<story><title>Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees</title><url>https://dsfantiquejewelry.com/blogs/interesting-facts/the-ancient-japanese-technique-that-produces-lumber-without-cutting-trees</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ggm</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;Timber framed construction in Europe was nailless (wooden tree nails permitted) but the mortice and tenon joinery of Japan is in another league. Maybe European Gothic cathedral roofs come close, little else would.&lt;p&gt;Japan modernised in the modern era, it&amp;#x27;s industrial revolution was comparatively recent and it remained feudal far longer than Europe (Russian serfdom aside)&lt;p&gt;There are probably more continuous family heritage firms in Japan practising some art (brewing, soy sauce, woodwork, coppicing) than anywhere else. Can you name a European family concern doing the same thing continuously since before 1600? I can&amp;#x27;t name any Japanese ones but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t be surprised if there were many. Institutional enterprises like Oxford university press exist since deep time, but in Japan it would be a continuous lineage of printers continuing to use woodblock printing (maybe alongside hot type or photo typesetting)&lt;p&gt;Farming does remain in the family but European farming practices have modernised since forever.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kriro</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s quite a few in Germany. The most famous one is probably Merck (1668). There&amp;#x27;s a couple of really old banks (Berenberg Bank in Hamburg, 1590) and the industry with the most old companies is probably the glas industry. There&amp;#x27;s a couple of companies from the 15xx and 16xx. If you&amp;#x27;re into hiking, you probably heard about Meindl shoes (1683).
There&amp;#x27;s also a lot of breweries, especially small ones in Frankonia. And if you count wineries and restaurants there&amp;#x27;s some really old ones. Staffelter Hof is usually mentioned as the oldest one (862).&lt;p&gt;Pretty sure it&amp;#x27;s the same in most European countries. My guess would be the oldest ones are located in Italy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees</title><url>https://dsfantiquejewelry.com/blogs/interesting-facts/the-ancient-japanese-technique-that-produces-lumber-without-cutting-trees</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ggm</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;Timber framed construction in Europe was nailless (wooden tree nails permitted) but the mortice and tenon joinery of Japan is in another league. Maybe European Gothic cathedral roofs come close, little else would.&lt;p&gt;Japan modernised in the modern era, it&amp;#x27;s industrial revolution was comparatively recent and it remained feudal far longer than Europe (Russian serfdom aside)&lt;p&gt;There are probably more continuous family heritage firms in Japan practising some art (brewing, soy sauce, woodwork, coppicing) than anywhere else. Can you name a European family concern doing the same thing continuously since before 1600? I can&amp;#x27;t name any Japanese ones but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t be surprised if there were many. Institutional enterprises like Oxford university press exist since deep time, but in Japan it would be a continuous lineage of printers continuing to use woodblock printing (maybe alongside hot type or photo typesetting)&lt;p&gt;Farming does remain in the family but European farming practices have modernised since forever.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brigandish</author><text>It’s worth remembering that adoption is much different to how we’d conceive of it in Europe. If a business wasn’t going to be continued by the offspring then a new business owner could be adopted, as an adult. That’s why there seems to be so many Japanese concerns with incredibly long lineage, but like so much else in Japan to a westerner’s eyes, it’s appearance only.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-19505088&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-19505088&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>