Down with the Cities!

Nakashima Tadashi
Copyright (c) 1996 By Nakashima Tadashi
Translation from the Japanese of Toshi wo Horobose, first serialized in the periodical Kankyo Hakai, reprinted in 1992 in book form by the Japan Communal Society Association, and republished as a commercially available book in 1994 by Maijisha Publishing Co. This translation is of the earliest version, and does not reflect subsequent updates, additions, and changes by the author.
Permission for posting on Project Gutenberg has been securied by the translator from all concerned parties. This translation is to be distributed freely throughout the world to anyone at all, and is not to be sold for commercial profit.
Mr. Nakashima (born 1920) is a self-sufficient farmer in the hill country of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He entered the Army in 1939, and was in Taiwan at the end of the war. In 1945 he returned to his family farm and began farming. In 1954 Mr. Nakashima began raising free-range chickens, and embarked on the long process of developing his method of producing natural eggs, for which he is now well known in Japan. About 1975 he started studying the writings of the Edo Period thinker Ando Shoeki. He has also written a book entitled Minomushi Kakumei — Dokuritsu Noumin no Sho (The Bagworm Revolution — A Book for Independent Farmers). The author has also written and published extensively on free-range chicken farming.
The order of Japanese personal names follows East Asian custom: surname followed by given name.
Some footnotes are the author's, and others are the translator's. The latter are identified by the notation (Translator's note) at the end of those footnotes.
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Saying Down with the cities! is not a rash statement. If we do not get rid of the cities, the human race will disappear from the face of the Earth. The cities are none other than the source of all pollution, and the root of all evil. One may try to leave the cities as they are and get rid of only the pollution, but it will be wasted effort. Environmental destruction and pollution are caused by none other than the functioning of the urban machine; pollution is, we may say, the unavoidable respiratory function, metabolic function, and bowel movements of the cities. If we plug up the nose, mouth, and anus of a human being, is it possible to continue living? Therefore, if we are to banish urban pollution from the Earth, we must eliminate the cities themselves.