For twenty years, beginning in 1971, I buried myself in the farthest reaches of South America. Whenever I discovered a blank spot on the map of the Amazon, I went there. Whenever I heard of indigenous people of whom nothing was known, I visited them. I descended a 350 m pit in the Guiana Highlands and climbed unexplored mountains. I went to the top of mountains I heard had Inca ruins. Then in 1993, I began retracing in reverse the longest journey of humankind, from its origins in Africa, to South America via Siberia and Alaska, on foot and with no other assistance. This became a show called “The Great Journey.” I met many people from traditional societies including hunter gatherers on this trip too.

 

Next, I retraced the three main paths of human history that left Africa for the Japanese archipelago. On the sea route I collected iron sand and made an iron canoe and tools from scratch using the tatara ironworking method. I then rowed 5,700 km from Indonesia to Okinawa with the help of the wind, which took three years.

 

This is my first film. It focuses on poop, corpses, and the creatures that eat them. Its protagonists embrace an unbelievably powerful interest in things that are hated and shunned as filthy and gross, tenaciously observing them, drawing pictures of them and writing about them. Also, a man who has been defecating outdoors for fifty years. Why would I make such a film?

 

For the last fifty years, I have maintained a relationship with a Machiguenga family living in the Amazon. I noticed something when I stayed with them. About what they did with their feces and with corpses. Their feces were eaten by the animals of the forest, and broken down and decomposed by insects and microorganisms, eventually becoming soil. Fungus and plants including moss thrive on the soil that contains it. From these, animals acquire nutrients. In urban areas, bodily waste is flushed down toilets, compressed, and incinerated. It goes unutilized by other living beings—all it does is emit carbon dioxide. As for corpses in the world of the Machiguenga, they are buried in the forest to be broken down and decomposed by insects and soil organisms. In the world of nature, all living things are linked. Each has a role, and none are unnecessary. All are part of the cycle of life. The problem is that contemporary human society has dropped out of the cycle.

 

The concept of a sustainable society has become widespread. My belief is that circulation is central in achieving this. And feces, corpses, and the creatures that eat them are major players in that circulation—in other words, taboo-breaking misfits.

 

The three main people in this film—Masana Izawa, Seiki Takatsuki, and Hiroshi Tateno—are desperately trying to spread awareness of how essential these people are, despite their being shunned by society. I sympathize with their approach and have deep respect for what they are doing.

 

No creature in the wild is unnecessary. Take maggots, which I admire. They eat corpses in groups, moving as in a dance. They eat not only the flesh and organs, but even the skin. Once they’re finished they burrow into the earth and become pupae. They serve a vital role in breaking down corpses and feces, but for them they are simply trying desperately to survive, as dictated by their DNA. Their urgent struggle stabilizes the ecosystem. And the same goes for every creature in the wild. Nevertheless, they are not conscious of their contribution to balancing the ecosystem. Homo sapiens has a history of only three hundred thousand years, but the creatures living below and above the earth’s surface have followed a sustainable way of life for five hundred million years. 

 

I imagine a mere glance at the title Adventures of the Filthy Misfits [Japanese title: Unko to shitai no fukken, literal translation is: rehabilitate the image of poo and corpses] might cause people to physically recoil, questioning whether anyone would want to watch such a film. I appreciate why they might feel that way, but as long as we are alive, we poop. Over the course of one’s lifetime, it is an immense amount. And every person ends up as a corpse, no matter how heroic or famous they might have been. 

 

The interest shared by the three people in this film and me is the cycle of life. We say that we want to make society sustainable, but the important part is circulation. Please open your heart to poop, corpses, and the insects that eat them—central players in the cycle of life. I hope this film will foster a new awareness in those who watch it.

 

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