was the leading Japanese practitioner of the "
natural farming
Natural farming ( 自然農法, shizen nōhō),1975 1978 re-presentation ''The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming''. also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming", is an ec ...
" method popularized by
Masanobu Fukuoka
was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agricul ...
and farmed by this method in
Sakurai City,
Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...
for 30 years.
[''The Other Japan: Voices Beyond the Mainstream'', Suzuki, David T., Oiwa, Keibo. Fulcrum Publishing, 1999. .] He was a farmer, author, and founder of the Akame Natural Farming School, or in Japanese.
Influences
Kawaguchi was born the eldest son of a tenant farmer of many generations; unlike Fukuoka, who was from the landlord class. Kawaguchi aspired to become a painter and attended
Tennoji Art Institute, whilst continuing to work at the family's farm. His father died when Kawaguchi was only 11 years old, which meant he was forced to join the family farm. However, in 1978, after 22 years of conventional farming, he experienced severe liver damage caused by the agricultural chemical
fertilizers
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
,
herbicides
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weedkillers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page fo ...
and
pesticides
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampric ...
used on the farm.
[''Resurgence Magazine'', The Resurgence Trust, v. 198–203, p. 64, 2000.] The failure of
allopathic
Allopathic medicine, or allopathy, is an archaic term used to define science-based modern medicine. Citing: ''Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine'' (2008) and ''Mosby's Medical Dictionary'', 8th ed. (2009). There are regional variations in usage of th ...
doctors to cure him led in response to Kawaguchi discovering Fukuoka's seminal book ''
The One Straw Revolution'', studying and starting to promote both
Natural Farming
Natural farming ( 自然農法, shizen nōhō),1975 1978 re-presentation ''The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming''. also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming", is an ec ...
and
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
. He was also influenced by
Wes Jackson
Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council.
Early life and education
Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in biology from K ...
, the founder and former president of
The Land Institute
The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecolo ...
; Kawaguchi is said to be the leading representative of the second generation of Natural Farming, using a gentler, more flexible approach to Fukuoka's, in which there are no definitive rules and each application depends on the individual environment.
[
]
Natural farming
The
natural farming
Natural farming ( 自然農法, shizen nōhō),1975 1978 re-presentation ''The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming''. also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming", is an ec ...
method of Masanobu Fukuoka uses no fertilizers or chemicals and very little water, allowing crops and weeds to grow freely, requiring a minimum of human intervention. Although his work is based on Fukuoka's natural farming principles, Kawaguchi's own methods differ notably from those of Fukuoka. The divergence is expected; as the foundation of natural farming is not in a technique, but in a way of approaching nature with awareness and respect.
Kawaguchi stated the core values of natural farming as:
# Do not plow the fields
# Weeds and insects are not your enemies
# There is no need to add fertilizers
# Adjust the foods you grow based on your local climate and conditions
With these values in place, he argued, you can grow food in most places in the world without need for imported resources including fertilizers.
His own first attempts were not successful until, he said, he understood that the aim was to cultivate land as in the very early days of cultivation rather than to let it go totally wild.
Achievements
In 1991, he started Akame Natural Farming School which currently has more than 10 sites and another 5 teaching traditional medicine and around 250 students. It is one of a number of volunteer-run "no tuition" agricultural schools in Japan. Graduates from the school have further opened 44 learning sites throughout Japan, where approximately 900 people study 'Natural Farming'. Kawaguchi was at the heart of the contemporary Natural Farmers network in Japan.
Kawaguchi was the central character in the 2015 documentary film ''
Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness'', one of 25 films chosen for the Global Environmental Justice Collection used in university courses on sustainability in North America. The collection won the Buchanan Prize in 2020. In 1997, his work was featured in "Natural Farming - The World of Kawaguchi Yosikazu," a documentary at the Yamagata International Documentary Festival and shown at the 2010 International Film Festival on Organic Farming in Tokyo.
In 2008 he spoke at the 17th National Gathering of Natural Farming Practitioners along with
Manabu Sakai
is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Fuchū, Tokyo and graduate of the University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public ...
(member of House of Representatives) and representatives from the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries may refer to:
* Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Cambodia)
* Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan)
* Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Niue)
* Depar ...
, the Ministry of Environment and the Agricultural and Life Sciences Department of
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
.
Death
Kawaguchi died on 9 June 2023.
訃報 自然農の師 川口由一さん旅立つ
Bibliography
* Kawaguchi, Yoshikazu 川口由一 Taenaru Hatake ni Tachite『妙なる畑に立ちて』 (Standing in the Exquisite Garden). Shizuoka: Yasosha Publishing Co., 1990.
* Kawaguchi, Yoshikazu 川口由一 Shizen-No kara No wo Koete『自然農から 農を超えて』(From Natural Farming, Beyond Farming). Sendai: Katatumuri Publishing Co., 1993.
* Kawaguchi, Yoshikazu 川口由一 and Toriyama, Toshiko. 鳥山敏子 Shizen-No『自然農』(Natural Farming). Tokyo: Banseishobo Publishing Co., 2000.
Filmography
Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness
Patrick M. Lydon and Suhee Kang, SocieCity Films 2016.
Toshiko, Toriyama and Koizumi Shukichi, Group Gendai Inc. 1997.
* 「 人類の明日を悟る 」 (Understand the Future of Humanity) - 自然農上映会 シンポジウム 演奏 対談 - 主催・赤目自然農塾 制作・加治幸博
See also
* Organic farming
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...
* Nature Farming "Nature Farming" was established in 1936 by Mokichi Okada, the founder of the Church of World Messianity, an agricultural system originally called .
Offshoots such as the Sekai Kyusei Kyo, promoting ‘Kyusei nature farming’, and the Mokichi Okad ...
References
* Suutari, Amanda. "Hands in the Soil: Natural farming" with Kawaguchi Yoshikazu, ''Kyoto Journal'', v. 53, 2003.
* 子どもの未来と自然農 ~川口由一 自然農・子育て・家族を語る~, 川口由一 and 鳥山敏子. Publisher, 有限会社フィオーナ
External links
Akame Natural Farming School
Natural Farming homepage
in Japanese
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawaguchi, Yoshikazu
1939 births
2023 deaths
Japanese educators
Japanese environmentalists
Japanese farmers
Non-fiction environmental writers
People from Nara Prefecture