[Ads-l] mottainai - 1901, 1994 or 1995

[Barretts Mail]

On the page for Goal 6 of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/#c4e6bfd614e9baf3c <http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/#c4e6bfd614e9baf3c>) is a related video titled "Mottainai Waste Facts & Figures” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNaOE2zYnFI <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNaOE2zYnFI>).

Not on Wiktionary or the online Oxford Dictionaries, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai>) says, "Mottainai (もったいない, [mottainai]) is a Japanese term conveying a sense of regret concerning waste,” and traces the word to the 13th century as a Buddhist term with Shinto flavoring.

Google has about 197 raw hits for the word, though Googling for the word under news yields a lot more, including usage in English, French, Indonesian, Japanese and Vietnamese. 

1. The earliest example I find of this word on Google Books is November 1901:

The American Diary of a Japanese Girl
p. 72 in
Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3065173;view=1up;seq=8 <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3065173;view=1up;seq=8>

The author does not seem to be provided there (I did not look carefully), but is provided as Yone Noguchi on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Diary_of_a_Japanese_Girl <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Diary_of_a_Japanese_Girl>).

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Goodness, mottainai!
—— 

2. The gap to the next usage is so many decades that the first usage is probably not related, in English, to subsequent usage. 

In the 1970s, it appears there are a couple of hits on Google Books, but the dates are not trustworthy:
Monumenta Nipponica (http://bit.ly/2oX3STQ <http://bit.ly/2oX3STQ>)
The Sony Vision (http://bit.ly/2oX9MEf <http://bit.ly/2oX9MEf>)
Young East (http://bit.ly/2pipWuw <http://bit.ly/2pipWuw>)
American Import Export Bulletin (http://bit.ly/2qhEY54 <http://bit.ly/2qhEY54>)


3. In 1994 or 1995, it seems that a book titled “Mottainai” or “Mottainai (Waste Not, Want Not) was published (http://bit.ly/2ptBYQh <http://bit.ly/2ptBYQh>, http://amzn.to/2oUo4oj <http://amzn.to/2oUo4oj>).

4. There are a small number of hits over the next decade. A use by a notable designer:

In 2006, "One Life, One Thread, and One Piece of Cloth: The Work of Issey Miyake" by Issey Miyake won a prize (https://www.scribd.com/document/45553588/The-2006-Kyoto-Prize-Commemorative-Lectures <https://www.scribd.com/document/45553588/The-2006-Kyoto-Prize-Commemorative-Lectures>). The document can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/2pKqXxc <http://bit.ly/2pKqXxc>. 

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In the past, people used to handle their things with the greatest care, stitching their worn-out socks and everything else in the spirit of mottainai, or “waste not, want not.”
——

5. 2008
Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment (http://bit.ly/2pKs4Na <http://bit.ly/2pKs4Na>)
by Michael Yahgulanaas
p. 10

In Japan I learned the Buddhist word _mottainai_. It embraces the practice of not wasting resources and of using them with respect and gratitude. I have been sharing that word, _mottainai_, wherever I go because I think it’s a beautiful word, and it also captures in one term the “three Rs” that environmentalists have been campaigning on for a number of years: reduce, reuse, and recycle. I am seeking to make _mottainai_ a global campaign, adding one more “R” suggested by Klaus Töpfer, the head of the United Nations Environment Program: repair” resources where necessary.

6. 2008 is also the year Wikipedia says that Wangari Maathai introduced the word _mottainai_ as a slogan at the UN. She published a book in 2009
Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (http://bit.ly/2qhH5Wy <http://bit.ly/2qhH5Wy>)
p. 107

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Inspired by my experience in Japan, the Green Belt Movement launched a mottainai campaign in Kenya intensifying our efforts to convince the government to ban production of thin plastic bags as a growing number of nations across the world have done….
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Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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