George Ohsawa (born ; October 18, 1893 – April 23, 1966) was a Japanese educator who was the founder of the

macrobiotic diet A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a fad diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce ...

. When living in Europe he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa, and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He also used the French first name Georges while living in France, and his name is sometimes also given this spelling. He wrote about 300 books in Japanese and 20 in French. He defined health on the basis of seven criteria: lack of fatigue, good appetite, good sleep, good memory, good humour, precision of thought and action, and gratitude.

Life

Ohsawa was born into a poor

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

family in Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture. He had no money for higher education. Around 1913, he joined the Shokuiku movement, studying with Manabu Nishibata, a direct disciple of the late

Sagen Ishizuka was a doctor in the Imperial Japanese Army who pioneered the concepts of ''shokuiku'' (food education) and the macrobiotic diet. He was one of the first to investigate the nutritional value of whole grains as well as sea vegetables, daikon, and k ...

, in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

William Dufty William Francis Dufty (February 2, 1916 – June 28, 2002) was an American writer, musician, and activist. Dufty was a supporter of trade unionism and was an organizer for the United Auto Workers, wrote speeches for former UAW President Walter ...

describes the background ("Nyoiti" is a variant transcription of "Nyoichi"):

The gradual introduction of sugar into the Japanese diet brought in its wake the beginning of Western diseases. A Japanese
midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
, trained in the techniques of Western medicine as a nurse, fell ill and was abandoned as incurable by the Western doctors she had espoused. Three of her children died the same way. The fourth, Nyoiti Sakurazawa, rebelled at the notion of dying of tuberculosis and ulcers in his teens. He took up the study of ancient Oriental medicine which had been officially outlawed in Japan. Sakurazawa was attracted to the unorthodox career of a famous Japanese practitioner, Dr. Sagen Ishizuka. Thousands of patients had been cured by Ishizuka (through traditional use of food) after they had been abandoned as incurable by the new medicine of the West.

Ohsawa writes in his books that he cured himself of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

at the age of 19 by applying the ancient Chinese concept of

yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and ya ...

as well as the teachings of Sagen Ishizuka. Later he traveled in Europe and began to spread his philosophy in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. It was in this period that he adopted his pen name "Ohsawa", supposedly from the French ''Oh, ça va'', which means "All right" or "I'm doing fine" as a reply to the question "how are you doing?"). After several years, he returned to Japan to start a foundation and gather recruits for his now formalized philosophy. In 1931, he published ''The Unique Principle'' explaining the yin and yang order of the universe. After drawing attention during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

for his pacifist ideals, he wrote a book that predicted Japan's defeat and was incarcerated, narrowly escaping

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

. After being freed from prison by U.S.

General MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

, he moved his institution to a remote area in the mountains of

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the ...

. In 1961, he wrote ''Zen Macrobiotic'', referring to the

that had been advocated by Christoph Hufeland in Germany since 1796. Subsequently, the philosophy of Ohsawa has been referred to as Macrobiotics. While he was in France, Ohsawa wrote a number of books in French, which were published by Vrin Publishers in Paris. Among them were ''L'Ere Atomique et la Philosophie d'Extrême-Orient'' (The Atomic Age and the Philosophy of the Far East), written during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this book, as in all the books Ohsawa wrote, he devoted considerable space to explaining how macrobiotics can shed light on many social problems as well as the causes of war, and help bring about a world in which war will be seen as an outcome of an error of judgment, and discarded as an effective solution to social conflict. Ohsawa also created a stir by predicting the deaths of several notable people, including

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

based on the condition known in Japan as "

sanpaku or is a Japanese term meaning "three whites". It was introduced into English by George Ohsawa in the mid-1960s. It is generally referred to in English as "sanpaku eyes" and refers to eyes in which either the white space above or below the iris ...

" (literally "three whites"), a traditional Japanese

physiognomic Physiognomy (from the Greek , , meaning "nature", and , meaning "judge" or "interpreter") is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general ...

diagnosis in which a white area below as well as to each side of the

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

appears when the eye is viewed straight on. This anomaly was considered a sign of extreme fatigue that made one accident-prone and slow to react. Samurai were trained to watch for this feature to assist in determining how formidable an enemy would be in hand-to-hand combat. Ohsawa used this diagnosis in his teachings and adapted it as a more general diagnostic indication of one's general state of health. The

assassination of President Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

led

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

to write:

Abdul Karim Kassem,
Ngo Dinh Diem Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic o ...
, and President Kennedy, all ''sanpaku'' and, now, shot to death, all destroyed by the fate of the sanpaku, which is more than coincidence and should be an alarm signal to men and nations, say the Macrobiotics, for thus it has been demonstrated by their leader, George Ohsawa, Japanese prophet of the Unique Principle.

This article caught the attention of

, who, finding relief in the

brown rice Brown rice is a whole grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed. This kind of rice sheds its outer hull or husk but the bran and germ layer remain on, constituting the brown or tan colour of rice. White rice is the same grain without the h ...

diet recommended by Ohsawa, became an advocate of macrobiotics, and traveled to Paris to meet with Ohsawa and publisher

Felix Morrow Felix Morrow (June 3, 1906 – May 28, 1988) was an American communist political activist and newspaper editor. In later years, Morrow left the world of politics to become a book publisher. He is best remembered as a factional leader of the Americ ...

. Ohsawa handed Dufty a package, and said, "Here is a lifetime of writing. Do your best with them. It's your turn." In 1965 Morrow's firm, University Books, published Ohsawa's writings under the provocative title ''You Are All Sanpaku''.

Death

Ohsawa died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

at the age of 72.Michio Kushi & Alex Jack (2003) ''Diet for a Strong Heart: Michio Kushi's Macrobiotic Dietary Guidelines'', St. Martin's Griffin.

Books

The following bibliography of the writings of George Ohsawa is from page 218 of ''You Are All Sanpaku'': * 1931: ''Le Principe unique de la philosophie et de la science d’Extrême-Orient'', Paris : Vrin. * 1932: ''Le livre des fleurs'', Paris : Plon. * 1952: ''Le livre du Judo'', Tokyo : Sekai Seihu. * 1954
''The Two Great Indians in Japan, Sri Rash Benhari Bose and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose''
India: Sri K. C. Das. * 1956: ''Jack et Madame Mitie'' (Deux Erewhoniens dans la Jungle dire "Civilization"), Paris: E.D. * 1956 : ''La Philosophie de la Medecin d’Extreme Orient'', Paris : Vrin. * 1961 : ''Zen Macrobiotique'', Bruxelles : I.D.M.. * 1961 : ''Acupuncture Macrobiotique'', Paris : Sesam. Translations by Ohsawa * T. Nakayama (1934): ''Acupuncture et médecine chinoise vérifiées au Japon'', Paris : Le Francois.

Japanese works

* ''Macrobiotics'' * ''History of China From 2000 B.C. Until Today'' * ''Franklin: A physiological and biological biography'' * ''Gandhi: A physiological and biological biography'' * ''Clara Schumann and Her Father: A physiological and biological Study'' * Translation and critique: ''The Encounter Between East and West'' by F. S. C. Northrup * Translation and critique: ''Man the Unknown'' by Alexis Carrell * ''The Fatality of Science''

References

External links