The eruption of
Hokkaido Koma-ga-take in June 1640, resulting in heavy ashfall and plants poisoning in
Tsugaru Peninsula and nearby areas, triggered local crop failures which continued into 1642. Early 1641 had already seen a high number of abnormal weather events in East Asia. In Japan, drought hit the
Kinai and
Chūgoku regions as well as the island of
Shikoku. Cold winds and heavy rains afflicted the
Hokuriku region. Elsewhere, the abnormal patterns of heavy rain, flooding, drought, frost (in particular, frost hit in
Akita in August) and insect damage sent food reserves plummeting toward zero. Overall, the heaviest crop failures occurred in the
Tōhoku region in areas facing the
Sea of Japan. By June 1642, starving peasants had started to either flee or sell their lots
en masse, which alerted the shogunate to the scale of the famine. The shogunate reacted by ordering the re-planting of tobacco plantations with food crops, restricting alcohol production (no new breweries, suspension of production of rural breweries, and halving production of urban and highway breweries), and prohibiting land lot sales. Also, the manufacture and sale of non-essential food products, such as
millet udon,
wheat flour,
sōmen,
manjū,
confections, and
soba, was prohibited. Improvements to the rice distribution system and the recall of rice-retaining
daimyō to Edo were also put into practice, along with emergency food distribution sheds. Despite the government's and clans' best efforts, however, the number of people dying from hunger steadily increased during the 1642-1643 winter. The large displacement of people resulted in wild population fluctuations in
Edo and three other major cities of Japan, as crowds searched for the places where starvation was least likely. One of the most heavily afflicted areas was
Aizu in what is now
Fukushima Prefecture, where local farmers performed
infanticide on all children below 7 years and lent older children as slaves, often to
pimps. Due to high interest rates, this lending frequently turned into permanent slavery. Should the child slave escape, the peasant parents were obliged to repay a double amount of gold or to provide another slave. In one village of 127 persons, 60 were sold into slavery in the span of four years (even if sellers were not paid), because becoming a slave was the only option to escaping starvation. According to the ", the situation in
Kyoto was particularly awful. The usual stove smoke at dawn and dusk disappeared, people were wandering in gang-like formations, dead bodies were piled on the streets, and infants were abandoned under eaves to starve to death or be devoured by dogs. In
Nakatsugawa, Gifu, 90 out of a population of 700 died of starvation during the Kan'ei Great Famine. With the crop yield in 1643 closer to average, the famine gradually ended. ==Aftermath of the famine==