Dear Friends
It is my greatest pleasure to present this book MIRACLE APPLES to you for your consideration.
Let me explain how I came across this book, and what the book is about.
I was sitting in the lounge of JAL in Tokyo waiting to go back to New York. I picked up this book from the newly published books displayed in the corner. Once I started to read the book, I could not put it down. The attendant of the waiting room told me I could take the book with me, so I read the whole book on the plane to New York, and immediately wished there was a second book on this subject.
This book is a revolution. It is a true story of how an apple farmer worked for 10 years to find a way to grow apples without using any insecticide. I assume the method he has discovered does not just apply to growing apples, but any plants raised with insecticide.
As he worked year after year, people of the village and his friends all started to think he had gone crazy. At first, the apple orchard he inherited from his ancestors was destroyed by his not using any insecticide. Clouds of insects came to his orchard from other orchards which used insecticide. His two sons quit school to avoid being teased by their classmates. He lost all his savings, and had to be a bouncer in a local bar for a while. His wife did not say anything, but every day she delivered her handmade lunch in a beautiful lunchbox to the field where he was sitting by himself, unshaved, not doing anything anymore but watching the sky.
After ten years of this, he finally thought he had been wrong in starting this incredible journey. One full moon night, he went up a hill to commit suicide. He sat on a stone, and wondered how he could do it.
Then suddenly a distant tree caught his eye; the tree was shining in the moonlight. It was an apple tree!
“Why would a single apple tree be here on this hill?” he thought.
He ran to the tree and found out that it was not an apple tree, but the tree gave him inspiration. “That’s right! The apple trees in the orchards are all raised at first in a green house and then replanted; the natural roots were cut off. You need the natural roots to raise a strong and healthy tree.” So he got apple trees with natural roots, and sprayed little amounts of vinegar instead of insecticide. The strange thing was that the insects did not come around the apple trees in his orchard anymore.
After this discovery, he was interviewed on TV. A documentary of his story was made, and he became famous. Every day he gets many emails from people wanting to buy his apples. He refuses to mass-produce them, so the apples are sold very slowly to people who line up for them.
The Miracle Apples also do not deteriorate, since there is nothing bad in them. I think that’s how our bodies could be if we didn’t have any poison in them.
If his method is used to raise fruits and vegetables, it will save our children, our grand children, and us, from getting unnecessary illness.
That’s why I call this book a revolution. I hope you will feel the same.
I extend my grateful thanks to Bob Heffill for his excellent translation of the book.
Sincerely,
yoko
Yoko Ono
July 2010
New York City
www.IMAGINEPEACE.com
Dearest Yoko, I am forever loving your work and I am always inspired to read about our Mother Planet and her gifts. Apples like all our food are our gifts from Mother Planet. It would make sense that the further away we get from her, the further away she is from us. We have to stay connected and trust she has the answers to all things. ANY man made poison is made from men, NOT our Blessed Mother. I will continue to work side by side with you, even though you don’t know me. To bring awareness back to us all. To reconnect with the Divine inside us all. Thank you again and I look forward to meeting you one day. I work in Iceland and missed you at a party. My friends sang with you on stage Krummi some others. Next time you come to Reykjavik, in DEC. for the memorial the monument, I will hopefully meet you. The weather was dreadful that day. Sincerely, Sofia Estrella Olivieri
Wow! Ma that is amazing..cause now i am gonna use some white vinegar diluted with water daily to keep the bugs off my Vegtable Garden and other Trees and Roses. I was afraid to use insecticide on my Vegtable Garden and though they are still growing the bugs have almost eatten all the leaves. Love n Peace Oka-san Saint Roy.
Dear Yoko , your Intro is so amazingly intriguing, enigmatic and charming I can’t wait to read the book .
I’m not so sure it will soon be brought to my country.
I am a green architect and sustainable rancher, the concept is clear and simple of the apples. I am trying to grow clean veggies, fruit and hay. I WISH that all people could see that quality is better than quanity. Thank you for showing me this.
