Down with the Cities!

me work for the contraction and decline of the cities. It is therefore necessary for us to immediately begin building a soci

erish so that We C

of the city. Without a rehearsal our resolve is a mere fantasy, and our war

s of the city while at the same time receiving in full the blessings of urban civilization is like trying to get milk from a bull. There is no difference at all between this and the Zen priest who, while attired in a resplendent broca

finds that there are countless obstacles, and that virtually all of them are difficult to overcome since they

City Does Not Readily

us, and finds a way to force education on us. * * * Shrines and temples (these are also the city) try forcing us to contribute money. "That family over there gave some tens of thousands of yen; the family next door donated several thousand. Please give what you can..." It is only natural, they say, that the believers (?) bear the costs of decorating the temples and buying new robes for the priests. "You idle and gluttonous bloodsuckers! The insolence of you to try and clothe yourself in warm robes and fill your bellies, without tilling the soil, by the mere glib chanting of some sort of incantation. I won't give you a single red cent." And at this their eyes emit fire and they reply with a threat: "You'll pay for this! May the gods (Buddha) punish you immediately. In the near future you will be visited by calamity, so get ready!" And then they continue to press for donations through the back door by sending the shrine or temple representative who is some influential citizen of the village. * * * The farmers' co-op comes to ask for help in raising more capital. "The co-op is a cooperative union which exists for the sake of the farmers. It is natural that the members must come up with the capital to support the co-op's activities." "The coop as a union for the farmers exists only in charter; in actuality it is operated solely for its own benefit. Is this not the reason the co-op, whether it be loans or sales, constantly exploits the farmers? It is as if the co-op has switched from 'cooperative union' to 'corporation.' I cannot give you money for capital which will be used for corporate profits, or to exploit the farmers." And the reply is, "So you have no need for loans or farm machinery or fertilizer, do you? Well then, don't come crying to the co-op when your crops are destroyed by blight or weevils!" * *

nsible Way Is the Pra

rm

ions - and departed resolutely. However, the city will not bow out so readily; with the strongest manacles (and, when the need arises, with police, courts, and the military) it tries to prevent our leaving. This cannot be helped. If we cannot then completely rid ourselves of the city's entang

let us say one quits a white collar job and takes up painting in order to support oneself. This will not do, for unless one is recognized by the city for one's a

to the soil, and the produce of the land then feeds the animals and human beings. As long as one continues this type of farming, there is no room for the city - go

t with the City to th

he entanglements of the city, so while receiving in the smallest measure the blessings of the city (that is, while supplying the city with only the smallest amount), we ready ourselves for the impending

er, it seems that one is still bound to pay local and prefectural taxes. * * * Compulsory education as required by the constitution cannot be helped, but we should think carefully about anything more than that. The universities, in particular, are none other than training facilities for the Contamination and Destruction Reserve Corps, [38] so we must regard them as the ene

nder, one must resolve never to fall for any of their tricks. The only thing we need consider important are the laws of Nature. Though it was never possible for the gods and Buddha to be Good, they make them look like a bundle of Good, and, using this to their own advantage (that is, for plundering), they make judgments concerning Good and Evil; it is this deceptiveness of the established religions which we must pass judgment on. The judgments of the gods and Budd

cruel punishment. * * * Independent farmers must be mentally prepared for a life of austerity. So it should not be worth getting excited if, quite suddenly, things like televisions, cars, cameras, computers, videotape machines, pianos, refrigerators, and washing machines disappear from our l

t does not matter even if they disappear tomorrow. Though it may be all right if we make occasional use of needless things during the period of transition, we must not run after them crying when the time comes to bid a final farewell. No matter how often the government

st in Order to Gua

e no agricultural cooperatives, they desire no education or learning, paintings, travel, glory, or praise and recognition (no medals an

nd medals - that is, the city) have not the slightest value whatsoever. Even automobiles worth millions of yen, and paintings worth billions of yen are not worth a pig's tail to them. It

must Learn fr

s free. Or perhaps one should say that it is always there in the form of "Nature itself"; as long as we do not contaminate it, destroy it, or cover it with concrete, it will always be there for us. Just as with wild animals, if human beings h

for all other things, especially those which are to Nature worthless and harmful - convenience, extravagance, ease

way of advertising one's own worthlessness. A uniform is a means of boasting of the city's power; military uniforms, medals, parliamentary ID tags, and priests' splendorous robes are all means of domination devised to make people bow d

rst of all, they hate wearing such troublesome things, and will show considerable resistance if someone tries to put them on; you may not be able to get them on the animal at all. It

be prepared to cut a hole in a gunny sack for our head and wear that. And we should wear light clothing, becau

