Climate and environment in historyis a quantitative study of famines by Saitō Osamu. Saitō found that famines decreased in fre-
quency and severity during the medieval and early modern periods, despite worsening climatic
conditions. Like Brown, Saito concludes that Japanese society became increasingly resilient. He
attributes this to institutional factors, specifically territorial consolidation by daimyo.^48
A related concept emphasized by many authors is sustainability, and here, too, the late medi-
eval and early modern periods are thought to represent an important threshold. Following are
several concrete examples, divided for convenience into locally oriented and nationally oriented
studies.
At the local level, three favorite examples are Lake Biwa, satoyama, and the city of Edo. The
area around Mt. Biwa, mentioned above in connection with lake varves and climate reconstruc-
tion, sustained dense human populations from early times. (Kyoto was located nearby.) Humans
depended on the lake for fish and for aquatic plants used for clothing, roof thatching, fertilizer,
livestock feed, and fuel. Nonetheless, according to Sano Shizuyo, Biwa remained extremely
clean through the nineteenth century; indeed, the harvesting of reeds and other plants is thought
to have actively contributed to water purity.^49 Satoyama refers to managed rural landscapes,
including villages, fields, and surrounding woodlands. Even the woodlands were far from natural;
they were systematically exploited for firewood, charcoal, fertilizer, and edible plants and
animals, and their composition was partly the result of these human activities. But the resources
used were renewable, and the system as a whole was sustainable.^50 Finally, early modern Japanese
cities, and particularly Edo, are noted for their cleanliness and small ecological footprints; for
example, human waste (“night soil”) was recycled for use as fertilizer in the surrounding fields.^51
This provides an interesting contrast with Japan’s ancient capitals (not to mention cities in other
parts of the world): something must have been learned over time.
Sustainability at the national level is also claimed by some authors, mostly with reference to
the early modern period. Not just the city of Edo but Japanese society as a whole made use of
what Kitō Hiroshi calls the “5Rs”: repair, reuse, rental and lease, recycling, and reduction.^52 Kitō
also notes that after about 1750 Japan had a static population, which he cites as a model for con-
temporary humanity.^53 (Japan’s population plateaued at about 30 million in the early eighteenth
century and remained essentially unchanged until the late nineteenth century.^54 ) More familiar to
most non- Japanese readers will be the work of Conrad Totman, who argued that densely popu-
lated Japan avoided ecological catastrophe as the result of wise forestry practices (not just cutting
but replanting) during the early modern period, reversing the earlier trend toward deforesta-
tion.^55 (Totman’s work formed the substance of later claims by John Richards and Jared Diamond
that early modern Japan was a rare example of a sustainable society.^56 ) Here again is a counter-
intuitive, and welcome, example of the replacement of environmentally unfriendly practices by
friendly ones.
In sum, research on the environmental history of premodern Japan supports the following
view. In early times, Japanese society was essentially reactive to natural conditions and events.
Over time, however, humans became increasingly important actors on their own. They altered
the environment ever more profoundly, sometimes with unexpected consequences. Over the
long run, society achieved considerable managerial control over nature and the ability to success-
fully meet many of the challenges it faced. During early modern times, Japan arguably evolved
into a sustainable society existing within more or less fixed ecological limits. To the extent this
characterization is accurate, Japan’s historical trajectory has significant contemporary relevance,
a point to which I return in the next section.