Love this story…now must get the book! Love is the answer…Bruce
great news… beautiful moonlight has showen the way
Dear Yoko
I know that there is the book. But I have not read it yet. I am going to read it immediately. Thank you very much for introduction.
And also I am reading your Twitter, thank you again for wonderful topics as usual.
Sincerely,
When I was young, the property my family owned included the remains of a fruit orchard. The fruit trees, shrubs, and plants growing there had been growing since the beginning of the 20th century. My family weren’t farmers…nothing was ever done to treat the bounty of fruit growing in our backyard. We and the rest of the neighborhood children spent our summers harvesting desert in that yard, or simply ate the bounty on the fly in the course of our daily adventures. The only things I remember that related to any kind of pests are these: 1) The birds ate the cherries as soon as they ripened, but mostly from the upper branches. In fact, we learned to tell they were getting ripe by the sight of the teeming flock s of various birds who fed on them. However, those cherries we could reach were safe until they fell to the ground. 2) Once fruit hit the ground, insects and rot set in.
Yes, an occasional apple had a worm. So we were taught very young how to inspect the fruit carefully and look for signs of a worm. Any questionable fruit was cut open to reveal its insect mysteries… we could always go out back and pick another one…
dear Yoko i love that thank you so much,beautiful story good feelings,vary positive , have a vary nice day Yoko ;);)
Hi Yoko, that book sounds amazing and that photo of you is beautiful. Peace & Love!
Thank you so much for spreading this wonderful seed of an idea here Yoko. I would love to buy a copy for the public library I work at in order to see it germinate and spread it’s own roots in our New England farming community where young farmers are thriving and innovating through sustainable practices. Love always. Dylan
One tree in the moonlight
starts a new revolution:
let them grow slowly.
Dear Yoko (and all): You must read “Epitaph for a Peach,” 1995, by David Mas Masumoto. It’s an account of his journey raising organic heirloom peaches on his California farm, in the tradition of his parents, who came from Japan. Beautiful descriptive writing. Namaste.
Dear Karen,
I will try to get the book and read it. There must be more than one farmer in the world who are daring to raise vegetables and fruits organically, without using any insecticides.
MIRACLE APPLES is a story of one courageous farmer. It’s nice to find out that there are others, if there are. yoko
Yes we have local farmers here that do. Would like to see more. Thank U for putting this out there.
You really do need to find and read Masanobu Fukuoka’s “One Straw Revolution”. Its the origin of many of Kimura’s ideas (whether he knows it or not!). Fukuoka’s books are a wonderful resource for natural farming.
This sounds like a beautiful book!
Hank, Yes. I am recommending One Straw Revolution as one of the books for people to read to create awareness for what we can do for the health of agriculture and more. (Look at the bottom of the right hand column on every page). There are so many books, now, telling the truth, and thereby giving so much energy to the world. We are living in a very blessed time. Love, yoko
yoko the book is good.have you read another book called natures cure they dont want you to know….regards rajan
we need lots of fresh earth.
I read this book too. It’s miracle and true natural tihng in this book.
I think I wanna invite Mr.Kimura to my company to taech real sprit.(I live in Osaka,Japan)
I recommend you read Mr.Kimura’s another book, “Subete ha Uchuu no Saihai”. It’s written by Mr. Kimura himself. This book is written in a simple and cheap style. Because of be written by an amateur writer Mr.Kimura. But It’s heartful and real book written by himself.
If you feel interested in this book, Please you read it!!
i wonder when Monsanto will contaminate his crop with GMO crops which are Round-Up ready and seed terminators? Monsanto should take note, because this guy figured out how to do what Monsanto should have been doing all along, and he did it the right way. oh well, i bet you he is on Monsanto’s hit list as we speak.
