I loved some of this book (all of the insights into life in the late Edo period). Beautifully documented in a spare and thoughtful way that allows the reader to imagine what daily life must surely have been like at that time. The theme of how to draw inspiration from those insights in order to guide a "green lifestyle" today was...not as much my cup of tea. I'm just as big a fan of a green lifestyle as the next crunchy granola girl, so I'm not sure why this wasn't a home run for me. Perhaps it was because it felt like the book was trying to do two things at once, and I was enjoying the Edo insights so much that I just really wanted more and more of that. Worth checking out if you like to learn deeply about what daily life was like in past time periods.

Thanks to NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press for this digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

A fantastic book that divides up the analysis of country, samurai, and urban life in Edo-era Japan. Simple illustration help show features of daily life. I felt like this would make a great read before visiting Japan and traditional villages. A great read and valuable reference. A must-read for any Japanophile or person interested in well-established sustainable living ideas.

The diagrams in the book were quite good, but the writing on it was too faint for me to read easily in the copy on the app. I was unable to make sufficient progress before the book was archived.
The concept is quite unique, and the presentation was interesting. I was unable to read it all the through and therefore cannot provide a full length review. This will be fascinating for history buffs.

A lovely and unique little book on redefining what's enough and crafting a more sustainable society, complete with illustrations.

An absorbing insight into Japanese history and culture. Just Enough aquaints the reader with design and harmony of the Japanese and their way of life. Delightful sketches accompany this book.

4 stars for an insightful and informative read!

This was a very informative and interesting read about sustainability, with plenty of cultural, historical, and traditional references to the late Edo period. I found the many drawn sketches throughout to be very supportive and helpful to the content. There is a great lesson here on minimalism and innovation with simplistic and purposeful living.

Thanks to NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press for providing a digital ARC!

A beautifully illustrated and informative book. It’s one part history book, one part practical guidance and one part calming discourse for life on an increasingly beleaguered planet. I found the book calming and reassuring just to read, so I can’t wait to bring some of those conditions into existence in my living space either with the practical information I’ve garnered from the book. Just Enough is a must read for any fans of history, fans of Japanese culture or anyone who wonders where the heck we are going and how we might be able to change our brutal disconnection from nature. 10/10.

This was a wonderful informative read.I found the illustrations to be wonderful and the text and the concept of the Japanese school of minimalist life style is one we can all learn& benefit from.#netgalley #stonebridgepress.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this book. This is an in-depth, immersive, heavily diagramed guide to life in ancient Japan and the lessons we can learn and adapt to present day life. The book is broken into 3 sections: field and forest, the sustainable city, and a life of restraint and is told through stories from a contemporary point of view. It is an interesting look into a Japanese way of life.

I great look into sustainability and its past history in Japan. It is mixed with storytelling and helpful facts.

This book does exactly what it claims; it teaches lessons on sustainability that can be derived from past and present Japan.

As a lover of all things Japanese, I did enjoy facts and illustrations contained in this book. The illustrations and sketches definitely cleared made some concepts easier to understand. However, due to the nature of the information, the writing can seem a bit dry at times.

Fellow Japan-lovers, have at it!

Just Enough is an account of the daily lives of Japanese people 200 years ago. How they managed their lives with little resources and little waste. Living in harmony with the natural world around them.
Forbidden to chop down trees, they could only use the small twigs and branches that fell in a storm. To have enough wood for heating and cooking for everyone they had to create an economical stove called a kamado.

The beauty and brilliance in their daily lives are amazing to read about. With such attention to detail in every aspect of the day, they found a way to reuse everything. A fascinating read for historians, people learning about sustainable living, and Japanophiles, this book is a must for library collections.

The final version may be so great, I reviewed the Netgalley version, it has the potential to be great but the pencil like drawings take away from the book and are a bit hard to read. I would definitely like to reread the completed version.

This is a wonderfully done book the both highlights the importance of sustainability as well as creating a calming mind space as you read.

