A Study of the Kangi Famine from the Perspective of Disaster History

Abstract

The early 13th-century Kangi Famine (1230–1231) was a complex ecological crisis of extreme cold and intertwined epidemics. By synthesizing paleoclimate data with documents like the Meigetsuki, this study reconstructs the famine’s impact on Japan’s dual polity and grassroots society. The disaster collapsed the traditional shoen order, forcing extreme survival strategies such as human trafficking. The crisis tested the state’s “disaster resilience”. While the Kyoto Court’s reliance on traditional spiritual relief yielded minimal results, the Kamakura Shogunate demonstrated pragmatic crisis management through economic regulation and relief allocation. Crucially, the Shogunate institutionalized its post-disaster experience into the Goseibai Shikimoku legal framework. This transition from ad hoc measures to standardized law was not merely a reconstruction of order, but a decisive turning point in establishing the Shogunate’s political legitimacy over grassroots society.