Schools and Development of Japanese Natural Farming and Organic Agriculture
– Foodthink Says –
From Masanobu Fukuoka to Akifumi Kimura, from Natural Farming to Shumei Natural Farming, and adding a number of Japanese teachers active in the organic scene on the mainland, the influence of Japanese organic agricultural thought and its various schools on mainland counterparts has been considerable. But what are the similarities and differences among Japan’s different farming schools? And what is the developmental trajectory of Japanese organic agriculture?
Jian Jiaying, a Taiwanese woman, has studied and practised organic agriculture in Japan for many years and spent two years systematically studying at Oni Farm, the headquarters of MOA Natural Farming. We invited her to write this explainer for Foodthink readers, to help front-line farmers better understand and apply these farming methods.
– This is Foodthink’s 015th post –
Schools and Development of Japanese Natural Farming and Organic Agriculture
Foodthink
Author
Jian Jiaying
Coordinator for the Chinese-speaking region of the Japan Food Communications Alliance. Born in Taiwan in 1984. Since 2011, while studying and practising Natural Farming in Japan, she has written articles on Japanese agriculture, food, the environment, and local revitalisation. She has translated books including Fresh Food Flash Sale – The Complete Record of the Japan Food Communications Challenge.
1
Chemical Agriculture Replaced Organic Agriculture Only a Few Decades Ago
It is generally accepted that human agricultural civilisation began ten thousand years ago, when the great civilisations of the world independently gave rise to farming and animal husbandry. Throughout the long history of agriculture, the vast majority of practice was what we would now call “organic cultivation” (simply because no chemical fertilisers or pesticides existed), while the chemical agriculture we take for granted – the routine use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides – appeared relatively late: in 1840. The German chemist Justus Freiherr von Liebig, later celebrated as the “Father of the Fertiliser Industry”, published Applied Chemistry in Agriculture and Physiology, demonstrating that crops could grow on inorganic nutrients and thereby establishing the scientific basis for chemical fertiliser use. (This article is not concerned with debating the merits and demerits of chemical agriculture; Liebig’s discovery undeniably alleviated global hunger and was a great contribution.)
When, then, did chemical agriculture begin in Japan? More than 120 years ago, in the Meiji era, chemical fertilisers were introduced to the country. During the Meiji and Taishō periods, under the government’s planned promotion, Japan imported considerable quantities of Western-made pesticides, including nicotine sulphate, hydrogen cyanide, potassium arsenite insecticides, and Bordeaux mixture – all among the first chemical pesticides ever applied to Japanese soil. But pesticides came to be widely used in rural areas only around the early Shōwa period (the 1930s).
After the Second World War, amid food shortages, pesticides and chemical fertilisers became the saviour for boosting agricultural productivity. Because Japanese soil is volcanic ash soil (andōsu), which is not only acidic but also poor in fertiliser retention, the government invested heavily in phosphate fertilisers and lime to improve the soil and encouraged farmers to use chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Coupled with the establishment of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives and the gradual development of transportation systems and wholesale markets, this gave rise to the modern model of mass production and mass distribution that we are familiar with.
2
Pioneers of “Natural Farming”: Shigeichi Okada and Masanobu Fukuoka
In an era that pursued yields above all and regarded chemical agriculture as the orthodox path, two people raised objections at an early stage. They were Shigeichi Okada, the progenitor of both Shumei Natural Farming and MOA Natural Farming, and Masanobu Fukuoka, whom many Natural Farming practitioners revere as a spiritual mentor thanks to The One-Straw Revolution.
Left: Shigeichi Okada; Right: Masanobu Fukuoka
In 1882, Shigeichi Okada was born in Asakusa, Tokyo. As a child he was frail and frequently ill, suffering greatly from the harmful effects of medicine. As an adult, he gradually became aware that the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilisers could only guarantee production for a short time, and that in the long term it would likely pollute and weaken the soil, ultimately affecting human health. He devoted himself to studying cultivation methods without pesticides or fertilisers. In 1948, Okada published his paper Cultivation Without Fertiliser, and in 1950 he collectively termed the approach “Natural Farming,” using Hakone and Izu as bases before gradually expanding it nationwide.