Dear Yoko,
i just wanted to tell you that i think its great that you are introducing Kimura-san and his story in English to the rest of the world.
i came about “Miracle Apples” in late 2008, and i was so moved that my friends (as a surprise) actually flew over to Aomori to meet him in person and get a word of congratulation/wisdom for my wedding in Nov. 2009 (we even got hold of couple of his apples to share with family & friends at the wedding).
well, after almost a year, i finally got the chance to fly over to Aomori and meet & thank Kimura-san in person this past weekend (just came back to Tokyo last night!). despite his extremely busy schedule, he was so naturally welcoming that we sat and talked and laughed (his infectious laughs!) for over an hour in his office before letting us visit his apple field. he is truly an amazing person, both at heart and mind. and some of the “ideas” that he’s working on recently… its just hard to imagine how one person can actually make these grand ideas a reality…especially when its this constantly laughing out loud, old humble little man with no neeth ; )
maybe you have already met him in person, but if you have not, i highly recommend making a short trip to Aomori. its a beautiful place!
In Japan, the picture book for the children named “RINGO NO OJISAN” —the uncle of the apple— has already been published.
I working for elementary school library ,so I highly recommend this book for kids.
I am really moved this Yoko san’s work .
Thank you!
Dear Yoko,
It is my pleasure to see the book in English by Mr.Kimura’s Miracale Apples. I have been working in OISCA International, Japan on sustainable Agriculture and environment. I was with Mr. Kimura in a seminar regarding his wonderful briefing on miracale apples cultivation. However, this book will create the awareness among the people about the power of nature. Mr. Kimura is a famous magicion on the way of sustainable agriculture . This book will introduce Mr. Kimura with all people of the world.
I hope to visit Mr. Kimura’s miracle apple garden in my convanient time.
Thank you all.
Rahim
Thank you, Yoko.
My ancestors knew that we are all part of one Consciousness… I am happy that you are reminding the world that Earth is One, and human beings are merely one part of Earth.
Dear Yoko,
I was so pleased to learn about this book from your website, and I was extremely impressed by the story of how Miracle Apples were grown after so many attempts and efforts. It is all about questioning the truthfulness of common beliefs, spirit of inquiry, never-give-up attitude, and the importance of symbiosis and coexistence not to violate the given ecosystem in nature.
One another thing I learned from the book was that the bright future will certainly be waiting at the end of the road for those who has such a great humanity like Kimura-san, despite of many obstacles along the way. Last but not least, Kimura-san’s talking to the Apple trees and how the trees reacted is somewhat mysterious, but I believe trees really expressed their appreciation to Kimura-san.
Thanks Yoko and all those involved.
I’ve been working on getting more updated information about post-Fukuoka natural farming into English. I linked this site to my blog, I hope that is alright.
http://livingpermaculture.blogspot.com/
Have you read any of Yoshikazu Kawaguchi’s books?
He is an amazingly humble and talented natural farmer,
and a key figure in the natural farming movement today.
ありがとう！
Peaceful breaths
Kai
The Organic Fruit Tree
And The Chemically Poisoned
Fruit Trees Remind Me Of
The Tree Of Good And Evil.
An Organic Food Future
Will Keep Us Healthy!
Pesticides, Insecticides And
Weed Killers Are Poisoning
The Earth And Threatening
Life As We Know It.
If We Kill All The Insects
The Whole Plant Kingdom
Will Be Threatened, And
Hence Even Humanity.
Insects Are Vital As Plant
Pollinators, And Can Act
As Organic Pest Control
Themselves!! They Are The
Solution As Well As A Problem.
We Should Learn To Share
Our Organic Food With All
Of Gaias Creatures, And Be
Happy That We Can Support
All Life And Biodiversity By
Growing More Natural Food!!!
Dear Yoko,
When I was about to introduce Akinori Kimura in my comment on the New York Times article “Where Cows Are Happy and Food Is Healthy” by Nicholas D. Kristof (Sep.8, 2012), I found that the book “Akinori Kimura’s MIRACLE APPLE” is presented in English on this site. So, I wrote about this site in my comment there. Thank you very very much for your presentation of this book. I was deeply moved for what you have done for it.
