Japan's Traditional Lifestyles: Reflections in 2001

Susan Hanley is a noted Japanologist and serves as co-editor of The Journal of Japanese Studies, which she also helped found. Her research focuses on the demographic, social, and economic history of pre-modern Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Her most recent book, Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture, has won prizes in both the United States and Japan.

In this lecture, Hanley discusses how traditional lifestyles in the centuries preceding Japan’s industrialization were forged in the turbulent years of civil war in the 16th century and during the peace following unification in 1600. Despite a growing population, three major famines, and limited land and resources, Hanley shows, the economy grew, and the Japanese developed a simple and ecological lifestyle that was also aesthetic and healthful. Hanley examines how the Japanese created this lifestyle, as she also reflects on what might be learned from them in the current tumultuous times when we too are faced with environmental, economic, and security concerns.