Mizuno Tadakuni

Mizuno Tadakuni

(born July 19, 1794, Edo [Tokyo], Japan—died March 12, 1851, Edo) Chief adviser to the 12th Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyoshi (r. 1837–53). In the face of social and economic decline, Mizuno tried to implement a series of reforms that would return late Tokugawa-period Japan to the martial simplicity of the early days of the shogunate. He enacted sumptuary laws, canceled samurai debts, decreed a price and wage cut, and tried to force unauthorized peasant migrants to leave the cities and return to the countryside. These so-called Tempo Reforms failed, and Mizuno was removed from office.