AS 201 Sustainability in Japan:
1. "The Ancient Predation, 600-850" (from Conrad Totman, The Greeen Archipelago: Forestry in Pre-Industrial Japan, 1989)
The Kinai Basin
Things that changed Japan prior to 600 AD:
--Rice from 300 BCE transformed the landscape
--Smelting also---->new woodworking tools
--Horse mounted warriors
--Large Burial Mounds
What changes in 600s-700s?
--Monumental construction
--Palaces, Mansions, Govt buildings
--Buddhist Monasteries, Shinto Shrines
Totman writes:
Thus, by A.D. 600 the people of Japan were using woodland much more intensively than a millenium earlier and were establishing the basic characteristics of the archipelago's human-forest relationship as it would survive until the twentieth century...Around 600 Japan's ruling elite initiated the ancient predation, employing new principles of political and economic organization and new styles of architecture in a construction boom of extraordinary magnitude....It appears that all the accessible old-growth stands in the mountains adjoining the Kinai basin were felled. (10-11)
Sources for Lumber = dense and monocultural Residences were framed and paneled in wood, and emperors wanted hinoki used because of its attractive scent and color, fine grain, and resistance to rot. (15)
Tendency was to replace residences and palaces when Uji Chieftan dies
--Posts buried directly into the earth so would rot and weaken
Around 690, elites began to build major capital cities: Nara and Heijo (Kyoto)
Also, in the 8th Century, some 393 ships built to fight Silla
784 Kammu builds Heian capital at Kyoto
Impact?
--Roofing wood replaced by hiwada, broad strips of bark for which you need tall, straight hinoki trees
--Timber becomes scarce
--Monastery and Shrine building even more extravagant:
Todaiji which alone required 84 major pillars, 2200 acres of first quality forest
Statuary, too
All this ---> stripped Kinai periphery of construction timber
Add in also Izumo Shrine, Ise Shrine
Firewood, Charcoal use
Religious images required smelting
--Spread of Agriculture put forests under pressure
--then monument building, old growth forests felled
As a general practice = forests open to general use
--Yoro Code: forests are for government and people alike
--but monasteries and shrines took forests out of circulation for own needs;
Emp. Kammu, too
Perhaps not for the right reasons, but forest closure did constitute a forest protection measure
However, full Forest Closures did not occur until 17th century when the early Modern Predation occurred (see below).
2. "Timber Depletion during the Early Modern Predation, 1570-1670"
Totman sees this second great predation as the "ancient predation writ large." In other words, it resembles the earlier predation but it is now on a grander scale. The causes are still much the same --building monuments and cities--but now not just in the Kinai Region but throughout all of Japan.
By the 17th century, Japan had lost its "high forest." Not only was there extensive city and monument building going on by rulers, the population also grew substantially which increased the needs fertilizer, fuel, fodder and wood for village construction. So life was coming at the forests hard and fast. One response was for higher ups--elites--to close forests in order to preserve them. But this wasn't really systematized until the seventeenth century. When they did this, though, they clashed with the intersts of the villagers who also wanted to try and expand their control over woodlands by forest closures. (51)
We know that converting forest lands to arable lands was a big factor in the decline of forests and in the erosion, denuding, etc. that occurred in the environment. But research has not provided a very clear picture of that whole process.
Deforestation accelerated sharply after 1590 coinciding with Hideyoshi's rise to power. He engaged in plenty of Castle and Monument building. When he was succeeded by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1600 an even greater series of construction projects were launched. (52)
The early modern predation begins with the big three unifiers building their castletowns and destroying those of their enemies so they would need to be rebuilt. In the 1570s and 1580s, most of the Daimyô were busy buildings their castles and castletowns. Himeji, Okayama and Hiroshima are among well-remembered castles. Totman shares some impressive figures:
--in the 104 years between
1467-1571 111 castles were built (10 per year)
--in the 18 yers between
1752-1590, 90 more were built (50 per year!)
Daimyô armies needed more fodder for horses and fuelwood for cooking, charcoal for metal work, construction timber for fortifications, and bamboo for spears, arrows and defensive palisades. Fires during battles also consumed forest land. (54)
The Hôjô at Odawara and Takeda Shingen in Kai put forests under direct administrative control, appointed timber magistrates, and limited tree cutting. Other Lords did the same thing. (55)
1. First of the Unifiers: Oda Nobunaga
Oda constructed his huge castle at Azuchi; though its stone base is striking, wood remained the basic building material. He also encouraged road and bridge-building. He encouraged clear cutting to acquire the lumber he needed.
Many Daimyô sarted to take measures to preserve the forests under their control because wood was so important. Forest wardens were appointed to maintain forests and bamboo groves. So by the 1590s, many Daimyô were already adopting woodland management policies setting precedents for later nationwise application. (56)
2. Second Unifier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
For him, it was his castle in Osaka, his outpost in Kyushu, from which he launched his aramdas against Korea (which required tons of wood for shipbuilding); his castle at Fushimi in Kyoto and the Hôkôji Temple in Kyoto. He also helped with reconstruction of Mt. Hiei and Mt. Koya destroyed by Oda.
He was the first ruler to be able to demand massive contributions of timber from all over Japan. He seized Oda's lands after his death and placed many forests under his direct control. He made lumber contributions a regular part of vassals' military obligations to his Lord.
3. Third Unifier: Tokugawa Ieyasu
Ieyasu continued the castle-building campaigns with three big ones at Edo, Sunpu (Shizuoka), and Nagoya. But also many more were built such as Hikone, Zeze, Sasayama, Kameyama, Nijô in Kyoto for which he demanded other Daimyô contribute as an expression of their loyalty, because he was the now the Overlord for ALL of the Daimyô after 1600. Very clever. With improvements in water transport, lumber could be shipped with greater efficiency so it could be pulled from more places.
In Kyoto, he rebuilt some of the Imperial buildings that were dilapidated and added the new Katsura Detached Palace, the Zôjôji temple in Edo, plus many shrines and temples. While this is just a partial list of his impresssive building campaign, Ieyasu clearly accelearted the construction boom Hideyoshi had initiated. (62-63)
After his death, castle-building slowed some but did not stop. His sons Hidetada and Iemitsu expanded the Edo castle, rebuilt the Osaka castle after it fell in 1615, and built the Tôshôgû Shrine at Nikko to honor Ieyasu.
Lots of shipbuilding--not so much for overseas trade but to ply Japan's coasts and to transport timber, grains and other important products. Other feudal leaders also built many castles and temples, shrines, mansions and other impressive buildings.
All this wood constuction was vulnerable to fire and given the frequency of fires, many buldings had to be rebuilt numerous times!
So forest depletion was a serious issue in early modern Japan. Toman cites evidence frim numerous parts of Japan (69-78) that where once forests had been plentiful, they were now depleted.
Recapitualtion (78-80)
Japanese architecture was exceptionally dependent on wood. Why not use more rocks or stone in construction?
Because of Japan's geology, no really ubiquitous stashes of horizontally layered sandstone or limestone from which to carve out blocks for construction, so wood remained the best option. Plus, Japanese probably preferred the aesthetics of wood.
Later, they would practice Silviculture and reforestation, regenerative strategies, more systematically. There was a substantial literature written by scholars and experts on the subject and Totman surveys it in a later chapter.
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