Background
Tadakuni Mizuno was born on 19 July 1794 in Edo, the second son of Mizuno Tadamitsu, lord of the fief of Karatsu in Hizen; in childhood he went by the name Otogoro.
水野 忠邦
Tadakuni Mizuno was born on 19 July 1794 in Edo, the second son of Mizuno Tadamitsu, lord of the fief of Karatsu in Hizen; in childhood he went by the name Otogoro.
In 1805 he was made heir to his father, and in 1812, at the age of eighteen, became lord of Karatsu and set about reforming the finances of the domain. In 1817 he was made a jisha- bugyo of the Tokugawa shogunate, a high official w'ho had supervision over the temples, shrines, and religious affairs of the country. In the same year he was removed from his former fief in Hizen in Kyushu and made lord of Hamamatsu in Totomi. He continued to rise in office in the shogunate until in 1834, at the age of forty, he became rojii-shuseki, or chief councilor of state, taking over effective control of all affairs of government.
He remained in disgrace for the rest of his life, dying of illness in 1851.
In 1841, with the death of shogun Tokugawa Ienari, he set about instituting a series of reforms that, because of the era name, came to be known as the Tempo Reforms. In terms of foreign policy, he adopted Western gunnery techniques and took steps to strengthen the coastal defenses and in 1842 rescinded previous orders to attack and repulse all foreign vessels, allowing vessels that were in difficulty to receive supplies of food, water, and fuel. In internal affairs he issued orders designed to enforce greater frugality and to reduce prices. In 1843 he announced his famous Jochirei, a plan to place all lands in the immediate vicinity of Edo and Osaka under control of the shogunate, the owners to be given lands elsewhere by way of compensation, which aroused a storm of protest. The severity of his measures, particularly those designed to curb luxury and manipulate prices, provoked resentment among the samurai, the ladies of the shogun’s household, and the merchants, and in 1843, while still in the midst of promulgating his reforms, he was forced to step down from the position of councilor of state. He was recalled to the post for a brief time, but was once more dismissed and even deprived of his domain.
