The gokenin (an immediate vassal of the shogunate in the Kamakura and Muromachi through Edo periods) at the time were suffering from the expenditure due to Mongol invasion attempts against Japan, and had made a living by selling land they inherited from ancestors and borrowing money from merchants.
当時蒙古襲来による出費に苦しんでいた御家人達は先祖伝来の土地を売却し、商人などから借金をして生計を立てていた。