prolog

Part 1: A Corrupt-Free Economy

Chapter 1: Something Wrong - My Salaried Worker's Legacy from My Grandfather
Thirty, Baptized into an Unreasonable World | The Forgery of Origin I've Only Heard of...? | I Want to Do Something Real, Even if It's Small |
Try making bread

Chapter 2: Encountering Marx - The Legacy My Father Left Me
A fierce management meeting just before the opening | Speculative funds that ran amok in the bakery | In the midst of the Lehman Brothers shock and financial crisis |
The Marx we know?

Chapter 3: Marx and the Story of Labor Power
The Bakery's Cruel History (21st Century, Tokyo) | The Bakery's Cruel History (19th Century, London) | A Reality Exactly Like 150 Years Ago | Labor is the Key

Marx's Lecture at the Country Bakery 1: What is a commodity?
Marx's Lecture at the Country Bakery 2: The Secret Hidden in the "Price" of Goods
Marx's Lecture at the Country Bakery 3: The Identity of My "Wages"
Marx's Lecture at the Country Bakery 4: The Birth of Profit
Marx's Lecture 5 at the Country Bakery: I sold my labor, but in the end...

Chapter 4: The Story of Fungi and Technological Innovation
Bread Born from an Absurd Mistake | The Mysterious Process of Fermentation That Makes You Feel the Presence of God |
Even yeast has its own personality | Super yeast that "doesn't spoil" food

Marx's Lecture 6 at the Country Bakery: Technological Innovation Increases Profits
Marx's Lectures at the Country Bakery 7: Technological Innovation for Whom?
Marx Lectures at the Country Bakery 8: The Last Laugher
Marx's Lectures at the Country Bakery 9: Cheap Work, Cheap Food

Chapter 5: Incorruptible Bread and Incorruptible Money
Natural yeast in a sack | Additive-free bread | The reason I sniffed | Bread that doesn't rot | Money that doesn't rot |
An Incorruptible Economy | Let's Corrupt the Economy

Part 2: The Corrupt Economy

Chapter 1 Welcome.
This is a 'country bakery'.
A town where "fungi" grow and children grow | Introducing Darumari | Our store's nickname is "The Odd Bakery."

Listen to the voice of the Jang family
A showdown between 'fungi' and 'artisans' | The great power of small fungi | The difference between natural and pure cultures | The wind before the storm |
Have you heard of 'natural yeast'? | Food culture created by yeast | Bread doesn't rise... ... .
| Natural cultivation and natural fungi | Natural yeast bread created through the perfect combination | The boundary between fermentation and decay | The invisible hand of fungi | What fungi love to do | 'Fungus-centered' bread that puts fungi at the center | The power of 'subtraction' to bring out potential | Fungi and ingredients grown in the same soil | A non-corrupt economy as seen by fungi

Chapter 3: True Country Life is Circular
Guided by fungi, we finally arrived at Katsuyama | Katsuyama, where history lives and breathes | The power of water that transformed bread | Two lives become one | An ordinary youth | Real food encountered in Hungary | And… … Dreaming of the countryside | Opportunity after ordeal | The meaning of making bread in the countryside | The extraordinary determination of rural residents | Creating a regional 'circulation' with bread | Making bread like local currency

Chapter 4: Non-exploitative Management - Not Making a Profit
Country bakeries, now independent! | The bonds of small business owners that fuel society | A growing small business association | Cheerful comrades nurturing a decaying economy | Small business owners don't chase profit | Only those who have used pesticides know how scary it is | Selling bread at a fair 'high price' | Darumari's bread, which became her last supper

Chapter 5: Another Challenge: Growing Bread and Raising People
A day in the bakery begins with the scent of wheat | Learning from fungi and children | Why lightning is called 'rice's wife' | A life guided by fungi, and the happiness and relief gained from it | The eyes that support technology are all over the body | Flowers that bloom after passionate challenges | Artisans in rural villages | The sad reality of bamboo craftsmanship that is disappearing | Bread that passes down skills and spirit | Similarities between bakers and carpenters | A job that accompanies life | Why there are many holidays in Darumari | Another challenge to nurture people | Reconciliation with father | Money is the right to vote to choose the future

Epilogue

Amazon Japan's #1 bestseller in the social, political, and economics categories!

"Money, which doesn't corrupt or circulate, is what gave birth to the contradictions of capitalism."
A silent economic revolution at Darumari, a small country bakery in Katsuyama, a remote Japanese village.

Marx's 'Das Kapital' is resurfacing worldwide.
With the fall of communism, capitalism, which was perceived as a superior system to socialism, is rapidly revealing its true nature of inequality and unfairness.

As voices of self-reflection grow louder among intellectuals around the world, the Japanese archipelago is paying attention to the silent economic revolution of a bakery owner in a small village on the outskirts of Japan.
The protagonist is Itaru Watanabe, a baker and owner of a bakery in a rural town called Katsuyama, in the northern part of Okayama Prefecture, an area with an unfamiliar name.


