大飢饉、室町社会を襲う!

by LINGKU (Contributor)

Tankobon Hardcover

Reviews

[Kou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview
This book explains, using the Muromachi period as its subject, that famines in the Middle Ages did not suddenly appear in a single year, but were the culmination of circumstances accumulating over several years.

紹介
中世における飢饉はある年に降って湧くものではなく、数年来の事情が積み重なっての帰結であったことを、室町を題材に解説している。

Review
At the time, the shugo (lords) were ordered to reside collectively in Kyoto, turning the city into a major center of consumption and driving up prices. To supply this demand, rural areas were paradoxically left increasingly short of food. On top of this structural imbalance came a combination of climatic fluctuations which, taken individually, would not have led to crop failure, followed finally by the decisive blow: starving people from the provinces flooding into Kyoto.

I had long felt that simply stating “there was a poor harvest, therefore many people starved to death” was not an adequate explanation, since it ignored the roles of fishing, foraging, and stored reserves. This book dispelled that doubt completely.

感想
当時は、守護たちに集住が命じられた結果、京が一大消費地となって物価が高騰し、その需要に応えるため農村ではかえって食料が不足しがちになるという逆転現象が生じていた。そこへ、単独では凶作に直結しない気候変動が複合的に重なり、最後には飢えた地方民が京へ押し寄せるという、いわば駄目押しの展開が加わったのである。

自分は以前から、「凶作になった。だから多くが飢え死にした」と述べるだけでは、漁獲や採集、備蓄の存在を考慮しておらず、十分な説明になっていないと感じていたが、本書によってその疑問が氷解した。