Visiting the 4th-Year Japanese Class I: Sustainability and Edo Shigusa

Dr. Yumiko Nishi asked me to stop by the fourth year Japanese class next week to talk about sustainability in the Edo period. I'm still planning what we'll talk about, but I was thinking about a couple of places to start the discussion, or frame it, or whatever.

The first is Edo shigusa (Conventions/customs of Edo).

"Edo shigusa" seems to a popular-culture phenomenon. I'm not 100% sure about it, but I get the impression it's a system developed by some modern people, especially Koshikawa Reiko 越川 禮子 to promote a rather modest kind of social change, mostly in terms of better manners and a more pleasant attitude. It's all explained in several books and the website Edo Shigusa. Basically, the theory is that merchants in the Edo period developed almost a utopia of peaceful cooperation, where respect for others and inoffensive, responsible behavior was the rule. The trouble nowadays is that everyone's forgotten these lovely old ways, and if we could just get back to them, things would be a lot better. (Koshikawa and her colleagues are available for seminars and workshops to train others in these classic principles.)

Setting aside the question of how historically accurate this optimistic view of Edo society is, "Edo shigusa" offers a great place to start students thinking about life in early modern Japan. The manga book, マンガ版「江戸しぐさ」入門 (Manga edition: Introduction to Edo Shigusa) is great for students of Japanese language; I'll ask our students to read a couple of pages from it, the one on not wasting resources (pp. 24-25), and the one on respecting nature (pp. 32-33).  I'm not reproducing them here because of copyright, but below the cut I've got a vocabulary list.


江戸しぐさ | えどしぐさ  Edo customs/manners
今しぐさ Today's customs/manners
 .....
P. 24
もったい大事 | もったいだいじ  valuing the useful
循環型エコ社会 | じゅんかんがたえこしゃかい  recycling society
布 | ぬの   cloth
製織 | せいしょく  weaving
排泄物 | はいせつぶつ  excrement
肥料 | ひりょう  fertilizer
物質的 | ぶっしつてき  material
.....
 P.25
浴衣 | ゆかた  light cotton robe (for bath or summer)
生地 | きじ  material
仕立てる | したてる sew together
感謝 | かんしゃ  gratitude
オムツ diapers
雑巾 | ぞうきん household rag
撒ける | まける  scatter
消費は美徳 | しょうひ・ びとく "consumption is a virtue"
効率 | こうりつ efficiency
追い求める | おいもとめる pursue
.....
P.32
草主人従 | そうしゅじんじゅう "nature is the master, humans the followers"
朝顔につるべ取られてもらい水／加賀の千代女 | あさがお・かがのちよじょ

Poem:
the well-bucket
was claimed by morning glories
-- borrowed water
 Poet: Kaga no Chiyojo (1703-1775)

スットコドッコイ  idiot, jerk
必死  | ひっし desperate
見事 | みごと magnificent
一輪 | いちりん  one blossom (1 + counter for flowers)
大家さん | おおやさん sir
オイラ I, me (rough speech)
素人 | しろうと amateur
浅ましさ | あさましさ disgrace
お天道さま | おてんどうさま Heaven
森羅万象 | しんらばんしょう everything in the universe
.....
P.33
寺子屋 | てらこや temple-run schools (for commoners in the Edo period)
支配 | しはい support
錯覚 | さっかく illusion
共生 | きょうせい symbiosis