Stephanie Jane reviewed Just Enough by Azby Brown
Essential reading
5 stars
Just Enough by Azby Brown is an amazing book which, by discussing how people lived in Edo, the city which would become Tokyo, and its environs in the 1700s and 1800s, gives us a blueprint for making our own 21st century towns and cities truly sustainable. Edo was probably the biggest city in the world at the height of the Edo period and it was far more advanced in a number of ways than its European counterparts, mainly due to the Japanese people having different priorities. A large population living in an isolated nation needed to become self-sufficient in everything they needed and Just Enough brilliantly demonstrates how they did so.
Azby Brown explores many aspects of Edo life from minimalist fuel usage to sympathetic architectural design, circular manufacturing systems which prioritised reuse and repair, how eschewing animal agriculture left all the farming land for human food production, and the …
Just Enough by Azby Brown is an amazing book which, by discussing how people lived in Edo, the city which would become Tokyo, and its environs in the 1700s and 1800s, gives us a blueprint for making our own 21st century towns and cities truly sustainable. Edo was probably the biggest city in the world at the height of the Edo period and it was far more advanced in a number of ways than its European counterparts, mainly due to the Japanese people having different priorities. A large population living in an isolated nation needed to become self-sufficient in everything they needed and Just Enough brilliantly demonstrates how they did so.
Azby Brown explores many aspects of Edo life from minimalist fuel usage to sympathetic architectural design, circular manufacturing systems which prioritised reuse and repair, how eschewing animal agriculture left all the farming land for human food production, and the amazing 'nightsoil' system which kept Edo's water and sewage networks completely separate resulting in a healthier city (and absolutely no sewage emptied into their streams and rivers - an alien concept in today's dirty Britain!) I love the copious hand-drawn illustrations which made even complex concepts - like airflow through buildings or the practicalities of wooden water piping - easy for me understand. Brown's approach of imagining us walking into Edo, meeting its people and visiting their homes, is an inspired device. I felt it allowed me to relate to Just Enough on an emotional level, as though I were reading historical fiction, even though this is a deeply researched history.
The strongest lesson I think I came away from Just Enough with is how attitude is everything when it comes to truly sustainable living. We can't even approach genuine sustainability at our current Western levels of consumption and our ideas about what we 'need', as opposed to what we just 'want', must be radically overhauled. I was shocked to realise that Just Enough is already onto its third edition and I had never even heard of this book before. It brings together threads of ideas that I had gleaned from other reading and presents its concepts so clearly that I found it an inspirational read. If we are to have any kind of future as a species on this planet, I would suggest Just Enough is essential reading.