Japan’s Sustainable Edo Period

Glorifying days gone by is not without its caveats. After all, most societies were more sustainable many years ago simply by virture of their size and lack of massive industry. Nonetheless, the Edo period in Japan (1603-1867) has come to be known as an era of particularly eco-efficient living, largely out of necessity caused by living on a closed island society. Japan for Sustainability has a website with a translation of Eisuke Ishikawa’s book The Edo Period had an Ecological Society. Pick a chapter and have a read!