Life in the year end and Annual horse capturing event (November and December, 1802) 、野馬捕りと年の暮れ（享和 2 年 11 、 12 月） November, 1802 Hyōemon (a village head who wrote this diary) departed for Edo (old name of Tokyo where his lord lived) on the 4 th and returned home on the 15 th . He stayed in Edo for 12 days. 16 th , the village headmen of 55 villages gathered for the meeting regarding the sukegō (providing labor for post-towns ) of Kogane-juku; “ juku ” means a post-town. His purpose for going to Edo was the sukegō issue, but there was no prospect of a resolution. No village wanted to work for sukegō job. Sukegō was a system; when a post-town lacked sufficient horses and porters, surrounding villages were required to provide them. The wages were low. Hyōemon's village was designated as a sukegō village for Kogane-juku on the Mito Highway from Edo to Mito. Btw, Edo, where he stayed for 12 days, was a paradise of entertainment even then ( Life i...
Harvest after a flood (July to October, 1802) 、 洪水と収穫（享和 2 年 7 ～ 10 月） Travel views of Japan and Korea https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/agc/item/2018719954/resource/ July, 1802 1 st , Tone River (the second longest river in Japan) overflowed, levee breached . It's terrible! It is also written, "Great South Wind". The village's fields had already flooded due to the heavy rains since the end of last month, and now the levee had broken. 4 th , a letter was sent to the lord detailing the flood damage and requesting a reduction or exemption of tax . note: Tax was not paid in the same amount every year. In a case of natural disasters, a village headman negotiated with his lord to determine an appropriate amount of tax . Samurai understood that if farmers' livelihoods were disrupted, their own livelihoods would also be disrupted . The annual pilgrimage to Oyama Shiba-kyu and others departed for Oyama (Kanagawa Prefecture) o...