IBARAKI, Aug. 5 — A document showing how much a 60-kilogram sack of rice cost every year between 1781 — the start of the Tenmei era in the Edo period — and 1979 was presented to a training center in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, operated by JA group Ibaraki, a group of agricultural cooperatives in the prefecture.
The Ibaraki prefectural federation of cooks in Mito donated the rice price list, which will be displayed at the training facility to be used in food and agriculture education.
The document is a piece of paper roughly 83 centimeter wide and 45 cm high, with rice prices written in chronological order in brush letters of around 1 cm each.
Historical events — including natural disasters; wars; the land tax reform initiated in 1873; the voluntary rice marketing system established in 1969; and successive Cabinets — are written above the prices so people can see the rice prices and the trend of the times at a glance.
The rice price list has long been hanging on a lintel in the office of the cooks’ federation, which disbanded in 2019. The federation decided to donate it, believing it was too good to waste.
The document shows that the price of rice was 18 yen 80 sen per 60 kg in 1944. The price rose to 60 yen in 1945 when World War II ended, and skyrocketed to 220 yen in 1946 and 700 yen in 1947.
The price increased to more than 15,000 yen in 1975 and over 16,000 yen in 1976, about the same level as today.
An official of the training facility said, “We hope many users of the facility will look at the document and we want to make use of it in food and agriculture education.”
A rice price list presented to JA group Ibaraki’s training center