GREEN JAPAN: IMAGES OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING IN UKIYO-E PRINTS In the 21st century we tend to think of high-tech solutions to our environmental crisis: solar and wind power, geothermal heating and cooling, electric cars, carbon sequestration, and efficient green buildings, to name a few. But equally important are low-tech efforts to encourage changes in behavior to forestall the growing climate crisis and create a robust culture of sustainability, the practice of meeting present needs while ensuring that future generations can also meet their own needs through responsible management of environmental, social, and economic resources. Japan faced its own environmental crisis at the close of the 16th century, after years of civil war and social upheaval. The practice of clearcutting forests for buildingmaterial had led to massive erosion and watershed damage. Agricultural land was limited in this mountainous country—it was unable to expand, and thus unable to support rapid population growth. The crisis prompted government regulation and enforcement, but other solutions evolved over time—ones that reflect Japan’s traditional ethics of community cooperation (結 yui), conservation, use of renewables, and waste reduction. In this section, we use the lens of sustainability to take a closer look at Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints from the Edo period (1603–1868), highlighting often overlooked details to reveal not a future utopia, but a sustainable world that actually existed several centuries ago. “[People in Edo period Japan] … overcame many of the identical problems that confront us today—issues of energy, water, materials, food, and population—[and] forged from these considerable challenges a society that was conservation-minded, waste-free, well-housed and well-fed, and economically robust, and that has bequeathed to us admirable and enduring standards of design and beauty.” —Azby Brown, Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan (2009) Utagawa Hiroshige I 初代目歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797–1858), Camellia Hill and the Hut of the Poet Basho beside theWater Supply at Sekiguchi, no. 40 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857. Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. Mary A. Ainsworth Bequest, 1950.1403. See page 33 for detailed information. ALLEN MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM 7
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