or our Escape

onvenience, extravagance, and ease. And most important, in order to build such structures, precious resources are used unsparingly, great destruction and contamination are wrought by the mining, transport, and processing of the said resour

he remains are discarded in the country or in the ocean), and big, new buildings are put up. They call this the development of the

omei [40] demonstrated that a ten-foot square hut was quite big enough as a place to live. If the population continues to increase at the present rate, without war, epidemics, or famine, in 700 years we will reach

y in order to realize a life of ease. If you do not like it, then leave the city and go to live in the country. Build a log cabin in the country and live there. Eve

he sunken dwellings of ancient times. We should ready ourselves by

o Produce Food w

possible to produce great quantities of high-yield crops with reduced labor. If the city's participation were to disappear it would mean the instant disintegration of this production syst

o-the-city agriculture that is locked into the city's plunder system. However, to natural cycle, small-scale, self-sufficient agriculture, the city's meddling is actually

riod or earlier. In former times the part-time farmers who made water conduits, baskets, and sifters lived in every village. When they were not working in the fields they made and repaired farm implements and household goods. But since their main occupation was farming, they had little time to make

Nature Urban

, blenders, artificial flavoring, and sugar, then at least essential items like pots and bowls and salt

make up our minds to do without such things, and begin the preparations for a new dietary life, we begin to se

e ignore this simple fact, feeding mice to squirrels and chestnuts to cats, neither will be able

needs. A cat is not able to eat chestnuts, nor does it care at all for the taste or flavor of chestnuts; a squirrel, on

e laws that governed what they should eat. Learning how to use utensils, fire, and various sea

eggs (if you give a monkey an egg it will skillfully break the shell and suck out the contents - monkeys and human beings naturally eat the same things). So it is

et: Crime an

mbers dramatically. On the other hand, however, they weakened themselves physically. Not only that, they also process their natural foods with heat and seasonings, thus killing the life within their food, destroying the cells, and sub

e; if an animal is healthy its excrement will not stick to its body). We perspire profusely (since perspiration is a means of getting rid of wastes, sweating a lot is proof that one's body is full of sewage; no matte

man beings have barely managed to survive in spite of this is due to the fact that we have continued, as we should, to c

rought about Sickness

Bo

of human beings, and the great rebellion against Nature. This is known as cooki

nd seasonings, make it possible to eat

taste good, and stuff

mes, and even if we look back 50 or 100 thousand years, there is little difference. They say that our remaining canine teeth prove that primitive human beings were carnivorous animals, but I do not believe

stimulus to the soles of its feet, the baby's toes will bend as if they are trying to grasp something. This indicates that, even now, the structure of the human body is adapted to climbing trees in search of fruit an

human beings have committed further crimes: They have changed the shape and appearance

, leaving only the soft flesh; separate the fats from milk and make it into butter; or extract vitamins and make them into pills. Because of this it is only human beings that suffer from corpulence, undue loss of weight, sickness, and early aging and death. Seeing that they were in trouble, people then founded the nutritional sciences, and began calculating everything - consume

ining Ourselves

unprocessed. We should not underestimate the positive effect of even this little bit. Eating even one grain raw will do us that much good. The net of Heaven is coarse but lets nothing escape - those who make light of one grain of brown rice will find themselves bound by the er

ed brown rice passes through the gut and is found in great quantity in one's excrement? This is the result of cooking the rice in order to make it easier to eat, but if one eats it uncooked the hull too

is well aware of how the cake is a tasteless lump of dead matter, and how the raw corn is most delicious, and overflowing with life f

d because it tastes terrible, I offer the following advice: Go a day without eating and then try it. And those

and Food Conserv

much. By making white rice one discards the best part, and by cooking it one kills the cells and the life within; thus, in order to take in sufficient nutrients, one must stuff great

made all our golf courses and superhighways into bean and potato fields, still 35 million people would starve to death. But if we ate all our food raw, all those people would be saved. In addition, by eating things raw there

ausing the yield to drop to one-third, there would be no shortage of r

ty that Need

elp conserve food. We will not be troubled in the least when the food imports stop, or when the hospitals and drug companies fold. What is more, there is yet a third great service done b

t is for wild animals, to nourish ourselves without bowls, chopsticks, pots and

grams of salt per day. But Japanese on the average take in 20 grams per day, and even those people who are on reduced salt diets ingest 10 grams a day, so this means that we are taking in between 100 and 200 times the needed amount. One-tenth of one gram is an amount naturally found in food, and that should be enough; hu

u feel tired, but this is just because the body is used to a lot of salt. If you put up for just one week, i

e before our very eyes. We do not need the city at all in order to live.