1/04/2014

Recycling and Reuse

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
. Doing Business in Edo - 江戸の商売 .
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Recycling and Reuse in Edo - リサイクル と 再生 / 再使用
ekorojii エコロジー ecology in Edo

kaishuu 回収 kaishu, collecting things for re-use

This is part of the main entry about
. Doing Business in Edo - 江戸の商売 .


Some of the people involved were already introduced as
. shuuriya 修理屋 repairmen in Edo .
xxx naoshi 直し, shuuriya 修理屋, shuuri shokunin 修理職人


happinshoo 八品商 eight recycle businesses in Edo
shichiya 質屋、furugiya 古着屋、furugikai 古着買い、furudooguya 古道具屋,kodooguya 小道具屋,karamonoya 唐物屋、furutetsuya 古鉄屋,furutetsukai 古鉄買い.
The government kept an eye on them, because sometimes the merchandise was stolen.


CLICK for photos !

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Recycling was the common way of life in Edo.
Anything could be used and re-used, repaired and re-repaired and in the end find its way in a warming fire,
since all things were made of natural material.

Some of the recycling business in Edo is listed below, but more is to come later.


Edo no risaikuru gyoo 江戸のリサイクル業 recycling business in Edo

- source : www.gakken.co.jp/kagakusouken

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Look at the long scroll HERE:
- source : www.jba.or.jp/top/bioschool


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- - - - - ABC-List of the business activities - - - - -

. abura uri 油売り selling oil - and talking too much .

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. bafunkaki 馬糞掻き, bafun tori 馬糞とり horse-shit collectors .

. biwa yootoo uri 枇杷葉湯売り selling biwa leaves as medicine .

. furudaru kai 古樽買い buying old barrels .

furugane kai, furukane kai 古金買い / 古かね買い buying scrap metal
furutetsu kai 古鉄買い buying scrap iron
kanamonoya 銅物屋(かなものや) dealer in scrap metal

furutetsu furugane 古鉄古金 / 古かね scrap iron and scrap metal
They bought old metal pots and pans and other metal items, which were beyond repair.
Metal could be melted and re-used.

. furugasa kai 古傘買い furui kasa, buying old umbrellas .

. furugiya 古着屋 / furugi kai 古着買い dealer in old cloths .
..... furuteya, furute-ya 古手屋 in Kamigata

. furubone kai 古骨買い buying old parasols and umbrellas (the "bones") .


. haikai 灰買い buying ashes .

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harigane uri 針金売り selling wire


source : www.japanknowledge.com

The old man on this image carries wires in both hands and has more around his neck.
It is possible they used their trade to collect information that might interest the Bakufu government
- like an onmitsu 隠密 spy.

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Edo no Eco 江戸のエコ Ecology in Edo
- source : members2.jcom.home.ne.jp

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. hiuchigama uri, hiuchi-gama uri 火打ち鎌売り selling tools to strike a fire .
"fire beating sickle" - store Masuya 升屋 near Shiba Shinmei 芝神明 shrine

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. kamikuzu kai 紙くず買い / kamikuzuya 紙屑屋 buying waste paper .
kamikuzu hiroi 紙屑拾い picking up used paper
- - - 古紙リサイクル recycling of waste paper

. kanzashi uri かんざし売り / 簪 selling hair pins and decorations .

. karamono kai 唐物買い buying Karamono .
karamonoya, karamono-ya, toobutsuya 唐物屋 dealing in Karamono
karamono, things from Kara (China or Korea)

. kaya 蚊帳 mosquito net - Moskitonetz .
- - - - - Oomi gaya 近江蚊帳 kaya net from Omi (near lake Biwa)
- - - - - kaya uri 蚊帳売り selling mosquito nets


. kashihonya, kashihon'ya 貸本屋 booklender, booklender
furuhonya, furu-honya 古本屋 selling old books in Edo .



. kenzanya, kenzan ya, kenzan-ya 献残屋 present-recycling merchants, dealers of gifts .

kodoogu kai 小道具買い buying Kodogu, small tools and props
mostly pottery, jewellery or other small art items

. kuzuya 屑屋 collecting waste paper, old cloths, old cotton pieces etc. .


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. mitaoshiya 見倒し屋 / 見倒屋 second-hand dealer .
. . . . . furumono kai 古物買い to buy old things
. . . . . risaikuru shoppu リサイクルショップ recycle shop


. nori 糊 starch, glue / himenori 姫糊 "princess nori glue". .
. . . . . nori uri, nori-uri  糊売り selling natural glue, starch


. oogi uri, oogi-uri 扇売り vendor of fans .
o-harai oogibako お払い扇箱 "Buying back fan boxes" / oharaibako

. ochanai, otchanai おちゃない.おちゃない collecting hair fallen to the ground .
and sell it to wig makers


. roosoku no nagare kai ロウソクの流れ買い buying candle wax drippings .

