The forest, a natural resource to be conserved. Japan as the eco-system engineered in Edo period.
In the Edo, Japan made two important choices which affected the nation in the dimension of civilization. One is engineering closed self-sufficient economic cycle by the national lockdown. The other is “the prohibition of logging mountains and forests”. The other is “the prohibition of logging mountains and forests”. According to Jared’s researches, the Tokugawa successfully organized the Japanese islands as closed eco-system and procured the lumber of forest resource by this restriction (Jarred remarks that the restriction came into force under the sacrifice of Ainu forestry). This conservation of forest originated back from the ban issued by feudal lords in their territories, and it forbid not only the plunder and the arson, but also cutting bamboos and trees. This means that they had recognized forest as valuable resource and in other words deforestation to supply their demand was carried out till then. The fact that national land has lost the virgin forest which once occupied 80% of it, and another fact that such words as “Mori = forest” or “Hayashi = trees” share their stems with ”Ma-mori = conserve“ or “Haya-su = sprout” can tell us that the forest was already recognized by them as the thing to be lost without its protection.