Originally, he vaguely dreamed of becoming a farmer living in the countryside, but it was not until he was in his thirties that he finally managed to get a job at an organic produce wholesale company.
I was thrilled at the thought of working in the countryside and farming that I had always admired, but then I felt disgusted and skeptical about the company that was committing corruption such as false country of origin labeling and bribery.
He gradually began to yearn for the authenticity of life and began to listen to his inner voice.
My grandfather studied natural bacteria, and my father was obsessed with Marx.
Having inherited their capabilities, he came to the conclusion that he wanted to do something 'true, even if it was small', and finally decided to open a bakery.

However, he learned baking skills to escape to the 'outside' world because he hated the world where corruption was rampant according to the logic of capital, but he soon realized that even the bakery workshop, which was supposed to be the 'outside' world, was located in the middle of the economic system.
Harsh labor, absurd economic structure, threatened food… .
As he faced this reality, his philosophy of life on how to live became stronger, and at the bakery 'Darumari', which was born based on this, he put into practice the responsibility for human life and the small, clumsy sense of justice he inherited from his grandfather and father.


His efforts to maintain his own lifestyle while remaining within the confines of established society and finding balance in life resonated deeply with many Japanese people.
As if to demonstrate this, after its publication, "Baking Capital in a Country Bakery" instantly took first place in the Society, Politics, and Economics categories on Amazon Japan, and has continued to receive interest, encouragement, and praise from the media and readers.
His image as a conscientious capitalist will provide a good opportunity for many who are desperately trying to avoid an unstable and contradictory reality to reconsider the true value of life and the meaning of labor, and to suggest an alternative way of life.


A lecture on Marx by a country baker,
Finding an alternative to capitalism between the fermentation and decay of bread.

In this book, the author unfolds Marx's lectures over nine chapters, harmoniously combining the two areas of 'Marx' and 'natural bacteria-fermentation'.
As I was making bread and listening to the voices of the 'bacteria' that are essential to making bread, I began to realize that the voices the bacteria were giving me were similar to the voices of Marx, a man from 150 years ago.

In this book, the author compares the labor reality of 21st century Tokyo, Japan and 19th century London, England, where the Industrial Revolution took place.
Just as in the past, when adults and even children were forced to work long hours for low wages, harsh working conditions persist even today.
In addition, it covers the conditions of products, the secrets of prices, the stagnation of wages, the process of profit creation, and the uselessness of technological innovation.


And so begins the encounter between Marx and natural bacteria.
All substances that exist in nature change their appearance over time and eventually return to earth.
In other words, their balance is maintained within a ‘cycle.’
And all of this is accomplished through ‘fermentation’ and ‘rotting’ by the action of fungi.
However, artificially cultured fungi like yeast can even turn substances that should originally decay and return to the soil into food.
It is a fungus, but it is an artificial fungus that deviates from the natural order and creates 'non-perishable' food.

These non-perishable foods lower the price of food and create cheaper jobs.
Furthermore, cheap food sacrifices the safety of food and disguises its use value, thereby robbing the food makers of the skills and dignity that should belong to them.


“Industry profits when grain and all food products are cheap.
Because whatever factors are driving up prices, if prices are high, labor inevitably becomes more expensive as well.
(Omitted) Food prices inevitably affect the price of labor.
“If the prices of necessities of life fall, the price of labor will continue to fall.” (Capital, Volume 1, Part 4, Chapter 10)

Moreover, the labor of producing food has become so simple that workers cannot acquire unique skills no matter how long they work.


“Technological innovation never enriches workers.
“Capital is merely a means for dominating workers and making more profits.” (Marx)
“The worker is reduced to an appendage of the machine, and from him, as an appendage, only the simplest, most monotonous, and most easily acquired skills are required.” (The Communist Manifesto)

He names what he is pursuing through his study of 『Capital』 as a ‘corrupt economy.’
Money does not return to dust over time.
It means that it will never decay.
Far from being corrupt, it has the property of endlessly increasing due to the 'profit' gained through investment and the interest generated through lending (finance).
Ultimately, this 'corrupt and non-circulating' money is what gave rise to the contradictions of capitalism.
He says that in a 'corrupt economy' we can find the true meaning of life.

His attitude toward life, of not giving up despite numerous failures and of standing up to irrationality to uphold his beliefs, makes us think about what true abundance is.
Moreover, his aspirations and search for a sustainable life and society will continue to invigorate today's society.

I want to bake bread for something precious, not for profit.
How to Fill Without Overflowing: Learn True Abundance

The author's bakery, Darumari, has earned the nickname "Strange Bakery" from people.
A bakery in the mountains, over two hours away by train from Okayama Station.
The bread is made by fermenting the yeast that grows in the old house, and the price of the bread is somewhat expensive.
In addition, it is closed three days a week and for a month every year for extended vacation.
This means that if we are to sell good food to those who want it at a fair price and if we are to be respected for our skilled craftsmanship, we must be able to rest well and live a decent life.
Moreover, Darumari's management philosophy is 'not leaving any profit'.
We ignore the typical standards of business and marketing success, strive to make the best bread without compromise, and strive to revitalize the local economy through corruption and circulation.

The core of the 'rotten and circular economy' discovered at this rural bakery is fermentation and circulation, not leaving a profit, and raising bread and people: these four things, and Darumari is pursuing and practicing all of these.
To achieve this, even today, Darumari carefully makes bread by generating natural yeast, no matter how difficult it may be, without mixing in yeast or additives.
He speaks of his 'small but big' wish to continue baking bread for something precious rather than 'profit'.