The Edo period continued until the transfer of power back to the Emperor in 1876.

Takasaki Silk

Takasaki city was prosperous because of the silk industry. The silk market, which was held 6 times a month attracted many people. Ta-Machi had the exclusive right to deal in silk, so all the silks produced in the west area of Joshu were collected from Fujioka and Tomioka. Even the merchants from Kyoto came to purchase Takasaki silk. In 1788, there were 1,411 trading houses and a population of 61458.

Silk Riot of the Tenmei Era

The silk industries in Joshu (Gunma Prefecture) and northern Bushu (Saitama Prefecture) were so prosperous that the Tokugawa government planned to establish an institution to control the quality of silk, and to collect the commission from the merchants.

However the farmers thought that the merchants were shrewd to impose a charge on them, so they protested against the plan. Some of the violent farmers made a row and destroyed the houses or storehouses owned by the people who supported the plan. This is called the Silk Riot of the Tenmei Period.

Matsudaira Terutaka, the lord of the Takasaki region at that time, was one of the targets for the rioters because he had a relationship with the instutution planners. The Takasaki Castle was surrounded by violent farmers, so he used guns to suppress the riots. The use of firearms was prohibited by the Tokugawa government. The government took the matter seriously and gave up establishing the institution. Matsudaira Terutaka was considered to be responsible for the riot, and died suddenly the following year. Later, the leaders of the riot were arrested and given a penalty.

Fire

The population decreased in farm villages and increased in castle towns during the late Edo period, which helped the expansion of the urban areas. However, there were many fires.

The regional authorities assigned eight people as watchmen to stay at lookout houses and try to spot fires as quickly as possible. In 1729, a new house was built and twenty nine people were on standby at all times.

However, a massive fire occurred at Moto-machi in 1798 and 1,460 houses were burned.

Shimonita Battle

In 1864, the Takasaki domain was involved in commotion at the end of Edo period. One of the rebel forces called Tenguto was headed for Kyoto to meet Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu to tell him their proposal of overthrowing the Tokugawa government. Their leader, Takeda Kounsai, along with over nine hundred followers were getting through the Reiheishi-Kaido road to the west. The Tokugawa government ordered the Takasaki domain to put down the rebels. On November 15th, Tenguto arrived in Shimonita and so did the army of the Takasaki domain consisting of more than 1,000 soldiers in total, waiting for the reinforcements of other domains in vain.

On the following day, the battle began to the west of Shimonita. The Takasaki army had an advantage at first, however the situation was reversed halfway. After the commander in chief was killed, the Takasaki army collapsed completely.

Thirtysix soldiers of the Takasaki army were killed in the battle, and were buried later at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Tenguto lost only two soldiers in the battle, but the rest of the members were caught in Fukui prefecture and sentenced to death.

Iwahana Jinya

Iwahana Daikanjo (magistrate's office) was established in 1793 to strengthen the control of the government domain in Joshu. The 1st magistrate was Yoshikawa Sakazauemon and Kondo Kazushiro. The magistrate was in charge of supervising gamblers and homeless wanderers, dispersing the population of farm villages, enforcing discipline, collecting land taxes and conducting court cases. It also was the branch of the Kanto law-enforcement agency. The official of the agency, Kimura-Kainokami-Katsunori was at Iwahana Jinya, administering the Tokugawa domain, instituting some systems in the silk industry, convincing the soldiers and farmers to suppress riots and maintaining security around the area.

As the Edo government lost power and TousandoSotokufu made its way to Edo, the officers of Iwahana Jinya and their families fled to Edo. This is the end of Iwahana Jinya that had lasted for 75 years since 1793.

---