Green Archipelago: Forestry In Pre-Industrial Japan

Series in Ecology and History

by Conrad D. Totman, James L.A. Webb Jr. (Contributor)

This inaugural volume in the

Genres: Japan, History, Japanese History, Nature, Environment, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 25, 1988

About the author

A specialist in Japanese history, Conrad Davis Totman is professor emeritus of history at Yale University.

Reviews

[Eric Walz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but ultimately scratching the surface of what I was hoping to learn about the reforestation. Did learn a lot about the economics of forestry in 17th century Japan….hell yeah!

[AskHistorians]

By the late 1600s, Japan was on the brink of ecological collapse. Overpopulation and deforestation had nearly stripped the country of trees, and it was very possible the Japanese islands could have ended up like modern-day Haiti or Madagascar, denuded and impoverished. Yet changes in Edo-period environmental policy and philosophy transformed the archipelago's land managament from largely exploitative to regenerative, and consequently today Japan is, in the author's words, "one great forest preserve". This book tells that story.