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. shichiya 質屋 pawn shop .

. shimogoe tori 下肥取り collector of human manure, night soil collector .
- shooben kaishuu 小便回収 collecting urin - 立小便をする女 a woman doing it into a bucket
- funnyoo dai 糞尿代 for the landlord to collect

. shitateya 仕立屋 / 仕立て屋 tailor, seamstress .

. sonryooya, sonryoo-ya 損料屋 Sonryo-Ya, rental agent .
kashimonoya  貸物屋


. soroban naoshi 算盤直し / そろばん直し repairing the abacus .

. sumi uri, sumi-uri 炭売(すみうり) charcoal vendor .

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. tagaya 箍屋 hoop repairman, clamp repairman .

. takeuma furugi uri 竹馬古着売り / 竹馬古着屋 .
selling old cloths hanging on a "bamboo horse" (takeuma) carried over the shoulder

. take uri 竹売り bamboo vendor - susudake uri 煤竹売 seller of cleaning bamboo .

. taru kai, taru-kai 樽買い / taruya 樽屋 buying barrels .
furudaru kai 古樽買い buying old barrels

. tokkaebee とっかえべえ / tokkaebei とっかえべい
collector of old metal, gives a sweet (amedama) in return .


. tori no fun kai 鳥の糞買い buying "bird droppings" .
usuisu no fun 鶯の糞 nightingale droppings, traditional Japanese beauty secrets

. tsukegi uri 付木売り selling wood scraps to light a fire .


. waribashi uri 割り箸 売り selling disposable chopsticks .

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. yoojiten, yooji ten 楊枝店 Yoji, toothpick shop . - Asakusa



. zenigoza uri 銭蓙売り vendor of paper mats to place coins .
and
. zenisashi uri 銭緡売り / sashi-uri 繦売り vendor of money strings .
- - - - - - zenisashi, zeni-sashi 銭さし / 銭差/銭緡 string to keep the small coins

. zenzai uri 善哉売りselling sweet broth with Azuki beans .
- - zenzai is another name for shiruko.
shiruko uri 汁粉売り selling sweet broth with red Azuki beans

. zooriya 草履屋 vendors of straw sandals .

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. Odaiba お台場 - Minato ward .
A modern town, based of classic eco-friendly ideas !

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- quote
Edo Period Japan: A Model of Ecological Sustainability - Eisuke Ishikawa
The society ran as a very efficient closed loop system where all waste was used to support production and previously produced items were repaired and reused. In a closed loop system there is no waste produced that is not used. One simple example of this closed loop system is the use of night soil. Night soil is a term used for human excrement collected for fertilizer. Night soil collectors retrieved the waste during the night from city households and then transported it to outlying agricultural land. Farmers would pay for the night soil with either money, or with the crops grown from the highly fertile soil. This system meant human waste was no longer discarded as pollution, but utilized as very rich compost. This compost in turn created fertile soil for growing food, which was eaten by the people, who then created more night soil! The use of night soil could potentially keep cropland fertile indefinitely, increase yields, and did not pollute area water sources with added nutrients.


Night soil was carted from Edo to the outlying agricultural land
(Illustration © Azby Brown).

Passive solar, wood burning from gathered fallen branches, and human-powered machinery were the only energy sources available during the Edo Period. Every effort was made to work with, and not against, nature to support urban Edo. It is easy to romanticize the period, but it is worth noting that traditional pre-industrial agricultural practices were backbreaking. The difficult work paid off, however, with yields much higher than modern production methods can produce.

Craft guilds and craftspeople that specialized in repairing broken goods were not rare in the pre-industrial world, but Japan during the Edo Period was a uniquely closed-off island location where frugality was an important virtue and self-sufficiency was crucial to survival. Many craftspeople specialized in the repair of previously used items for reuse, or collected waste for use in new production. For example, clothes were mended and resold many times and household goods such as ceramics, metal pots, and umbrellas were repaired by specialized tradespeople. End-of-life materials such as used paper or candle drippings were collected and transformed into new products. Items were made to last generations and repaired until they had truly become useless. Materials and resources were reused or recycled many times until all potential utility had been realized.

This sustainable closed loop system worked on a much larger scale in Japan than elsewhere in the world. At the time, Japan maintained a steady population of 30 million people, meaning for 265 years the population did not increase beyond the small island country’s carrying capacity. At its peak, Edo was the largest city in the world at roughly 1.25 million people. Despite its lack of technological advancement, the city was a thriving and sophisticated urban area. Although the current population of Tokyo is well over ten times the population of Edo, there is still much we can learn from the solutions Edo created to sustain their large and dense population.

