From farming to SHINDO

I once set out to become a scholar.

The world, I believed, was made of ignorance and madness, of authority and pretense, and the many problems in it would be solved once the right knowledge was found and spread by those with authority. Convinced of this, and determined to pursue society's right knowledge and reach a position of authority myself, I became a research assistant to a renowned management scholar, who was then 81.

Two years later, two realizations had taken root in me. The first was that truth essentially lies dormant in the field, in reality itself, and that the right knowledge I had wanted could only be found by experiencing that reality directly and deeply. The second was that behind the pretext of wanting to change the world as a scholar, part of me had strongly craved authority itself.

I wanted to live while sensing directly what was happening in the real world. I wanted to cast off my attachment to the ornament of authority, face reality as a participant on the ground, and live by the truths I perceived myself. I felt this strongly. Before long I left my job and began searching for a new way to live.

To bring what I say and what I do into line. To avoid being swept along by the currents of the age, to look again at the spiritual core that is my axis, and to live more freely and purely in pursuit of what is essential. And in doing so, to sharpen every sense and ability I was born with as a human being, and to explore what it means to be a more whole person. What kind of work could hold all of that?

About a year into living with that question, I encountered farming. Over the following year I visited more than 30 natural and organic farms across Japan, and the last one I visited — Munokai Natural Farm, in the snow country of Aizu — I fell in love with at first sight. I moved there in the winter of 2021. It is a farming corporation that grows rice above all, along with soybeans, buckwheat, rapeseed oil, vegetables, and fruit, and has the largest area of organic rice cultivation in the prefecture.

Three years on, traveling through rural regions well beyond Aizu and talking with all kinds of people involved in farming, something has come into view. The modern way of life we take for granted will not last much longer. Concretely: in the near future we will see a crisis in farming and food, the disappearance of rural communities, and the collapse of cities.

The root cause, I constantly feel, is that the way we live today runs against the natural world and against the essence of our own existence. Yet I believe we adults have a duty to show the children who will create the next generation what it looks like to face such a turbulent future squarely and to live it fully, with a rich heart.

This project is not a business in the usual sense. It is a mission to shift our consciousness toward what is essential.
I will put everything I have into remaking the world, myself included. If any of this resonates with you, I ask for your support and your help.

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