When housing developers threatened the mountainside behind Kamakura's famous Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, he banded together with a number of famous literati and artists (including Hideo Kobayashi, Nagai Tatsuo, Yasunari Kawabata, Riichi Yokomitsu, Itō Shinsui, Kiyokata Kaburagi), residing in Kamakura to oppose the development.