and that for the city of Takayama was nearly forty-five". As crops continued to decline in the countryside, prices increased, and a shortage of supplies left people competing to survive on meager funds. The rising expense of rice in particular, a staple food of the Japanese, was a firm blow to both the economy and the people, who starved because of it. Some even resorted to "eating leaves and weeds, or even straw raincoats". The samurai also suffered the effects of the famine, dealing with lower wages from the Japanese domain governments in anticipation of fiscal shortfalls to come. To further the already dire conditions of the famine, illness eventually began to spread, and many who were starving could not resist pestilences such as smallpox, measles and influenza. Thousands died from hunger alone at the peak of the crisis in 1836–1837. Rebellion One of the rebellions sparked by the Great Tenpō famine was the Ōshio Heihachirō Rebellion. The man for whom it was named led an attempted revolt in the 1830s, and was granted the label of yonaoshi daimyojin, or "world saviour", for his attempts at moral restoration. Formally a police officer and scholar, Ōshio Heihachirō (1792-1837) had requested help from Osaka city commissioners and otherwise wealthy merchants in 1837, only to be met with indifference. Shocked by his lack of success in the endeavour, Ōshio instigated an uprising to oppose those who had refused their aid. With approximately 300 followers, including poor townsfolk and peasants from various villages, Ōshio set fire to one-fifth of Osaka city. But the rebellion was suppressed in short order, forcing Ōshio to a quick end in which he committed suicide. The scholar Ikuta Yorozo (1801–1837) also instigated a rebellion from similar roots as that of Ōshio Heihachirō. Ikuta had opened a school for the education of adolescents, consisting mostly of peasants. Having also suffered from the Great Tenpō Famine, Ikuta despaired the lack of aid local bureaucrats were willing to provide, and in 1837, he assembled a band of peasants in retaliation. Together they launched an attack on the bureaucrats, which met with devastating results and ended with Ikuta taking his own life. Ogata Kōan and Tekijuku In 1838, a year following Ōshio Heihachirō's rebellion, and after the fire that had scorched nearly a quarter of Osaka city, the physician Ogata Kōan founded an academy to teach medicine, healing and Rangaku, or Dutch Studies.