Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Japan: The Evidence from a Temple Death Register

Jannetta, Ann Bowman

doi:10.1080/0032472031000146436

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…111 Similarly, during the Tenpō famine in Japan (1833-1837), the respective figures for the age cohorts of 15-29 and 44-59 stood at 0.92 and 1.52. 112 It has been suggested that adult women tend to perish in famines in smaller proportions than adult men because of their biological and physiological mechanisms. Firstly, oestrogen makes adult women better suited to resist famine-related diseases (chiefly typhoid).…”

Section: Sex-and Age-selectivity In Mortality Crisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rise and fall of a Chaghadaid community: demographic growth and crisis in ‘late-medieval’ Semirech'ye (Zhetysu), circa 1248–1345

Slavin

2022

JRAS

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This article analyses long-term population dynamics—growth, decline, sex- and age-composition—in Chaghadaid-era Central Asia in the context of the ‘Late-medieval Crisis’. It is based on a unique dataset of 630 epitaphs from two East Syriac (‘Nestorian') graveyards in the Semirech'ye region (Northwest Tian Shan, North Kyrgyzstan), boosted by archaeological and osteological evidence from the same graveyards. This epigraphic corpus is truly unique in the sense that this is the only surviving data that allow the undertaking of such a quantitative reconstruction of pre-modern Central Asian demography. A close analysis of the corpus, based on the ‘excess mortality’ method, reveals rapid demographic growth between circa 1270 and 1330, despite frequent short-term mortality crises, caused, most likely, by a combination of environmental and political factors. The population growth came to a sudden halt because of a major plague outbreak in 1338–1339, killing about three-quarters of the local population, and initiating what was known as the Black Death of 1347–1353 in West Eurasia and North Africa. The analysis of sex and age ratios indicates that the local population regime was heavily male-dominated. The plague of 1338–1339 targeted primarily younger women, most likely due to pregnancy-related hazards; conversely, in other crisis years, adult males were more susceptible. The findings of the article are wrapped into the wider context of the ‘Late-medieval Crisis’.

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Section: Sex-and Age-selectivity In Mortality Crisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rise and fall of a Chaghadaid community: demographic growth and crisis in ‘late-medieval’ Semirech'ye (Zhetysu), circa 1248–1345

Slavin

2022

JRAS

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“…By around 1773, the Japanese had begun to enjoy a kind of "Pax Tokugawa", as social and economic progress sparked a cultural change (Jannetta 1987: 7;Jansen 2000: 159-186;Keene 1999bKeene [1978: 1-7). This situation did not preclude worries about the very real prospect of epidemic disease and famine that plagued both ruler and commoner, rural and urban dweller, alike (Jannetta 1992). 13 Under such circumstances, a book like Edo nishiki appeared in 1773, illustrating Daikoten nezumi and neko to nezumi toys with other popular toys of that time.…”

Section: Toys That Pacified People In Predicamentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the mysteries of daruma cult, see Faure 2011: 45-71. 12 The populations of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and Osaka are based on data from Jannetta (1987Jannetta ( , 1992 and Jansen (2000). 13 Even though the government of the Tokugawa shogunate firmly controlled Japan's society and economy during its long rule between 1603 and 1868, it periodically faced unavoidable predicaments.…”

Section: Fumihiko Kobayashimentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing with Nezumi Toys, Dreaming of Unattainable Utopia: Unique Portrayals of Nezumi in Japanese Folk Tradition

Kobayashi¹

2019

FEJF

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The Japanese have long regarded the nezumi -rats and mice -as vermin that plague agrarian and urban communities. In folk tradition, however, the characterization of the nezumi as amiable, efficacious, and auspicious has formed a powerful motif. As rodenticides and rat traps advertised widely and sold well, nezumi-motif toys such as Daikokuten nezumi (a protector deity of wealth riding on a white nezumi), neko to nezumi (a cat and a nezumi), and komekui nezumi (a rice-eating nezumi) enjoyed great popularity, particularly in eighteenth-century Japan. These toys substantiate the way people favored nezumi-motif items even as actual nezumi caused tremendous damage to Japanese cities and towns through their behavior. This article analyzes the motivation behind playing with nezumimotif toys by examining the reasons why people accepted the more fanciful idea of nezumi expressed by toys in the face of a very different reality on the ground. The results of this investigation will provide an opportunity to understand the folk narrative embodied within the toy in order to reconsider the purpose such animal-motif toys and mascots have served in Japanese culture. Indeed, the nezumi have provided people with a vehicle they could use to play out elaborate fantasies of the kind of utopia of abundance and wealth that usually contrasted with their real lives. This unique portrayal of human-animal relationship can still be observed today, not only in toys but also in the animal characters found in media today.

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Family Size Control by Infanticide in the Great Agrarian Societies of Asia

Caldwell

Demographic Transition Theory

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Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Japan: The Evidence from a Temple Death Register

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

A rise and fall of a Chaghadaid community: demographic growth and crisis in ‘late-medieval’ Semirech'ye (Zhetysu), circa 1248–1345

A rise and fall of a Chaghadaid community: demographic growth and crisis in ‘late-medieval’ Semirech'ye (Zhetysu), circa 1248–1345

Playing with Nezumi Toys, Dreaming of Unattainable Utopia: Unique Portrayals of Nezumi in Japanese Folk Tradition

Family Size Control by Infanticide in the Great Agrarian Societies of Asia

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