George Ohsawa
Nyoichi Sakurazawa was born in a suburb of Kyoto during the Meiji Restoration at the end of the nineteenth century. His father was descended directly from samurai, but because of the political and social changes occurring in the country at the time, the family was very poor. Sakurazawa’s mother passed away from tuberculosis during his childhood and, later, his brother died from the same disease. He himself was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a teenager and there was little hope for his survival.
Searching for a cure, Sakurazawa discovered the teachings of the Japanese chemist and army doctor, Sagen Ishizuka. Unable to rid himself of persistent skin and kidney problems using traditional Western methods of treatment, Ishizuka turned his attention to Oriental medicine. Ishizuka believed that the balance between sodium and potassium in the human body is the primary determinant of one’s well-being. He held that diet most strongly affects this equilibrium and that food is the foundation of health. Cereal grains contain the ideal balance of potassium to sodium and are therefore the ideal food for human beings. Because of an excessive consumption of animal food, naturally high in sodium, Westerners had become sodium-dominant. Ishizuka saw this as giving rise to a culture that was self-centred, sensorial, and greedy.
Ishizuka founded Shokuyo-Kai, the food-nourishment movement. The association criticized modern science and the introduction of meat, sugar and dairy products into the diet, and encouraged the return to a more traditional Japanese diet of whole grains, land and sea vegetables, and soyfoods. Ishizuka healed many patients with his grain and vegetable diet and became known variously as Daikon (Japanese radish) Doctor, Tokyo; Vegetable Doctor, Tokyo; and Anti-Doctor Doctor, Tokyo.
The now nineteen-year-old Sakurazawa ate brown rice, miso soup and salty pickles and recovered his equilibrium. Free of tuberculosis, he joined Shokuyo-Kai and began writing for their publication and teaching Ishizuka’s method. Later, Sakurazawa would reinterpret his teacher’s dietary prescription using the ancient Oriental principles of yin (for potassium) and yang (for sodium). He changed his name to Ohsawa – after the French ‘oh, çava’ for ‘I’m doing fine’ – and began to call his teachings macrobiotics.
(image from Zen Macrobiotics, George Ohsawa)
