Kawaguchi aspired to become a painter and attended Tennoji Art Institute, whilst continuing to work at the family's farm.

[2] The failure of allopathic doctors to cure him led in response to Kawaguchi discovering Fukuoka's seminal book The One Straw Revolution, studying and starting to promote both Natural Farming and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

He was also influenced by Wes Jackson, the founder and former president of The Land Institute; Kawaguchi is said to be the leading representative of the second generation of Natural Farming, using a gentler, more flexible approach to Fukuoka's, in which there are no definitive rules and each application depends on the individual environment.

[3] The natural farming method of Masanobu Fukuoka uses no fertilizers or chemicals and very little water, allowing crops and weeds to grow freely, requiring a minimum of human intervention.

[citation needed] In 1991, he started Akame Natural Farming School which currently has more than 10 sites and another 5 teaching traditional medicine and around 250 students.