The desire for plentiful whale oil to fuel the budding industrial revolution sparked the United States to invade Edo Bay in 1853 with large warships demanding trade. Japan agreed to trade peacefully to avoid war with the United States. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 marked the end of the Tokugawa family rule and a return to imperial power in Japan under Emperor Meiji, officially ending the Edo Period. The Meiji Restoration was an attempt to bolster power for defense from the more technologically advanced West. Japan was intrigued by the prospect of technological progress, and the promise of Western world conveniences, and went on to sign trade agreements with many other countries.

In the end, the Edo Period proved not to be sustainable, as the country was unable to defend itself from the encroaching industrial modernization that resulted from trading with the West. Japan during the Edo Period was extraordinarily sustainable and successful, but grew very little economically. From a capitalist perspective, the Edo Period was stagnating because there was very little new money to be made from products built for longevity, and the repeated repair of used products. Long-term sustainability and continual economic growth are not compatible. Our planet cannot support the capitalist model of continual growth and over-consumption; therefore, our notion of a successful economy needs to be reexamined. It is also worth examining our idea of progress, as perhaps new technological advances (especially those that depend on fossil fuels and work against nature) are not always a positive progression.

Eisuke Ishikawa is the leading authority on the ecological sustainability of the Edo Period.
“Japan in the Edo Period – An Ecologically-Conscious Society"
(大江戸えころじ-事情 O-edo ecology jijo
- source : www.museumofthecity.org


. kenyaku 倹約 frugality, thrift - Sparsamkeit .

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- quote
Rice has long been a staple food for the Japanese, and straw is one rice-making byproduct, the residue left after threshing rice to obtain grain. For every 150 kilograms of rice, about 124 kilograms of straw are produced. Straw was a precious resource for a wide range of uses relating to food, clothing and shelter in the past.

Farmers used about 20 percent of straw produced for making daily commodities, 50 percent for fertilizer and the remaining 30 percent for fuel and other purposes. Ash left after burning straw was used as a potassium fertilizer. In short, 100 percent of straw was used and recycled back to the earth.

For clothing purposes, straw was used to make braided hats, straw raincoats and straw sandals, among other items. Farmers produced such items during the agricultural off-season for their own use and as products to be sold for cash.

Relating to food, straw was used to make straw bags for rice, pot holders, and covering materials to produce "natto" (fermented soybeans). Farmers also used straw to feed cattle and horses and cover feedlots. Animal waste mixed with straw residue made compost for farming.

In the area of shelter, straw was a common building material for outside and inside the house, including the roof, "tatami" mats and clay walls. As you can see, straw, a byproduct of rice, was used widely in daily life and once it was used or burned, it returned to the earth.

In addition to straw, silk, cotton, hemp and other field-made materials were used for clothes. Paper was made of the bark of "kozo" trees. Since only branches were cut to obtain bark, there was no worry of excessive cutting of trees. And there were many kinds of recyclers for used paper in those days.
- source : www.japanfs.org - Eisuke Ishikawa


. Ishikawa Eisuke Ishikawa 石川英輔 - Introduction .

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Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan
地球を救う江戸先進のエコロジー

by Azby Brown / アズビー・ブラウン



The world has changed immeasurably over the last thirty years, with more, bigger, better being the common mantra. But in the midst of this constantly evolving world, there is a growing community of people who are looking at our history, searching for answers to issues that are faced everywhere, such as energy, water, materials, food and population crisis.

In Just Enough, author Azby Brown turned to the history of Japan, where he finds a number of lessons on living in a sustainable society that translate beyond place and time. This book of stories depicts vanished ways of life from the point of view of a contemporary observer, and presents a compelling argument around how to forge a society that is conservation-minded, waste-free, well-housed, well-fed and economically robust.

Included at the end of each section are lessons in which Brown elaborates on what Edo Period life has to offer us in the global battle to reverse environmental degradation. Covering topics on everything from transportation, interconnected systems, and waste reduction to the need for spiritual centers in the home, there is something here for everyone looking to make changes in their life.
- source : www.amazon.com

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- - - - - Reference



大江戸リサイクル事情 - 石川英輔

Check vocabulary (CB)
- source : note.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp

With illustrations - collecting and repairing 回収業者 - 修理・再生業者 
- source : simofuri.com/recycle

http://blog.q-q.jp/201308/article_6.html
http://homepage2.nifty.com/kenkakusyoubai/zidai/syobai.htm - TBA
http://shigoto-creator.com/396/ - TBA


早業七人前 (at the National Bibliothek)
- source : http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info

大江戸リサイクル事情
- source : kinokokumi.blog13.fc2.com

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"Man with broom and cloth"
Katsushika Hokusai 北斎  (1760-1849)

source : www.asia.si.edu/collections

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. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .


. Japanese Architecture - cultural keywords used in haiku .


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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
- #recycle #reuse #ecology -
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