Mottainai, an Ecological concept dating back to Edo
period
Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan environmentalist who, in 2004, became the
world's first such activist to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her
contribution to "sustainable development, democracy and peace".
She was instrumental in promoting the concept of Mottainai, a Japanese
word that expresses the 3Rs?Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, all in one.
To see how the spirit of Mottainai prevailed in Japan, let's look at
the everyday of people in the Edo Period.
From the 17th century to early 19th century, as many as one million
people are said to have lived in Edo. It was by far a larger city than
London, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris and New York which had an estimated
population of 860,000, 950,000, 50,000, 54,000 and 60,000
respectively.
Edo boasted one of the best recycling systems in the world. One example
is the use of human waste or night soil. Instead of being discarded,
resulting in bad hygiene, offensive smells and epidemics, night soil was
carried to the rural areas and used as fertilizer. Night soil was in fact
considered a valuable resource and was sold or exchanged for vegetables.
The produce grown using night soil as fertilizer was then delivered to the
city for consumption, resulting in the production of more fertilizer. It
was an ideal form of recycling from the point of both the economy and
ecology.
Courtesy:
Ministry of the Environment
By the way, the Ministry of the Environment has compiled an
environmental booklet titled "A Sound Material-Cycle Society through the Eyes of
Hokusai" in which Katsushika Hokusai, a world-famous ukiyoe painter of
the late Edo period, guides the reader through the contents which offer
food for thought on various environmental issues. It's quite interesting
and informative, too.
Now, let's look at some examples of reuse as well.
Until the end of the Edo Period, all material was hand-woven. Because
production was limited, material was precious and was reused
extensively.
For example, once a kimono became worn-out, it was taken apart and made
into a children's kimono. If that started to show wear and tear, it was
taken apart and made into bags and other accessories. If such products too
became threadbare, they were made into diapers and finally rags.
Ultimately, the rags would become unusable and would have to be burned.
But the ashes would then be recycled as fertilizer.
Repairers and buyers were essential in supporting the system of
reuse.
Knife sharpeners; ceramic repairers who repaired cracks in pots and
other utensils; tinkers who repaired old pots and pans, even those with
holes; truss hoop repairers who fixed the bamboo hoops used to fasten the
wooden tubs and barrels that were used for storing liquids. These are some
of the examples of the itinerant repairmen who went from neighborhood to
neighborhood with their tools and materials.
There were also various types of buyers and collectors, for instance
those who went around buying broken umbrella frames, or those who bought
old shopkeepers' books and other used paper to sell to paper makers. Some
of these 'paper collectors' didn't have the financial resources to buy
used paper. Instead, they went around town picking up trash paper to sell
to used-paper warehouses to earn a minimum daily wage. These are just some
of the many examples of collecting and buying that made it possible for
Edo to use goods and materials over and over again.
Dr. Maahai was so impressed by the concept of Mottainai that she began
to look for equivalent words in other languages so as to spread the spirit
and concept of Mottainai throughout the world. But she says that she was
unable to find a word that conveyed the same meaning of respect for nature
and resources.
With the increasingly growing threat towards the global environment,
the traditional wisdom of the Japanese people as expressed in the concept
of Mottainai will play a major role in contributing to a society capable
of sustainable development. | 
