After Ienari's death in 1841, Mizuno Tadakuni, a Rōjū (老中, Elder), took over political power and began the Tempō Reforms to revive the economy.
[4] For example, the relocation of the theater in Asakusa on the outskirts of Edo, the closure of the koyi venue, the 7th generation Kabuki performer Ichikawa Danjuro, and the popular literature writers Tamenaga Shunsui and Ryūtei Tanehiko were punished by the Shogunate and banned the reconstruction of Nakamuraza, a prosperous commercial street that burned down in 1841.
[citation needed] Mizuno ordered merchants and craftsmen to lower their prices, but they responded by reducing the quantity and quality of their goods.
Mizuno believed that the merchants' guilds called kabunakama, were the cause of the high prices and had them disbanded, but instead they disrupted the distribution system.
Instead, to protect the country from foreign ships, he required each coastal domain to prepare cannons and submit plans for a watchtower, and he also proposed a policy of placing a 40-kilometer square area around Edo and Osaka, respectively, under the direct control of the shogunate.
The bureaucrats and common people in the areas to be placed under the direct control of the shogunate reacted strongly against this policy, and Mizuno was eventually removed from his position as Rōjū.