Mottainai: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Edo's Eco Life for Today.

Join us as we delve into the spirit and concept of the mottainai - getting the most value out of everything, and discuss the inspiration we can take away for today’s global community.
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Presenter: Professor Azby Brown
Azby Brown is a leading authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environmentalism, and the author of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Small Spaces, The Japanese Dream House, The Very Small Home, and Just Enough: Lessons in living green from traditional Japan. He is on the Sculpture Faculty at Musashino Art University. Prof. Brown has been lead researcher for Safecast, a highly successful global citizen-science organization devoted to developing new technology platforms for crowdsourced environmental monitoring promoting open-source and open data principles, initiated by Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in March 2011. He has lived in Japan since 1985.
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Discussant: Professor Kamatani Kaoru
Kamatani Kaoru is an Associate Professor in the College of Gastronomy Management at Ritsumeikan University. Her PhD is in Japanese history and her current research interests are the history of Edo period culinary and fishing activities as well as analyzing the relationship between agricultural activity and climate change.
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Interpreter/Translator: Dr. Mari Morimoto
Mari Morimoto has been a freelance translator of manga and Japanese subculture content for over 25 years. She has since expanded her resume to include interpreter, lecturer, and international speaker. She also happens to be a small animal primary care veterinarian. Born in Osaka, Japan, but raised in New York City.

[@TheJapanFoundationCGPNY]

We welcome your comments. Please keep it clean, friendly, and courteous. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments section.

[@kailiu1851]

And can you relate the popular concepts from Mari Kondo (KonMari) to mottainai?

[@TheJapanFoundationCGPNY]

Thank you for your comment. We will get back to you as soon as possible!

[@TheJapanFoundationCGPNY]

Thank you for waiting. Here is the comment from Prof. Brown: I think that “mottainai” and Mari Kondo’s “Tidy up” share some important underpinnings. Mottainai emerged from resource-poor environmental and economic conditions, while Tidy-up is a response to over-abundance. But both encourage people to think about what is most essential and to develop a sense of appreciation. They differ, perhaps, in that mottainai is a set of cultural practices in which the need to preserve the environment is a major factor, while Tidy-up is more personal (though less consumption overall could certainly have environmental benefits).

[@TheJapanFoundationCGPNY]

Thank you for waiting. Here is the comment from Prof. Kamatani:
Thank you for your question.
I believe that Ms. Kondo Mari was the first person in Japan to propose a method that allows people to enjoy the tedious task of tidying up. She has been very famous in Japan for a long time. I have read many of her books myself also.
Now, as to your question.
This "Mottainai" may not be directly related to the concept of Ms. Kondo.
However, at the root of the Konmari Method is how to :
(1) store things efficiently and spend time comfortably in a compact house, which has been the norm in Japan since ancient times.
(2) use what you have now by recycling resources and live happily.
I think it reflects the way of life that Japanese people have lived for a long time.
In that sense, KonMari's concept is a perfect "fit" for Japanese people.
I am very happy to know that people around the world share this feeling.