A catastrophic fire on the 18th–20th days of the 1st month of Meireki 3 (March 2–4, 1657) that consumed much of Edo. The keep and main compounds of Edo Castle burned and the keep was never rebuilt. Damage to famous swords held by the shogunal house and daimyo families is also recounted, linking the fire to sword-history concepts such as fire-damaged blades, re-tempering, and "lost meibutsu."

EdoFamine

1833-1838 (Tenpō 4 to Tenpō 9)

The Tenpō Famine — One of the Greatest Famines in Japanese History and the Social Collapse and Peasant Uprisings It Caused

The Tenpō Famine, a large-scale famine that struck all of Japan from Tenpō 4 (1833) to Tenpō 9 (1838). Continued crop failures caused by cooling weather led to serious damage, especially in the Ōu region. Across Japan the population fell by about 1.25 million, and in Ōsaka it is said that from 150 to more than 200 people starved to death each day. Amid the social unrest caused by hunger, large-scale uprisings and rebellions such as the Ōshio Heihachirō Rebellion and the Tenpō Disturbance followed one after another, accelerating social turmoil toward the late Edo period. It was a grave incident that exposed the declining governing capacity of the Tokugawa shogunate and a fundamental crisis of the Edo-period system.

EdoIncident

5th month, Tenpō 10 (1839) — the exact day of the arrests is not firmly established

The Bansha no Goku — The Suppression of Watanabe Kazan and Takano Choei by Torii Yozo

In the 5th month of Tenpo 10 (1839) the shogunate arrested and punished the Western-learning scholars Watanabe Kazan, Takano Choei and others in an act of suppression of speech. Behind it lay criticism of the shogunate's policy of repelling foreign ships after the Morrison Incident of 1837, in Kazan's Shinkiron and Choei's Boshin Yume Monogatari, and the inspector Torii Yozo is said to have led the crackdown on the circle of Western-learning scholars, the Shoshikai. Kazan was placed under house confinement and Choei was sentenced to life imprisonment. The affair reveals a clash among warrior society, Western learning and shogunal politics.