(In the Kristof’s article, he wrote about his friend Bob, who is raising Jersey cows on pastures without using antibiotics.)
It is said that the word “culture” came from “cultivate”. But Akinori is saying not to cultivate soil! That’s why this is truly a revolution as you wrote in your Intro of this book. Now we have to re-think about the history of the human culture until now. What was that?
Akinori is also saying, “ Roots of apple trees and a lot of other weeds are working together to cultivate the soil. So, let them do it! “ I believe that this kind of wisdoms might carve a way for human future. If we mankind fully recover our spirits with healthy roots in this cosmos, we may be able to “IMAGINE” what we should be. I am exciting about that.
Dear Nobuko-san, Thank you for your very wise observation of Mr.Kimura’s one man revolution. I have gone to many big publishers, I have finally decided to have it translated and put here on IMAGINEPEACE.com, hoping that some of you would read it and get the miracle discovered by Mr. Kimura. But I did not get many responses. So I thought I might have wasted my time and effort. But you understood it totally. I read another comment today from one more person who understood the Miracle Apple. I want to let Mr. Kimura know that he is finally getting through to people who read his book on IMAGINEPEACE.com. You made me a very happy peson today, which happens to be the International Peace day, and we New Yorkers are celebrating it all day! With love, yoko
Dear Yoko,
Thank you for your touching response to my comment!
I think that your work is just waiting for a perfect timing to spread over the world. Let’s be ready for it. I strongly believe that you will know that you had not wasted your time for this project. The official site of the Japanese movie “Miracle Apples”, which original work is of course Akinori Kimura’s MIRACLE APPLES by Takuji Ishikawa, is now ready at
http://www.kisekinoringo.com/
This movie is going to be shown in June 2013 in Japan. In this site the film director Yoshihiro Nakamura is writing about the occasion he was offered to be a director of this movie, “In a cafe I was weeping bitterly during I was reading Akinori’s Book and its scenario and asked them to PLEASE LET ME DO THIS! “ A character actor Sadao Abe will play Akinori’s role well. And Akinori himself is going to act as his relative in this movie. I hope and pray that this movie is also going to be shown in U.S.A. If it is done, this might be a trigger to publish Akinori’s book all over the world.
Imagine together for this peaceful revolution!!! With Respect and Love, Nobuko Igaki
Dear Yoko, How about publishing this as a digital book first? Revolutions are breaking out through Internet recently as you know.
Dear Yoko and Igaki-san,
I am Okada Ganji from Tokyo.
I read your comments last Friday, 7 months after the last one, and was happy that you introdeuced Kimura-san’s book in English.
(Sorry for knowing so late.)
I wanted to write this after reading Igaki-san’s comment on september 19, 2013, as you mentioned about the Jersey cows on pastures without using antibiotics.
Our farm is in Iwate-ken, Tohoku Japan (280 km north of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and no radiation yet).
We do the following;
————————————-
* Natural grazing in mountain night and day, all year round,
* Not using any fertilizer, not to mention insecticides,
* Natural breeding, basically, not artificial insemination,
* Natural delivery,
* Suckling about 1 month after delivery,
* Raising Jursey and cross-bred Jursey,
* Low-temperature pasteurization.
————————————-
Our farming is called Yamachi Rakunou, written 山地酪農, and meaning dairy fariming in mountain. You can see our farming at
http://nakahora-bokujou.jp/nakahora/pss_03/index.html
http://nakahora-bokujou.jp/nakahora/pss_04/index.html
and http://nakahora-bokujou.jp/
I was glad to know that Igaki-san knew Kristof’s friend’s farming.
Thank you for knowing and inviting it.
Kimura-san’s movie, Kiseki no Ringo, is to start June 8th.
Kimura-san and Nakahora-san, the head of our farm, are friens, and we will hold a event, Mori Tsuchi Umi wa Shoku no Yurikago, Inochi no Yurikago, meaning forest and soil and sees are the cradles of food and lives. Hatakeyama-san, famous as a leader of afforestation called Mori wa Umi no Koibito (http://www.mori-umi.org/) will also join us. >>> https://www.facebook.com/mori.tsuchi.umi?ref=stream
http://mori-tsuchi-umi.jp/
Thank you for reading, and sorry for the long comment.
