JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

AzbyBrown's past comments

• 

  0

  AzbyBrownDec. 07, 2009 - 04:41PM JST

  Hello everyone, and thanks for your comments.

  You're all right, it's difficult to write about the positive aspects of historical Japan without seeming like a starry-eyed revisionist. But I've gone to great pains to portray life in the period accurately, and I think my editor and I have been very good at nipping any nascent romanticism in the bud. But I would like to point out a few things.

  One is that "Just Enough" focusses on how Edo-period Japan was able to reverse the environmental degradation it had caused and learn to support a very large population (30 million people) for over 200 years with a steadily improving quality of life all across the board. It's as much about design as it is about culture. I think you'll all be amazed at how well thought-out and thorough the urban recycling systems were, for instance, and how effective the regenerative forestry practices of the period were, the ways in which fuel use was economized, watersheds protected, or how extensive urban farming was.

  Second, a lot of our impressions about the quality of life for urban commoners and rural peasants are colored by popular culture, and a lot of it is mistaken. There has been a tremendous amount of excellent research in recent decades into quality of life in the Edo period-- mortality, health, sanitation, transportation, nutrition, education, housing -- and in fact it on most counts it compares favorably with ours today. If you're seriously interested, I'd recommend Susan B. Hanley's excellent "Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture."

  Famines occurred, but they were isolated phenomena; abuse by overlords occurred as well, but in actuality people were rarely cut down in the streets by samurai. The depopulation mentioned above was actually a Meiji period phenomenon, as people left the countryside and headed to the cities to work in new industries; until then the farming life in most regions was pretty good. The Edo period wasn't heaven, and I make no excuses for the lack of rights or social mobility. But if you read this book you'll understand what an excellent job they did of maintaining their environment.

  Azby Brown

  Posted in: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan

Follow us