Start of the Taikō Land Surveys

Timeline

1. 1582–1583Yamashiro Province · Yamashiro ProvinceAfter defeating Akechi Mitsuhide at Yamazaki and taking over Oda Nobunaga's legacy, Hideyoshi first collected land ledgers from temples and shrines in Yamashiro, checking actual possession and tribute relations. He had already overseen surveys in Harima and elsewhere as one of Nobunaga's magistrates and knew well the importance of measurement for military service and fief allocation. Thereafter, whenever a province was newly pacified, he dispatched magistrates to measure it on site; the surveys became a supporting institution of his wars of unification rather than a one-time decree.
2. 1583–1591Provinces of Japan · JapanThe surveys used the Kyoto kyo-masu as the volume standard, six shaku three sun as the ken, one ken square as the bu, and three hundred bu as the tan; fields and drylands were graded upper, middle, lower, and lowest, converted into expected rice yield (kokudaka) by ishaku rates. Magistrates recorded the area, grade, and registered holder of every plot, compiling survey ledgers. Around 1591 the provincial kokudaka totals were compiled into the Gozen-chō, expressing the nation's land in a single set of figures for the first time. Hideyoshi threatened severe punishment for villages resisting the surveys, and enforcement was especially strict in conquered areas.
3. 1591–1598Japan · JapanThe surveys negated the multi-layered extraction of the manor system, stipulated one land one cultivator, and made the registered holder directly responsible for paying rent to the lord, promoting smallholder independence while also binding peasants to the land. The fiefs of daimyō and samurai were all measured in koku, and military service and castle rice were apportioned accordingly. The koku system became the foundation of early-modern shogunal-domain finance and status order. The sword hunt (1588) likewise belonged to the policy of separating soldier and farmer and has its own separate entry; weapons confiscation is not described here.