Tanuma Okitsugu

Tanuma Okitsugu (田沼意次) (September 11, 1719, in Edo, Japan – August 25, 1788, in Edo) was a chamberlain (sobashū) and a senior counselor (rōjū) to the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu . He is known for the economic reforms of the Tenmei era and rampant corruption. He was also a daimyō of the Sagara Domain. He used the title Tonomo-no-kami.

The reforms aimed to rectify the systemic problems in the economy, particularly the trade imbalance between the provinces and the shogunal areas of Japan. He took steps to increase the foreign trade and set export quotas for Akita copper mines (the copper being the primary coinage metal during that period), despite higher domestic prices. Tanuma's administration granted monopoly patents for numerous products, including iron, brass, sulfur, ginseng and lamp oil. Large investments were into the massive drainage program to increase the agricultural land. The program failed. Several years of crop failures, resulting from drought followed by floods, led to famine.

In Tenmei 4 (1784), Okitsugu's son, the wakadoshiyori (junior counselor) Tanuma Okitomo, was assassinated inside Edo Castle. Okitomo was killed in front of his father as both were returning to their norimono after a meeting of the Counselors of State had broken up. Okitomo was killed by Sano Masakoto, a hatamoto. The involvement of senior figures in the bakufu was suspected, but only the assassin himself was punished.

The famine let to a spike in a number of protests and peasants rebellions, culminating in the Edo riots of 1787. Traditionalist opponents of the reform interpreted it as the "voice of Heaven" being followed by the "voice of the people". With the assassination of his son and the death of his patron Tokugawa Ieharu Tanuma fell from power. The result was that the reforms and the relaxation of the strictures of sakoku were blocked.