Tempō reforms

Tempō reforms, (1841–43), unsuccessful attempt by the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) to restore the feudal agricultural society that prevailed in Japan at the beginning of its rule. Named after the Tempō era (1830–44) in which they occurred, the reforms demonstrated the ineffectiveness of traditional means in dealing with Japan’s problems of growing urban crime and poverty, over-rigid administration, and agrarian discontent.

Initiated by Mizuno Tadakuni, chief adviser to the shogun, the Tempō reforms emphasized frugality in governmental and personal affairs; many officials were eliminated from the administration, and lewd works of art and literature were censored. Debts incurred by the shogun’s followers to merchants were cancelled, further migration to the cities was restricted, merchant guilds were discouraged, and price controls were encouraged. Attempts to consolidate the shogun’s land around Edo (modern Tokyo) and Ōsaka by forcing holders of tracts there to exchange them for less arable land aroused the opposition of the landowning classes and had to be dropped. The reforms that were completed proved ineffective, demonstrating that the economy had become too complex to be regulated by fiat.