Aftershock of the New: Woodblock Prints of Post-Disaster Tokyo (1928–32)

I don't think it was lost. There are still people recarving the classics today. But at the hight of the craft, woodblock printing was being used for books, and flyers, and posters, and labels on good etc. there was a very high volume of low skill work that still got a little pay. This meant that the masters could have been working since childhood refining their craft. By The time of these images, there are mechanical presses doing all the non-art printing work. Also Japanese artist were aware of and participating in the global shifts in interests and ideas in art. Compared to some print of some beautiful maiko doing her make up with every stand of hair carefully cut into the block, I would say these images are more true to life. They convey the experience of being in those places at those times.

I think that they are as crude and abstract as their creators wanted them to be.

This is a new take on art, Fukagawa Garbage Incinerator would not have been a topic of Ukiyo-e

it's in TFA:

"The artists who contributed to the series were part of the sōsaku hanga (creative print) movement, which brought new techniques and aesthetic vocabularies to the Japanese woodblock."

There is a strong cultural/religious preference in Japan for newness and renewal. For example, the most sacred Shinto temple, the Ise Shrine, is ritually dismantled and rebuilt from scratch every twenty years.

You might find this interesting:

https://patrickcollison.com/fast

Lack of planning laws, and more generally a government that's trusted and allowed to pay what stuff costs, without endless reviews and standards and low-bid rules that end up costing far more than they save.