Japan\u2019s Edo period found it serving as home to some of the largest cities of the time, and although it ended nearly 150 years ago, its people were faced with the very same issues of resource conservation, food production and population control that the we struggle with today. In Azby Brown\u2019s recently reprinted book, the pragmatic solutions developed by the Japanese people during this time are presented to the reader in a format that is immediately engaging and a joy to read.<\/p>\n
Just Enough is a self-professed \u201cbook of stories\u201d separated into three sections that take us from the rural landscapes of a forest-dwelling rice farmer to the crowded row-house apartments of a city carpenter, and finally to the dignified formal lodgings of Edo\u2019s samurai districts. In each section we are guided by the author into the lives of the area\u2019s inhabitants and introduced to the way they live as if we were guests in their home, with an eye toward resource conservation at all times. At the end of each section critical points are summarized and reinforced, and throughout the text Brown\u2019s beautiful sketched illustrations and hand-written margin notes bring life to each topic.<\/p>\n
The book is packed with information and features an extensive bibliography. While many of the solutions featured may not be directly applicable to life outside the Edo period, they remain fascinating and are usually rooted in ideas that will have value in any time period or environment. Highly recommended to anyone with a remote interest in low-impact living or traditional Japanese culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lessons in sustainable living<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14260,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions\/14260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}