Work

Re-evaluating a tree’s ‘real worth’: The historical dispossession of ecological stewardship and its legacy for a Japanese textile tradition

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: This article explores the precarity that surrounds the acquisition of techigi (yeddo hawthorn) trees, a material used in the production of traditional and contemporary textiles, on the island of Amami Ōshima, southern Japan. A waste product of industrial forestry, the article suggests that the difficulties craftspeople face in accessing techigi are symptoms of complex historical and contemporary processes linked to property regimes and resource management that have dispossessed local residents of ecological stewardship.

Source: History and Anthropology

DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2022.2116017

Author: Charlotte Linton

Institution: University of Oxford

Language: English

Topic: Japanese History and Culture

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Pasold Research Fund, British Association for Japanese Studies, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council