In 1913, Masanobu Fukuoka was born in Iyo City, Ehime Prefecture. With a background similar to Okada’s, Fukuoka nearly died of acute pneumonia in his youth, an experience that led him to the realisation that “all things are nothing” and a determination to return home and take up farming. Drawing on Laozi’s concept of wu-wei (non-action) and the Eastern “philosophy of chaos,” he developed “wu-wei agriculture” – the Natural Farming we know as “no tillage, no fertilisers, no pesticides, no weeding.” In 1958, Fukuoka self-published Farmhouse Night Talks, regarded as the origin of his “philosophy of non-being.” Twenty years later, The One-Straw Revolution was published, representing the culmination of Fukuoka’s philosophical thought.
Shigeichi Okada and Masanobu Fukuoka were, if not farmers, more like thinkers, philosophers, and religious figures. Most Japanese Natural Farming practitioners who followed inherited their approaches from these two.
3
Organic Agriculture: Originating in the 1960s as a Response to Environmental Pollution
If Natural Farming originated from philosophy and faith, with a leaning toward transcendent enlightenment, then organic agriculture is a worldly form of resistance against environmental pollution. In the 1960s, problems of pesticide residues in Japanese food, pesticide poisoning, pest and disease overpopulation, nitrate residues, and environmental pollution emerged one after another. On top of this, books such as Sir Albert Howard’s An Agricultural Testament, Jerome Irving Rodale’s Pay Dirt: Farming and Gardening with Composts, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring were successively published in Japan in the 1970s, sounding the alarm. In 1979, Complex Pollution by Japanese social-issue novelist and playwright Sawako Yonekichi was published. The book pointed out that modern society, with its overuse of synthetic detergents, chemical fertilisers and herbicides, and food additives, is undoubtedly a massive human-body laboratory, and its impact on future generations is likely incalculable. This book inspired many people to take up natural/organic agriculture and remains a highly regarded classic among Japanese readers to this day.
An Agricultural Testament and Silent Spring have also been published on the mainland.
The central figure driving Japanese organic agriculture was Teruo Ichiraku, a former permanent director of the Rural Central Bank of Japan. Inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka, Dr Yoshiaki Yanase who advocated pesticide-free cultivation, Dr Shun’ichi Wakatsuki who established rural medicine, and others, Ichiraku co-founded the Japan Organic Agriculture Research Society in 1971 with like-minded individuals. Its main principles are as follows:
“Current farming methods have left those engaged in agriculture plagued by illness and injury, while consumers suffer the harm of toxins. The overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, and the application of livestock excreta, not only kill various organisms but also pollute rivers and the ocean, destroying the environment. Farmland, deprived of humus, is rapidly losing its fertility. This is not merely a question of environmental pollution but a crisis of survival for humanity……(abridged)……Those engaged in agriculture should be driven by a sense of mission to ensure a healthy diet for the nation and to protect the environment, restoring agriculture to what it ought to be. For farmers and the general public alike, agriculture is by no means merely an industry – it is something that transcends the economic sphere and is of far greater worth.”
As can be seen, “organic” is not merely a method of cultivation; more importantly, it is about establishing a connection between human society and the natural environment.
4
A Brief Introduction to the Evolution and Schools of Natural Farming
As a distinctive branch of organic agriculture, Japanese Natural Farming has many different schools. To understand them clearly, one must begin with Shigeichi Okada’s ‘World Salvation Religion.’
In addition to ‘Natural Farming,’ Shigeichi Okada also promoted “purification therapy” and ‘art and cultural activities,’ collectively known as the ‘Three Great Undertakings.’ He hoped to establish ‘a terrestrial paradise free from poverty, illness, and strife,’ and in 1935 founded the “World Salvation Religion” (originally called the “Great Japan Kannon Society”), which currently has approximately 600,000 members.
After Okada’s death, Michiko Koyama, who had been spreading the faith in the Kansai region, founded the ‘Shinji Shumeikai,’ separating from the ‘World Salvation Religion.’ The original “World Salvation Religion” then divided into three sects: ‘Light of the East,’ ‘Eye of Izu,’ and ‘Light of the Lord.’ All three sects revere Okada as their religious founder and carry forward the Three Great Undertakings, but their approaches to Natural Farming diverged because their successors took different paths.
Broadly speaking, whichever sect one considers, they have largely inherited Shigeichi Okada’s original philosophy: harnessing the soil’s inherent power, following nature, obeying nature, using grass-based compost made from fallen leaves and dried grass, and promoting cultivation practices such as home seed-saving and continuous cropping (i.e. growing the same crop twice in succession).
