Fukuoka Style Farms in Japan

Hi Larry, thank you for coming out to the forums, and thank you so much for all your work in bringing Fukuoka-style natural farming into the English speaking world.

I'm not sure if you have continued to be involved in the natural farming movement in Japan much, but I was wondering if you are aware of any Japanese natural farmers still in practice who follow Fukuoka's methods and philosophy closely, or was Fukuoka's orchard really a one time phenomenon?

I know there are many natural farmers in Japan now, but so many of them are more Kawaguchi style, or EMS microorganism "natural farming" or just a member of one of many other organizations that refers to themselves as "natural farming". After reading Wara Ippon, I searched for a place in Japan doing work like Fukuoka's where I could learn, and after much fruitful searching ended up spending some time working at an ecovillage in Japan that professes to follow "shizennouhou," but their idea of natural farming was little more than your standard organic farming with lots of EMS usage. When I asked them about their thoughts on Fukuoka, most of them felt that he had a nice idea and had been a big influence, but that his work had been mostly a failed experiment and that their form of "natural farming" was much more successful and realistic.

So, to expand my question, do you still see straight Fukuoka-style shizennou as a valid method of farming now, or would you also say that it has been surpassed by these other movements and should be seen more as a source of inspiration than a practical idea?

Hey Andrew, Shizen noo-hoo in Japanese simply means natural farming. For me, creating the special microbial application the group you mentioned and using it to get better yields is the same old thing. On one level, industrial farming and organic farming are the same since they both proceed from the basic question, "How can I get what I want from nature." The industrial guys think using chemicals is best while the organic farmers think that in the long run using organic techniques is better. When that fellow said that they eventually found that using their organic technique worked better for them I think it was because they are limited in their capacity to let go. Fukuoka approached it from a completely different perspective. He said that a farmer should first ask the question, "What does the land need." In most cases the land has been damaged in some way so the early stages involve rehabilitation. "Simply serve nature and all is well" is another way of saying it. The idea is to form a partnership with nature and letting nature take the lead. Using this point of view Fukuoka-san got yields of rice equal to and greater than the most productive farms in Japan. That's without using chemicals or machinery, creating no pollution and the soil improved in fertility with each year. He also shipped out 200,000 lbs. of Mandarine oranges each year. That's without any special microbial booster. That sounds like tinkering to me. It's saying, "Humans know better...we can improve upon nature."

I haven't been back to Japan since 1975 so I am a little out of touch with what is going on there. Several people who were students at his farm while I was there are practicing what they learned from Sensei, but they are not interested in giving tours or anything like that. Sorry I can't be of help there.

Thank you for the thoughtful response Larry.
I've also found that many farmers seem unwilling to let go of their ideas of typical organic farming and accept Fukuoka's teachings or permaculture concepts as anything more than just an "interesting idea." The lack of other existing successful Fukuoka-esque farms doesn't help either.
If I do find any particularly inspiring examples in my further explorations of Japan I'll make sure to update you on them.

Hi Andrew,

There appears to be quite a lot of natural farming activity here in Fukuoka prefecture (co-incidence?)

http://itoaguri.jp/agriculture/

I'm going to go visit a few of these people once it warms up a bit.

Also this guy:

http://www.oishi-farm.com/oishifarm.html

...

further up North, on Izu peninsula, this couple would be well worth looking into:

http://shikigami.net/about_english.html

Thanks for the ideas Matt!

I actually spent a week with Dion last fall at Shikigami - they're doing some amazing stuff out there.

Do you happen to keep any sort of blog? I'd love to hear what your experiences are like at the other two farms you linked too.

I've found it can be hard to tell from website exactly what kind of natural farming a farm subscribes to. For example, this farm:
http://ureshipa.com/about/about_ureshipa.htm
It's apparently a really great place and they are really into their natural farming ethic, but according to Dion they are members of this natural farming network where you basically pay and buy certain products in order to be a natural farm. It sounds like there are a lot of farms in this network as well, but the idea of using certain "natural farming" techniques and certain "natural farming" products seems to be going against the whole philosophy of Fukuoka's natural farming in the first place.

Hi Andrew,

I don't keep a blog, but i just PM'd you my contact details, and i'd be very happy to keep in touch.

The 'natural farming network' you're talking about sounds like it might be "Sekai Kyusei Kyo", it's actually something of a 'religion':

http://www.izunome.jp/en/izunome/

I dunno much, i just stick to myself and have good neighbours, but i have been reading up on a few things lately, and will maybe visit a few places this year.

