born July 19, 1794, Edo [Tokyo], Japan
died March 12, 1851, Edo
Chief adviser to the 12th Tokugawa shogun , Tokugawa Ieyoshi (r. 183753).
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.