Let’s spread and do real and essential farming.
Good news! The movie “Fruits of Faith (Miracle apples)” won the prize of audience at the Florence Film Festival in June 2013.
Thank you, Okada-san, for your comment.
I would like to visit your farm someday.
Once I met Mr. Shigeatsu Hatakeyama just 10days after I met Mr. Akinori Kimura in 2012. I feel that we are connecting each other though our magical imagination.
Dear Yoko,
I am very impressed by your kindness and selflessness in translating the whole book into English and posting it for free on this site. The world needs more people like you and like Kimura Akinori san.
I met him at the event we organised last week to celebrate the inauguration of the Japan Anti-Aging Food Society having him as main speaker. We encourage people to connect with organic and conscious farmers for sustaining each other in an effort to heal the earth while healing our own bodies and preventing diseases.
Mr.Kimura delivered two days in a row wonderful speeches that brought tears of emotion to my eyes and the audience. It made us think how superior nature is in its infinite wisdom and how clueless we are of its mighty. If only we would try to understand it, like Kimura san did.
I have discussed a new book idea with him, and if you are interested, your involvement to this project would be priceless. People have rights, now slowly we are fighting for animals to have rights (dolphins to start with) and I hope to see the day Earth will have rights, since it’s a living organism, just like us. And we want this book to be targeted for children, yet make adults cry…
It is such a great pleasure to know there are people who spend their whole life trying to find out a solution, which others consider trivial and even impossible. I thank Yoko Ono for bringing in such an excellent review for the book, which everyone ought to know
Incredible Inspiration! This is a wonderful life story of these “Miracle Apples.” I wonder IF anymore farmers worldwide will take the hint of organic foods by raising fruits and vegetables naturally. Apple Revolution and I love our mankind’s healthy living thanks to farmers. Thank for You for sharing this man’s story and close his call of almost giving up on his wonderful life with the very things he loves, first his loving wife’s lunches and the real love towards her husband. Cheers, Leah. ((*J*))
Ma’am, I was so pleased to find your article introducing the Miracle Apple. I had been living in Aomori prefecture for almost 50 years when I moved to Osaka in April 2013. I hope the miracle Apple spread in the prefecture and some events to happen with New York! You know the miracle Apple and Big Apple! Also did you know we have a Statue of Liberty (small version) in Oirase town? The latitude is the same as New York:
https://www.town.oirase.aomori.jp/soshiki/16/megami.html
One thing with your article, Mr. Kimura has three daughters and no son.
Thank for your article.
Kind regards, Masahiro
Yoko san,
I have read the book, and was deeply moved by Akinori san’s encourage and persistence and the outcome a well.
I also noted he learned from Fukuoka san’s philosophy. Now I plan to study Fukuoka theory. could you help to advise how to get some readings from Fukuoka association if exists?
I would also want to translate Fukuoka book into Chinese.
Sincerely yours
Steven
China
I learned about this book after I had seen the movie.
I would like to translate it into Romanian. How about copyright?
Dear Yoko
I am inspired by your story. Thank you for the fruitful infomation.
Dear Yoko,
As the translator of the book, I wonder if you might kindly consider including my name as translator somewhere? Translators tend to be ignored, and rarely get any credit, in spite of doing an important job and helping to keep our world turning.
Thanks,
Bob Heffill
Dear Ono Yoko
Thank you for your decision to translate the book by author Takuji Ishikawa into English.
You gave us a chance to distribute this truth worldwide.
This is an extremely heartfelt documentary, it is not just one man’s story,
but also of the whole family.
When I was inspired to share this website, my friend who lives in Brazil couldn’t open it to see.
So, I made a copy file for her.
If I am against your contract, let me know.
sincerely greet all