 29 hans that produced over 100,000 koku. There were 158 hans that produced more than 20,000 koku. If a han had more than 20,000 koku, they were allowed to have a castle. All of the 270 hans produced more than 10,000 koku, the leaders of each han were called daimyo. Today, some researchers say that the number of koku links the population of the area to the koku produced, which is a person's major eating grain. His han's real koku that was produced in the Edo era was estimated at about 300,000 koku, while estimation of the population at that time was about 300,000. A samurai's salary was rice. In the book, 'A Samurai Family's Household Account Books', the samurai family's salary was, for the father, '70 koku of rice fields, for the son, 70 straw bags of rice. The book explained that '70 koku of rice fields' became 22 koku after the farmers took their shape. On the other hand, one straw bag contained 60kg of rice. So, the son's rice was 70 bags × 60kg = 4,200 kg (150kg = 28 koku). The father's 22 koku × 150kg = 3,300kg. So in total, 7.5 ton (50 koku). But, of course, they couldn't eat that much rice, they needed to eat other foods like vegetables, fish, etc.; in addition, they needed to buy goods for life, like clothes, furniture, utensils, oil for lighting at night, paper and ink for letters, books, etc. So, a samurai would receive his salary partly with rice, partly with money. Each han changed some of its rice into money on the rice market. The main rice market was in Osaka. As for money, the Tokugawa Shogunate used gold, silver, and copper. Koban, an oval shaped gold coinage, was called a 'ryou'. But, for normal use, silver and copper coins were used. The unit of weight of silver was called 'monme', 1 monme weighed 3.75g. A copper coin, which was called 'zeni', its unit was called 'mon'. 1 'mon' coin had a square shaped hole and 4 kanji ~ 'kan-ei-tsu-ho', 'kan-ei' is the emperor's year that started, 'tsu-ho' means coin. Their exchange rate was, 1 ryou koban (gold) equaled 75 silver monme, and 6,300 (copper) mon. 1 silver monme is equal to 84 (copper) mon. He found that, in a book about Edo history, the author made a conversion of $1,200 for 1 koban. In this case, 1 silver monme became $16, 1 (copper) mon became 19 cents.   Recently his city's historical museum exhibited something about the Edo period, so he went there. There was an interesting list about what services people during the Edo period could get with 1 ryo koban: 1 koku of rice (180 l), 158 watermelons, 400 radishes, 750 pieces of sushi, 375 bowls of soba or udon noodles, 7.5 umbrellas, 278 magazines, 375 straw-made sandals, go to the hair saloon 214 times, go to the public bath 750 times, mailing a letter 200 times. At home, he calculated 1 ryou as $1,200. Here are the results: Rice (10kg): $80 Watermelon : $8 Radish : $3 Sushi (1 piece) : $2 Soba or udon noodles : $3 Umbrella : $160 Magazine : $4 Straw-made sandal : $3 Hair saloon : $6 Public bath : $2 Mailing a letter : $6 (To be continued ...)

No.453



*feudal :領地の、封建制の
*estimation :見積、評価
*coinage :硬貨
*conversion :転換