Among these, Shumei Natural Farming is the orthodox school that adheres most strictly to the original practices. It requires that no external inputs be used wherever possible, prohibits plastic mulch, insists on home seed-saving, and its methods come closest to what we currently recognise as Natural Farming.
An introduction to Shumei Natural Farming. Image source: Shumei website.
“Light of the East”‘s ‘MOA Natural Farming,’ as well as “Eye of Izu”‘s Natural Farming, advocate adapting to circumstances as appropriate. MOA in principle does not use livestock manure, but taking into account social conditions, soil state, and crop type, it may use fully composted livestock manure where appropriate; at the same time, they do not shun materials such as black plastic mulch and plastic sheeting. “Eye of Izu”‘s Natural Farming promotes the use of EM (Effective Microorganisms) (Editor’s note: EM stands for effective microorganisms, i.e. a mixed culture of beneficial microorganisms). Meanwhile, both schools are committed to scientific research and empirical validation of Natural Farming. MOA established “Dainihon Farm” in Izu-no-Kuni City, Shizuoka Prefecture; Eye of Izu built the “International Research and Development Centre for Natural Farming” in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture – the latter issues its own bred Natural Farming seeds on a regular annual basis and is an important seed source for Natural Farming and organic agriculture practitioners nationwide.
The MOA farm in Oami, Izu, recruits trainees every year to systematically study the MOA Natural Farming system. Image source: online.
The author of this article, Jian Jiaying (left), previously completed a training programme at MOA Oami Farm. This summer, she accompanied Foodthink and Wang Xin, a fellow farmer from Beijing (right), back to this familiar ground. Photography by Foodthink.
Although membership was not compulsory and many of the trainees and staff were non-believers, Okada-style Natural Farming remained centred on its believers overall. Due to differing doctrines, interaction between the various schools was not frequent. More than a decade ago, Light of the East and Eye of Izu once had the idea of organisational integration through agriculture, but it ultimately came to nothing.
Although Masanobu Fukuoka did not establish a religion in the way Shigeichi Okada did, the Natural Farming practices he spent 40 years establishing – the four principles of ‘no tillage, no pesticides, no fertilisers, no weeding,’ minimal watering, continuous no-till direct seeding of rice and wheat (a cultivation method that bypasses seedling-raising and transplanting), and clay seed balls containing multiple seed varieties – have become a faith for many people and are acclaimed as ‘the Farming of God.’ (Editor’s note: The clay seed ball is a unique sowing method invented by Masanobu Fukuoka, in which plant seeds are mixed into soil, formed into a ball, and then tossed into the field, protecting the directly sown seeds from being pecked by birds.)
Masanobu Fukuoka’s “Eden Garden” project. Image source: online.
Although many people revere Masanobu Fukuoka, perhaps because his spiritual attainment has transcended that of ordinary people, his cultivation method is difficult to replicate, and successful examples of Fukuoka-style Natural Farming are rare in Japan. The true orthodox successor might well be Fukuoka Daiki, Masanobu Fukuoka’s grandson, who inherited the citrus grove his grandfather had cultivated and continues to practise Natural Farming in Iyo City, Ehime Prefecture. Last year, Iyo City also opened a Masanobu Fukuoka Memorial Hall, exhibiting his manuscripts and personal belongings.
Also worth mentioning are Yuichi Kawaguchi of “Natural Farming” and Akifumi Kimura of ‘Natural Cultivation.’ The latter has become an idol for many organic farmers on the mainland thanks to the story of the “Miracle Apple” in In This Life, You Should At Least Be a Fool Once.
Yuichi Kawaguchi practised chemical agriculture for over 20 years until pesticides and herbicides had damaged his health. He came across The One-Straw Revolution by chance and resolved to challenge ‘wu-wei farming.’ Initially he tried to follow Fukuoka’s approach, but found that direct seeding yielded virtually no rice harvest, so he switched to raising seedlings. Through years of trial and error, he gradually established three principles: ‘no tillage, no pesticides or fertilisers, and not treating grass and insects as enemies,’ arguing that Natural Farming is not “abandonment” but ‘cultivation,’ requiring a degree of human intervention. Yuichi Kawaguchi has not only published several books on Natural Farming but also attracts over 400 people each year to train at the “Akomu Natural Farming Base” on the border of Nara and Mie Prefectures, and ‘Natural Farming Schools’ teaching the Kawaguchi method exist in various regions.
Yuichi Kawaguchi at his farm. Image source: online.
