Uncovering the two crises Japan has faced due to over-cutting of forests
Updated by Kotaro Nagasawa on May 19, 2025, 3:07 PM JST
Kotaro NAGASAWA
（Platinum Initiative Network, Inc.
Born in Tokyo in 1958. （Engaged in research on infrastructure and social security at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. During his first few years with the company, he was involved in projects related to flood control, and was trained by many experts on river systems at the time to think about the national land on a 100- to 1,000-year scale. He is currently an advisor to Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. He is also a part-time lecturer at Tokyo City University. Coauthor of "Introduction to Infrastructure," "New Strategies from the Common Domain," and "Forty Years After Retirement. D. in Engineering.
Chiba Tokuji, "Study of Bald MountainThe "Mere Old Man" can see that there was severe deforestation in the Edo period. So what happens when we look at Japanese history as a whole? One book that answers this question in a compact and precise manner is Conrad Tatman's "How the Japanese Have Created Forests" (translated by Minoru Kumazaki, Tsukiji Shokan, 1998). The title is grandiose, but the book is only 200 pages, and the translation is excellent, making it an extremely readable book.
The gist of the book is that Japan faced two crises in the ancient and early modern periods due to excessive logging in response to rising demand for timber, but through political and voluntary regulation and ingenuity, a sustainable forestry industry was established. As the book title suggests, the message of Professor Tatman, an American scholar, is that Japanese forests have been "created" by the wisdom of the Japanese people in each era. He points out that, with few exceptions in the West and China, forests lost to human activities have not been restored.
The following is a summary of this book, organized in my own way.
Ancient Japanese coexisted with forests, but each time they brought in civilization from the continent, the deprivation of forests intensified. First, the spread of rice cultivation encouraged deforestation to expand rice paddies. The production of bronze and iron used large amounts of charcoal. Advances in iron tools advanced logging tools such as hatchets and saws. Then, in the middle of the 6th century, immigrants from the continent brought with them structural technology to realize large-scale buildings, such as stone foundations, hoso and hoso-hole wooden frames, and roof tiles, which triggered an unprecedented building boom and accelerated the expropriation of forests. This coincided with the time when the Yamato Imperial Court established its ground as the ruler of all Japan.
We know that transfers of capital were common in ancient times. What were the reasons for selecting the land for the new capital? The "easy access to timber for construction" was definitely an important factor.
In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Nagaoka in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Nagaoka in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture, and only 10 years later, the Heian-kyo Capital was built. The timber used for this project was supplied from the Yamashiro Province (southern Kyoto Prefecture) to the Tamba area (northern Kyoto Prefecture), which was the only remaining area of virgin forest in the surrounding area at that time.
In the construction of the capital, in addition to the residences of the emperor's family and other nobles and monumental structures, many large religious buildings were constructed. A typical example is the Todaiji Temple in Nara, which, according to records, used 100,000 koku of materials (lumber). Tatman notes that this is the equivalent of 3,000 modern detached houses, and considering that only the best timber was used, the total area of forests logged must have been 900 hectares. Tatman estimates that the Todai-ji temple construction scale was about 1% of the total number of temples built at the time, and that 90,000 hectares (20,000 Tokyo Domes) of virgin cypress forests were cleared for temple construction alone, an area that would have been even larger if selective logging had been used.
The book's view is that this intense ancient plundering naturally did not last long, and that by the time the Heian-kyo capital was built, there would have been almost no wood left for construction in the Kinai area.
The second round of deforestation began at the end of the Warring States Period. It was at the end of the 16th century that Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to push forward with the construction of monumental structures after the turbulent times were pacified. These included the building of Osaka Castle, the construction of castles in Kyushu for the invasion of Korea, the huge ridge walls of Fushimi, the Juraku-dai in Kyoto, and Hokoji Temple, which houses the Great Buddha, even more massive than Todai-ji Temple. The finest lumber for these projects was cut in Wakayama, Gifu, Shizuoka, Kochi, Miyazaki, and even Akita prefectures and brought to the construction sites. The deprivation of forests reached throughout the country.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, who succeeded Hideyoshi as the ruler of the country, also used good lumber from all over Japan to build Edo Castle, Sunpu Castle, Nagoya Castle, Hikone Castle, Zenjo Castle, Sasayama Castle, Kameyama Castle, and Nijo Castle, as well as Katsura Imperial Villa and other cultural structures (according to this book, the amount of wood used for Edo Castle is five times that for the Todaiji Temple). Above all, an enormous amount of lumber was used for the construction of Edo, the new capital city. With the establishment of centralized power, the necessary lumber was gathered from all over the country.
In addition, large urban fires created a huge demand for lumber. In the case of Edo, for example, large fires burning down more than 10 blocks occurred once every two years and nine months; in 1657 and 1772, large fires destroyed more than half of the city of Edo. The book notes that by this time there were almost no more virgin forests in Japan, so timber must have been cut from the vast forests throughout the country to rebuild Edo.
During the Edo period (1603-1867), due in part to population growth, forests had to meet enormous demand as a necessary resource for local life, in addition to being plundered by those in power. As a result, by the end of the 17th century, high-value natural forests had almost disappeared from the Japanese archipelago, with the exception of Hokkaido. Kumazawa Bansan (1619-1691) wrote, "Up to eight of the ten mountains in this country have become bare. After the great fire of 1657 that burned down most of Edo, the shogunate widely sought contributions of lumber to rebuild the capital. The reply from the Yamauchi clan of Tosa, which had provided abundant timber resources during the reign of Hideyoshi, was, "The mountains in our territory have been cut down. Since the cedars and cypresses are gone, it is impossible to procure the good timber that the Shogun wants. ＝Continue to Part 2 (Kotaro Nagasawa, Director, Platinum Network)
■Related Sites
How the Japanese have created the forest (Tsukiji Shokan)
