I find the Japanese Edo period so fascinating, and this piece by Roman Krznaric is a wonderful introduction to the period. His upcoming book 'History for Tomorrow' sounds like a very worthwhile read too: "Ancient Japan, I argue in my new book History for Tomorrow, offers inspiration for creating the deeply sustainable society we so urgently need today. Humanity's material footprint is almost double what the planet can safely sustain: we are using up the resources of nearly two planet Earths annually. Just think of the e-waste mountains, the biodiversity loss, the oceans polluted with microplastics, the deforestation to graze the cattle needed to feed our insatiable hunger for meat. What's more, most of this ecological overshoot is driven by the consumers of wealthy nations. The rich are devouring the world. Edo was different. Partly due to the government's policy of not trading with outside nations, there was a scarcity of key resources like cotton and timber. The result was that Edo was a city without waste. Almost everything was reused, repaired, repurposed or in the last instance recycled – what we would today call a circular economy. The Edo economy "ran as a very efficient closed-loop system", argues sustainability historian Eisuke Ishikawa. A traditional yukata – a simple cotton summer kimono – would be used until the cloth began to wear out, at which point it had become soft enough to be turned into pyjamas. Its next stage of life was to be cut up for nappies, which could be washed again and again, after which it might become a floor cloth before finally being burned as fuel. Cotton was so precious that a tradition of patchwork called boro – literally "tattered rags" – was developed in parts of Japan, with poor villagers collecting fragments of discarded cloth and sewing them into coats and other garments, which would be passed down from generation to generation. The city of Edo was home to over 1,000 refurbishing and recycling businesses. Everything was collected for reuse – the drippings of candle wax were remoulded, old metal pots were melted down, human hair was sold to wig makers. Modular house design meant that floorboards could easily be removed, planed down and used again in new buildings. Samurai down on their luck repaired umbrellas. The leftover straw from growing rice was used for making sandals and rope, wrapping up household goods, and finally as fertiliser and fuel. Paper recycling was a huge industry – they even recycled used toilet paper, which was made from the tough fibres of bark. You didn't pay nightsoil men to take away human waste – they paid you, then sold on the precious load as agricultural fertiliser." Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gnx2kKbc We cover '10 alternative lifeways' in one of our week 5 chapters in PROJECT TIPPING POINT. Come and join us, the next cohort begins 23rd July, use code 2WAVE50 for a 50% discount: https://lnkd.in/gxATiDtJ
While we learn the good things from the past, let us not forget to look at the things we do not want to bring from the past into our future. For example, I believe the closure of Japan during the Edo period was partially achieved through harsh measures like capital punishment, and the society's steep hierarchical structures were strictly enforced. Can we create local circular economies that allow fresh ideas to flow in and out and nurture all people to be collaborative leaders? Let's find a way to bring forward good practices from the past without glossing over the negatives.
Roman Krznaric' book is on my reading list for this year and quite possibly on my list of books on wellbeing (personal, social, planetary). One that is already definitely on that list is Arran Stibbe's book, "Econarrative: Ethics, Ecology, and the Search for New Narratives to Live By" (2024). His first book, "Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By" (2015) is among my top 10 favourites of the 21st century and this second one totally complements it. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jes%C3%BAs-mart%C3%ADn-gonz%C3%A1lez-302094209_storytelling-ecolinguistics-stories-activity-7213785580894126081-f0jj
Zoe Cohen
3w
to be fair that sounds quite a bit how my Mum grew up during WW2 - she taught me to reuse everything and waste nothing
Alan Long
3w
In Medieval Europe, paper was made from old linen, and it is questionable that the development of printing in the form it took and the progress in society that resulted would have occurred without it. There is much we can learn from history.
Peter Baker
3w
Read "The 1000 Autumns ..." if you haven't already, a brilliant atmospheric historical thriller by the author of Cloud Atlas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thousand_Autumns_of_Jacob_de_Zoet
Tony Hanlon
3w
Those were the days, the peak of the Japanese enlightenment period. Long gone
Freelance Copywriter + Marketing & Sales consultant
3wMind blown. So interesting! Going to research all about this :)