Akifumi Kimura became a sensation thanks to In This Life, You Should At Least Be a Fool Once – the story of waiting eleven years for his apple trees to finally flower and bear fruit moved millions. The catalyst for Kimura’s change in cultivation method was also reading The One-Straw Revolution. Kimura-style Natural Cultivation likewise emphasises soil development and ecological balance; it uses no pesticides or fertilisers but still involves cultivation management, for example intercropping with green manure such as legumes and wheat, to ensure the viability of commercial production. Currently, organisations studying Kimura-style Natural Cultivation exist in Hokkaido, Okayama, Ishikawa and elsewhere. In Ishikawa Prefecture, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Division of Tsuruga City established a “Natural Cultivation Promotion Section” in 2015, working with the Tsuruga Agricultural Cooperative to promote Kimura-style Natural Cultivation. This is a very rare example within the official and agricultural cooperative systems, where chemical cultivation is the mainstream. Last year, Suginami Ward in Tokyo even set up a ‘Tsuruga Broadcast Bureau,’ selling Natural Cultivation produce from Tsuruga.
Akifumi Kimura, In This Life, You Should At Least Be a Fool Once. Image source: online.
Distinct from the Okada and Fukuoka schools, another approach that has quietly gained momentum in recent years is the “Carbon Cycle Farming” founded by Brazilian-born Japanese immigrant Yukimi Hayashi, abbreviated as Carbon Cycle Farming. The debate between organic and Natural Farming often centres on the use of fertilisers, but a moment’s attention reveals that the entire natural world thrives without any fertiliser. Hayashi therefore argues that one should recreate forest ecosystems in the field; excessive nitrogen input only invites soil decomposition, and the right amount of carbon materials should be introduced to increase microorganisms and transform the soil into a fermentation-type soil. Those currently promoting Carbon Cycle Farming include Yuji Shiro, a former professor of natural sciences at Hiroshima University now living in Shizuoka Prefecture, and Ikeshi, a company based in Tokyo and Kanagawa that runs Carbon Cycle Farming restaurants and provides vegetable home-delivery services.
5
“Organic” and “Natural”: Different Names, Shared Essence
Since the Organic JAS Act (laws and regulations related to the standardisation of agricultural and forestry products) was established in 2001, “organic agriculture” has come to mean cultivation that follows official organic standards; whereas the “Natural Farming” schools are numerous, each operating independently, with no unified formal definition. But whichever farming method one practises, truly successful farmers share striking commonalities: they must have a thorough understanding of their surrounding ecosystem and soil, be adept at observing crops and the natural environment, maintain rich biodiversity, and allow crops and nature to coexist harmoniously, reaching the realm of ‘the unity of heaven and humanity.’
The names and concepts of farming methods are determined by humans; but for nature, it makes no difference which method you use. As long as you follow the way of nature, given time, nature will surely respond with benevolence.
– Further Reading –
Schools and Development of Japanese Natural Farming and Organic Agriculture
Foodthink Japan, Part One: Nakanado Farm — The “Iron Spine” of Japan’s Mountain Dairy Farmers
Foodthink Japan, Part Two: The “Miracle Cow” and Cattle Farmers of the Ama Divers’ Hometown
Foodthink Japan, Part Three: Japanese Permaculture — A Lifestyle That Does Not Exploit Humanity and Nature
Liu Gang of “Little Willow Farm”: Precision Management of an Organic Vegetable CSA Farm
The Right Way to Tackle Smog? Support Ecological Agriculture!
Rooted in the Soil, Free as a Bird — A New Year’s Vision for Youth Returning Home
How Do Delicious Strawberries Come to Be? Crazy Farmer Wang Xin’s Field Secrets
“Crazy Farmer” Wang Xin: Strawberries Taste Good, All Thanks to Technology | Farmer Stories Collection
New Directions in Seed Protection: Breaking Free from Corporate Consolidation, Rekindling Public Value (Part 1)
Future World Gourmet Guide (Part 1)
Future World Gourmet Guide (Part 2)
American-Style Mega-Farm “Invasion” of Britain Sparks Controversy
What Are the Benefits of Organic Agriculture? Can It Feed Us?
New Research Finds: China’s Organic Agriculture Generates 2 Billion Yuan in Annual Environmental Benefits
After Slow Food, Slow Thinking: A Voice for Farmers or a Platform for Commercial Capital?
Why Eat Slow? They Gave These Answers at the Slow Food Congress