October 18th Birthday

George Ohsawa (Nyoichi Sakurazawa)

The founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy. 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.

Ohsawa was born into a poor samurai family during the Meiji Restoration. He had no money for higher education. This is when his spiritual path started. Around 1913 he met up with Nishibata Manabu (a direct disciple of the late Sagen Ishizuka) and studied with him in Tokyo in the movement 'Shoku-yo Kai'.

Later he travelled to Europe, particularly Paris, France where he started to spread his philosophy (it is in this period he supposedly adopted his new pen name "Ohsawa", after the French "oh, ca 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. After drawing attention to himself during World War II for his pacifist ideals, he wrote a book which predicted Japan's defeat and was incarcerated, narrowly escaping death for his views. After being freed from prison by U.S. General McArthur, he moved his institution to a remote area in the mountains of Yamanashi prefecture.

While in France Ohsawa wrote a number of books in French related to the Macrobiotic world view, which were published by Vrin Publishers in Paris, France. Among them were "L'Ere Atomique", The Atomic Age, written during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ohsawa was motivated to write the book because of the looming possibility of atomic war and the consequences on life as we know it. In this book, as was typical of all books Ohsawa wrote, he devotes considerable time to explaining his views regarding how Macrobiotics can shed light on many social problems as well as causes of war and how Macrobiotics can 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 notables including actress Marilyn Monroe, USA President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, based on the condition known in Japan as "Sanpaku" (three-spaces empty). Sanpaku refers to traditional Japanese physiognomic diagnosis in which eyes can be seen to present a white area below as well as to each side of the iris when viewed straight on. This anomaly was considered a sign of extreme fatigue that made one accident-prone and slow to react.

Ohsawa also claims in his books that he cured himself from tuberculosis at age 19 using what he knew about the ancient yin-yang concepts that originated in China.

YIN (Bad Things)
Sugar, alcohol, honey, coffee, chocolate, refined flour products, hot spices, drugs, milk, yogurt, soft cheeses, poultry, beef, pork, eggs, salt, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, spinach, beets and avocados.

YANG (Good Things)
Whole cereal grains, brown rice, beans, legumes, Miso soup, fish, seeds and nuts, fruits and
mild non-stimulated beverages.

Writers note: Sorry, can never give my Yin.