62560 + 3 = 62563
15 Likes
62635 (community total) + 22 (my reviews) = 62657
There seems to have been a few reviews lost just before me 
14 Likes
62657 (community total) + 55 (my reviews) = 62712
15 Likes
62,712 (community total) + 59 ( my reviews) = 62,771
15 Likes
62771 (community total) + 42 (my reviews) = 60813
About 172 years in: ~1735
In 1930’s The Shogunate officially endorses the Dojima Rice Exchange and sends officers to supervise and collect taxes for the Bakufu. Over the years there is a mix of poor harvests but also an increase in agricultural technology and practices, and the price of rice drops as a result. The causes issues with the economy as its still largely based on rice as a currency. The Samurai also panic as this is still their wages, and the exchange rate into coin also dropped. Over the next few decades constant changes are being made to economic controls to try to balance things out and stop the high and low swing of the value of money vs rice vs production vs trade ect. Also in agriculture, Japan has been experimenting with different plants, including sugarcane which didn’t really take off, but sweet potatoes become widely grown and a primary part of the diet, and Japanese Ginseng is grown and sold (to try to replace imported Korean Ginseng). Coins are also standardized in 1736 to one ‘mint’, the only authorized coinage accepted had the 文 kanji marked on it.
Tokugawa Yoshimune had also tried to make sword smithing cool again. He lamented the loss of skills due to the lack of need for swords except for the wealthy, and so he organised a contest across the country to find the best swordsmith. Unfortunately, it didn’t really pick up interest in the art in the public, though it did start a new-ish era of sword type. 新刀 swords were swords forged after 1596, but recently smiths were complaining they were just becoming too ‘fancy’, i.e… Too many embellishments and the blades themselves becoming weaker. Therefore, a movement of 新々刀 (new-new swords!) started, where the blade itself was the focus again. Minamoto Kiyomaro was a smith who made blades at this time, and his swords have still been shown recently at exhibitions and sold at very high value.
In 1739 there was a curious assassination of a Daimyo in the Shoguns castle that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity by a crazy person! Itakura Shuri was a wealthy high ranking official in Edo castle, who was treated for a serious illness of which he made a full recovery. However, soon after it was recorded by his officials that he started behaving erratically, and it wasn’t known if this was due to the illness itself, the medicine, or the amounts of Korean Ginseng he was consuming (or a combination) but he was advised to retire from his position so as not to shame his family and lose everything. This angered him further, and his behaviour got more erratic. After a short period his wife and servants left him, and then he was told to stay in his room by another administrator due to his behaviour. Itakura then decided he was going to kill him for such an outrage, but pretended to oblige to lull everyone into a false sense of security. At that same time, there were Daimyo and high-ranking retainers coming to Edo for a traditional Ceremony. Daimyo Hosokawa Etchu-no-kami was staying in a room nearby, when Itakuri Shuri set his room alight, and them confronted him in the hallway and stabbed him. The arms and Mon (crest) used by Hosokawa looked so similar to the man he was planning to kill, that it was clear that Itakura had made a mistake in the dark. He was found hiding in a room soon after, cutting his own hair off claiming he was becoming a monk. Itakuri was executed, but his family was spared any consequences as the Shogun himself stepped in and pardoned them due to the high conduct of one of the Shuri clans relatives
(thanks for your kind thoughts, we are all safe and now in a hotel, and spent the week cleaning the neighborhood)
22 Likes
60813 (community total) + 48 (my reviews) = 60861
14 Likes
60861(community total) + 83(my reviews) = 60944
14 Likes
60944 (community total) + 25 (my reviews) = 60969 
13 Likes
60_969 + 29 = 60998
11 Likes
60998 (community total) + 50 (my reviews) = 61048
12 Likes
61048 (community total) + 20 (My reviews) = 61068
10 Likes
61068 (community total) + 32 (My reviews) = 61100
11 Likes
61100 (community total) + 30 (my reviews) = 61130
11 Likes
61130 (community total) + 20 (my reviews) = 61150
10 Likes
61150 (community total) + 51 (my reviews) = 61201
10 Likes
61201 (community total) + 23 (my reviews) = 61224
10 Likes
61224 (community total) + 132 (my reviews of yesterday) + 432 (my reviews of today) = 61778
10 Likes
61778 (community total) + 32 (my reviews) = 61810
10 Likes
61810 (community total) + 32 (my reviews) = 61842
11 Likes
61842 (community total) + 3 (my reviews) = 61845
12 Likes