Edo, the final period of a traditional Japan, roughly 250 years from 1603, was a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate and could teach us a lot about sustainability and circular economy.
Loved the scribbles in the margins, loved the pencil drawings. And hand-written captions.
Should we or rather would we be able to go back to a rigid class society in order to achieve what people in the Edo period achieved when it comes to sustainability and low ecologic footprint?
While my mind is swirling with the mass of Japanese terms (thanks for the index at the end of the book!), the simple beauty of house spaces cannot fail to impress. And while I marvel at the the Edo people’s ingenuity, the society aspects of this regime are rather shocking, e.g. exploitation of the peasant class or widely accepted infanticide.
A clever twist is to anchor every chapter to a person: a farmer, a carpenter, a samurai. Each chapter ends with “what we can learn from this”.

A fascinating, richly illustrated and informative insight into this highly structured and regulated exotic world.

'Just Enough' by Azby Brown examines how Japan's past relationships with community and land can teach us about how our relationship with the natural world can thrive. Complimented by beautifully detailed drawings this book takes us through the imaginary lives of inhabitents of Edo Japan.

This book was so relaxing to read, jumping into a detalied look of the daily life of these different communities was interesting for sure, but I mostly appreciated it from a historical perspective. Consume any type of Japanese media and sooner or later you will come across something set in the Tokugawa Era. Rather than pick up a textbook about the key figures and dates of the era I would recommend this book to understand the lives of the characters in a way that a Japanese person consuming such media would already know.

As to the idea that this shows us a more sustainable way of life: that is true, although of course there are many things that we wouldn't want to copy now. At times this book is, if anything, too detailed about the exact ways people lived within their environment which is why I enjoyed it more as a history text than anything else.

Just Enough by Azby Brown I am a “Japanophile” and enjoyed this book very much. I worked for Japanese companies for 30 years and my wife and I lived in Tokyo for three years. During our time living in Japan, we twice went to historic villages ( think Williamsburg Va.). How I wish I would have had this book back then. The intent of this book is to learn from how economic the Japanese were in their living both in the country as well as in Edo (Tokyo) two hundred years ago. Even today, the people of Japan are far more focused on living without excess compared to the West. Perhaps two thirds of this book is handwritten with incredible drawings illustrating and explaining all kinds of topics from the layout of a farm, the design of the toilet and where visitors who briefly stopped by were entertained. The same type of illustrations and explanation are provided for a large city like Tokyo. For instance, how the streets were configured as well as the buildings. This is a book I shall buy so that ideally now that Covid is passing I might go back to Japan on holiday. Now I shall be better informed on these museum villages. For those who have not been to Japan nor even a desire to go, this still might be an interesting read. Thank you, Mr. Brown and Stone Bridge Press for publishing this book.

I picked this up because I have a near obsession with Japan especially pre Taisho and Westernization. I find so much of it fascinating and beautiful, I was excited to read about sustainable living practices from that time and culture that I can implement in my life.

I had an interesting conversation with my Dad about cascade watering, since the way he set up his orchard with rice paddie fields in mind.

I really loved all of the hand drawn illustrations throughout. They really enhanced the information being told, even if your don't know the background like I do they paint great visual context. The handwriting was a bit hard to read, but not completely illegible.

I enjoyed the chart on building materials and their virtues, as someone who is very DIY and a crafter I liked seeing the breakdown.

We've planted fruit trees, use natural pest control, and let gravity aid in watering out plants, and bamboo everything! I've also grown up with the concept of having a spiritual center to the house without having the words to articulate it.

Embrace cottage industries! I loved that message.

I've gotten so many good ideas from this book, and I hope to implement more of them into our homestead. I hope that I can teach some of these concepts to other family and friends too. Spreading information and improving literacy is really the best way to make a change that can build on itself.

Thank you NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review!

The Japanese have over centuries mastered the essence of sustainability and if that's something that interests you in this ever-cluttered world, then this book is definitely for you!

I remember reading the 2nd Edition, so I needed to check out the latest update. I’m glad I did because this newer version gives me just as much to think about as the last, but now with the perspective of the pandemic in mind, which made all of us stop and live in our homes, be still in our homes, and wonder, “really, WHY do I have so many things? Is it sustainable or just aspirational?” This book helps you find the answer faster than you would expect