Japan at nature's edge : the environmental context of a global power

336 Pages·2013·32.275 MB·English, Japanese

by  Walker, Brett L., Miller, Ian Jared, Thomas, Julia Adeney

Japan at Nature’s Edge

Japan at

Nature’s Edge
The Environmental Context of a Global Power
edited by
Ian Jared MIller
JulIa adeney ThoMas
and BreTT l. Walker
unIversITy of ha WaI‘I Press
HoNolulu
© 2013 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Japan at nature’s edge : the environmental context of a global power /
edited by Ian Jared Miller, Julia Adeney Thomas, and Brett L. Walker.
pages cm
Papers from a conference held in the fall of 2008 near Big Sky, Montana.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3692-4 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8248-3876-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human ecology—Japan—Congresses. 2. Nature and civilization—Japan—
Congresses. I. Miller, Ian Jared, [date–] editor of compilation. II. Thomas,
Julia Adeney, [date–] editor of compilation. III. Walker, Brett L., [date–]
editor of compilation.
GF666.J36 2013
304.20952—dc23
2013008411
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Mardee Melton
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
publication of this book
is supported by a grant from
Figure Foundation

for
James R. Bartholomew
pioneer, friend, and teacher

Contents
Preface
BReTT L. WALkeR xi
Writing Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Promises
and Perils of environmental History
IAN JAReD MILLeR 1
Part I: oCeans and emPIres
1 The Pelagic empire: Reconsidering Japanese expansion
WILLIAM M. TSUTSUI 21
2 From Meat to Machine Oil: The Nineteenth-Century
Development of Whaling in Wakayama
JAkOBINA ARCH 39
3 Fisheries Build Up the Nation: Maritime environ-
mental encounters between Japan and China
MICAH MUSCOLINO 56
Part II: ChangIng LandsCaPes
4 Talking Sulfur Dioxide: Air Pollution and the
Politics of Science in Late Meiji Japan
TAkeHIRO WATANABe 73
5 Constructing Nature
PHILIP C. BROWN 90
6 Toroku: Mountain Dreams, Chemical Nightmares
TIMOTHy S. GeORGe 115
Part III: Between BodIes
7 Fecal Matters: Prolegomenon to
a History of Shit in Japan
DAvID L. HOWeLL 137
8 Weathering Fuji: Marriage, Meteorology,
and the Meiji Bodyscape
ANDReW BeRNSTeIN 152
9 Animal Histories: Stranger in a Tokyo Canal
CHRISTINe L. MARRAN 175
Part IV: VIstas and Vantage PoInts
10 Inventorying Nature: Tokugawa yoshimune
and the Sponsorship of Honzōgaku in
eighteenth-Century Japan
FeDeRICO MARCON 189
11 Japanese Literature and environmental Crises
kAReN THORNBeR 207
12 Japanese environmental Policy: Lessons from
experience and Remaining Problems
keN’ICHI MIyAMOTO 222
Part V: the trIPLe dIsaster of 3/11
13 An envirotechnical Disaster: Negotiating Nature,
Technology, and Politics at Fukushima
SARA B. PRITCHARD 255
14 Postcrisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Top-
down Directives to Bottom-up Activism
DANIeL P. ALDRICH 280
15 Using Japan to Think Globally: The Natural
Subject of History and Its Hopes
JULIA ADeNey THOMAS 293
List of Contributors 311
Index 315
x Contents