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Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

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Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#31

Post by eliaspro »

ggm wrote: post #20

Coppicing, Hedge laying, Bocage, drystone walling, wattle-and-daub are all domestic comparable ancient crafts of Europe. The point being that probably only drystone walling is valued in a way comparable to the Japanese version of Coppicing, which really has been transformed into an artform. European coppices are cut close to the rootstock and cut down far younger for use as poles, for wood turning, for hedge laying.…

> Can you name a European family concern doing the same thing continuously since before 1600?

The oldest (family-held) one in Germany is "The Coatinc Company":

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coatinc_Company

The oldest non-family owned one is "Staffelter Hof", in operation since 862:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffelter_Hof

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#32

Post by enneff »

dimator wrote: post #23
icelancer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, indeed - and sometimes worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

> is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris, who feel that the city was not what they had expected > The syndrome is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution ... derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and othe…

I think it’s just extreme culture shock. Some Japanese people, and likely the kind to follow a romanticised dream of visiting Paris, are very sheltered. If your first experience of a country other than Japan (a very ordered place with powerful social norms) is the actual Paris (where the environment is comparably a lot more chaotic and people are not exactly friendly) then I can see how you might lose your mind a bit with shock.

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#33

Post by rob74 »

duped wrote: post #16

I wish there was a way to apply this technique to some of the rarer woods that have fantastic uses in production, like teak, rosewood, and grenadilla. If you're into hardwoods like musical instruments or fine furniture there's an appreciation you grow for the character of these woods. And a moral quandary with the sourcing of it. It seems impossible to find a sustainable method to source the material. A lot of what w…

This technique doesn't really offer a solution: as a rule, the harder and better quality the wood, the slower it grows, so the possibility to supply more when demand is high is limited, which makes the wood more expensive, so the temptation of "poaching" it is greater.

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#34

Post by defrost »

xg15 wrote: post #22

> The other reason the technique was developed was fashion. In the 14th century, a linear, stylized form of architecture known as sukiya-zukuri was extremely popular I'm also fascinated by how Japan apparently had it's own Bauhaus period, some 600 years before the west did.

It resurfaced again in 1998 [1]

[1] https://www.discogs.com/release/1251099-Various-Satori-A-Tri...

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#35

Post by helsinkiandrew »

> This is an ancient method, developed in the 14th century

14th century ancient? bah humbug! There's evidence of coppicing in the UK from about 6500 years ago.

> The practice of coppicing can be traced back to Neolithic times (4500 BC). Neolithic wattle trackways in the Somerset Levels are evidence of sophisticated coppicing systems which produced rods of exactly the same size. Archaeological evidence shows that coppice products were used for numerous rural needs throughout the Bronze, Roman and Saxon periods

https://www.conservationhandbooks.com/woodlands/a-brief-hist...

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#36

Post by Danieru »

dimator wrote: post #23
icelancer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, indeed - and sometimes worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

> is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris, who feel that the city was not what they had expected > The syndrome is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution ... derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and othe…

What you need to understand is how Paris is horrible in the exact ways Japanese cities are nice.

Paris is dirt, aggressive, expensive, with horrible customer service. All things Japanese city has and would never think to include in a tourism pitch.

Japanese Tourists expect Paris to be a Regular (Japanese) City + Romanticism. What they get has no romance, and a city even regular French people consider rude.

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#38

Post by ggm »

eliaspro wrote: post #31
ggm wrote: post #20

Coppicing, Hedge laying, Bocage, drystone walling, wattle-and-daub are all domestic comparable ancient crafts of Europe. The point being that probably only drystone walling is valued in a way comparable to the Japanese version of Coppicing, which really has been transformed into an artform. European coppices are cut close to the rootstock and cut down far younger for use as poles, for wood turning, for hedge laying.…

> Can you name a European family concern doing the same thing continuously since before 1600? The oldest (family-held) one in Germany is "The Coatinc Company": https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coatinc_Company The oldest non-family owned one is "Staffelter Hof", in operation since 862: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffelter_Hof

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies says by far the most (56%) are in Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinise

Re: Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

#39

Post by lobochrome »

Obsnold wrote: post #9

Does the Japanese government pay for or in some way support articles like this? Do people in Japan get articles about how amazing coppicing is in the UK? Articles like this about Japan make me feel a bit weird but I kind of wish we were better at fetishising our own produce and practices like we do with the Japanese.

Solingen Kitchen Knifes are highly valued. Go into any department store, and you will find the finest selection of german knives. Of course - it is the other way around in Germany.
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