Japan's Sustainable Society in the Edo Period (1603-1867)

[chlamor]

Japan's sustainable society in the Edo period (1603-1867)

Part 1: Reuse and Recycling Practices

In the history of Japan, the 265-year period between 1603 (when Tokugawa Ieyasu became the generalissimo or great "shogun" of the Tokugawa shogunate) and 1867 (when Tokugawa Yoshinobu formally returned political authority to the emperor) is called the Edo Period. Edo is the former name for what is now Tokyo. This period was given its name because the feudal government at the time was headquartered in Edo, rather than in Kyoto where it was previously located.

During most of the Edo Period, Japan was closed off to the world, suffered no invasion from the outside, and had virtually no exchange with other countries. For the most part, it was a peaceful period, with almost no war inside the country, and marked a remarkable time of development in the economy and culture of Japan.

The first national census, conducted around 1720, indicates a population of approximately 30 million people, which remained relatively constant throughout the entire two and a half centuries of the Edo Period. The population of Edo, at the time the largest city in the world, has been estimated at 1 million to 1.25 million people. In comparison, London had about 860,000 people (1801) and Paris about 670,000 (1802).

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Human waste dipper
Until around 1955, human waste (night soil) was the most important fertilizer source for farmers in Japan. In many parts of Europe, before construction of sewage lines, human waste was simply thrown from the window to the street below, and the plague occurred repeatedly due to bad hygiene conditions. In contrast, in Japan human waste was treated as a valuable resource in those days.

<snip>

You may be surprised to know that even night soil was recycled in the Edo Period. It could be called the "ultimate recycling," and German chemist Justus von Liebig, often described as the father of modern agricultural chemistry, praised use of night soil as fertilizer, saying that it is an agricultural practice without peer in its ability to keep cropland fertile forever and increase productivity in proportion to population increases. And there is a record that the first Westerner who saw the town of Edo was shocked, having never seen such a clean city.

http://www.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/200303.html#1

[chlamor]

1. For further discussion as it relates

to our current dilemma.

[Lisa]

2. other ancient societies practiced some of this too ...

Urine and feces played an important role in many industrial processes (not seen as hazardous waste until the advent of modern sanitation). In Rome, urine was collected in big vats for use by tanneries, laundries, and other operations that needed the ammonia. And a few years ago, I recall watching some Inuit people preparing an animal skin using a bucket of urine. Funny how definitions of what a "resource" is can shift so rapidly. (For both those cultures, uranium or natural gas would have been ignored as "useless".)

We're arguably worse at recycling metals, for example, than some earlier peoples. Every blacksmith had a pile of old iron and steel out back that could be remade into useful things -- files into knives, etc. -- they would even pull old houses apart just so they could take the nails with them. But there's such a glut of cheap metal on the market that we just don't do this anymore. I tried to take a bunch of scrap steel to the scrapyard (I make Roman and medieval armour as a hobby, and there are always bits left over from cutting out the pieces). They just laughed at me, and said they wouldn't bother with anything less than a ton.