Azby Brown - Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan

acknowledgments

So many people assisted in making this book in ways both large and small that it is difficult to adequately acknowledge all of them. A number of people deserve special mention, however. I would like to thank Greg Starr, my editor at Kodansha International, for his enthusiasm for this project from start to finish, for steering it through the long production process, and for not being afraid to hurt my feelings when criticism was in order. Miyako Takeshita, curator and researcher at the KIT Future Design Institute, the think tank I founded in Tokyo in 2005, provided invaluable assistance with Japanese sources, tracked down individuals with expert knowledge in specific areas, and did an enormous amount of legwork. Nobuko Tadai also did crucial research for me, helping collate recent Japanese research in sustainability and tracking down historical images of the lumberyards of Kiba. The book designer, Kazuhiko Miki, demonstrated tremendous flexibility and imagination in accommodating my unconventional requests concerning the illustrations and captions.

Prof. Tatsuo Masuta, my colleague at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, was extremely generous with his expertise on traditional architecture, particularly concerning merchant and samurai houses in the Kanazawa area. I am especially grateful for the insight he provided into the frugal reality of life for lower samurai and how that was reflected in the design of their homes. He also provided important introductions to specialists supervising the restoration of samurai homes at the Hyakumangoku Bunkaen Edo Mura (Edo Village), outside of Kanazawa, who allowed me unlimited access. Prof. Masao Takahashi, a grand old gentleman, entertained volley after volley of detailed inquiry concerning Edo period life, design, and technology, and directed me to a number of useful printed sources. I am incredibly indebted to his close analysis of the writings of Morisada Mankou, an Edo period traveler from Osaka who published an illustrated guidebook to the manners and customs of Edoites.

My work was made much easier by having access to a number of excellent museums. Id like to thank Akihiko Toyama, curator at the Nihon Minka-en (Japan Open-air Folk Museum), for arranging special access to the houses there, and for providing me with copies of restoration reports which clarified quite a few details concerning the history and construction of Japanese farmhouses. The collection and reading room of the Edo-Tokyo Museum were invaluable resources, as were those of the Fukagawa Edo Museum and the Tokyo Water-works Museum. And the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architecture Museum provided the opportunity to examine building types, such as a historical bathhouse, that are nearly impossible to find elsewhere. Many thanks also to the staff of the Japan Foundation Library, and of The National Diet Library, both in Tokyo. Their collections were invaluable.

There are also people I feel indebted to even though weve never met, particularly several writers and re -searchers whose approaches and findings informed my own. Conrad Totman has done groundbreaking work on Edo period forestry practices and the history of the period in general; Susan B. Hanley has illuminated daily life for people of the period by closely examining material culture; Anne Walthalls writings on the subject of night soil provided important insight into that issue. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 4 , Early Modern Japan , edited by John Whitney Hall, which deals with this period, is an essential resource and contains excellent contributions by leading specialists from Japan and abroad. There are quite a few other specialists who deserve mention, and I have tried to acknowledge as many of them as possible in the bibliography.

Id like to thank John Poch and his family for allowing me to stay at their beautiful home in New Orleans for several weeks during the summer of 2008, which was very conducive to writing and enabled me to complete the text undisturbed.

And last but far from least, I want to thank my wife Mayumi and my son Max for their forbearance during my long absences and for not grumbling too much at the time I was devoting to this book instead of to them.