I'll try to dig out the videos i found about this guy here in Itoshima, Fukuoka. From what i saw, he was just a salaryman that decided to give that all up and do his natural farm. It didn't look particularly like he was affiliated with any organisation like that.

But yeah, i'm def gonna try to see a few places this year, so please do keep in touch.

Hey guys,
I've been living in Japan for a bit now and have also been on a search for Fukuoka inspired farms - but have yet to find any. I did a bit of Wwoofing some years back and we searched out and visited those farms that practiced natural farming (none of the farms in the Japan WWOOF directory even mentioned Fukuoka-san). We did find some nice farms but the methods and principles weren't quite what we were looking for.

I've been growing Fukuoka's Happy Hill rice for four years ago and have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate his methods. After the first two years I felt that I had learned enough to possibly have a chance of success but each year some random problem would arise and wipe out the crop. I would agree that the few Japanese who know of Fukuoka-san believe that his methods are too difficult to replicate and prefer to follow Kawaguchi-san.

There is a farmer near Fukuoka city, Takao Furuno, who has developed a very effective, permaculture-like system of duck, fish, and rice farming. Although he uses machines his methods are duplicable without. His runs a very successful farming business and his ideas have spread into parts of Asia.

Also, this film looks like it will be worth watching http://finalstraw.sociecity.com/index.html

So excited about this film. Thanks for sharing!

hi guys,
I am looking the same as you 3 years ago.. I am planning a trip to Japan in order to practice natural agriculture .. Do you know if there are heirs faithful to fukuoka agriculture in Japan nowadays? I will be very grateful if you share your experience and knowledge whit me.

Regards.

Yet another person in search of the same. Heading to Japan this summer on pilgrimage through the Kumano Kodo and am in search of anyone keeping the "work" going that Fukuoka-san started.

Any additional direction pointing would be appreciated.

Hi everybody, I´m writing from Chile. I´m part of a group of international filmmakers who will take on the quest of capturing communities of natural farmers around the world as part of a series. The obvious starting point for us is the Master Masanobu Fukuoka and the Ehime Prefecture.

Our director of photography is Japanese and lives in Tokyo. We would like to know the natural farmers in the region and interview them. We are still at the pre-production stage gathering as much information possible. It´ll be of great help to know active communities in southern Japan (and in the entire country) doing natural farming. For us is not important that these communities are not following the very same steps of Fukuoka-san, what we are looking for are people and communities that are implementing the essence of Masanobu Fukuoka´s teachings.

We are opened to your kind suggestions.

Thank you

Ashi Taka wrote:Hi everybody, I´m writing from Chile. I´m part of a group of international filmmakers who will take on the quest of capturing communities of natural farmers around the world as part of a series. The obvious starting point for us is the Master Masanobu Fukuoka and the Ehime Prefecture.

Our director of photography is Japanese and lives in Tokyo. We would like to know the natural farmers in the region and interview them. We are still at the pre-production stage gathering as much information possible. It´ll be of great help to know active communities in southern Japan (and in the entire country) doing natural farming. For us is not important that these communities are not following the very same steps of Fukuoka-san, what we are looking for are people and communities that are implementing the essence of Masanobu Fukuoka´s teachings.

We are opened to your kind suggestions.

Thank you

It may be easier to find more people following Fukuoka's spirit in Hokkaido rather than Honshu or the southern part of the country, it seems from what I have read that Hokkaido is more relaxed when it comes to the strict adherence to convention which is the biggest impediment to innovation in Japan. Trying to disrupt or change the way of doing things is generally seen as bad/wrong/antisocial in Japan. I think Fukuoka was a little frustrated with the way that food was labeled as "natural" and people just accepted that without thinking about what it meant or how it was done. People can't get over their belief that rice fields need to be flooded etc., because it's the way it's always been done. It's un-Japanese to stand out by being exceptional or different, so to break out of the norm means to be a very lonely "weirdo."
I think there's an opportunity now in Hokkaido where many people are re-discovering their Ainu heritage, as Ainu stuff is becoming trendy in Japan. Ainu were driven almost entirely to cultural extinction, but they did engage in small-scale cultivation of special grain crops, contrary to what was taught about them for a long time. They were portrayed as purely hunter-gatherers, perhaps because they did not have large monoculture fields that were easily recognizable as agriculture to the Japanese settlers. I think that some of these Ainu descendants may become interested in permaculture as a reawakening of their Ainu spirit, if introduced to the idea at an opportune time. Plus Ainu culture is so trendy right now, it will make it easier to get viewers and funding.
That's my amateur Japanese enthusiast opinion for you. I wish I was fluent in the language, I'd try to talk you into taking me and my brother (he's a filmmaker) with you.