Georges Ohsawa

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Young Ohsawa, 1920

George Ohsawa , English: George Ohsawa, actually: Sakurazawa Yukikazu ( 桜沢如一 , alternatively Sakurazawa Nyo'ichi read or Sakurazawa Nyo'iti written) (* 18th October 1893 ; † 23. April 1966 ) was a Japanese philosopher and most important representative of macrobiotic nutrition .

Surname

During his stay in Europe he also wrote under the names Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He used the French first name Georges while living in France. It was during this time that he supposedly adopted his new name “Ohsawa”, after the French “  oh, ça va  ”, which means something like: “Oh, it's fine”. In some books and translations the spelling "Oshawa" is incorrectly found.

Life

Ohsawa was born into a family during the period of the Meiji Restoration whose father was descended from samurai . His family was poor and he had to leave school after compulsory schooling because there was no money for higher education. Then he took a spiritual path. The trigger for this is Ohsawa's tuberculosis disease, which overtook him at a young age and from which his mother and several siblings had already died. He made contact with the Shoku-yo Kai ("healing through food") movement founded by the Japanese military doctor Sagen Ishizuka . Ohsawa followed and studied the rules of life and nutrition of the movement from 1913 with Nishibata Manabu, a student of Sagen Ishizuka, in Tokyo. In later books he attributes his cure from tuberculosis to this circumstance and begins to develop Ishizuka's methods further. Ohsawa continued his studies in Europe (especially in France) and after a few years returned to Japan to set up a foundation. The first supporters for his now formalized philosophy appeared. During World War II, he formulated pacifist ideals and relocated his institution to a remote area in the mountains of Yamanashi Prefecture . After 1945, Ohsawa concentrated on spreading his teaching, which he called Macrobiotics or the Single Principle, in Europe and the USA and quickly found numerous followers there.

The teaching of Ohsawa

Ohsawa's life's work consisted in the further development and teaching of macrobiotics , which he considered to be the only way to achieve happiness, health and a long life. Ohsawa's two main works are "The Miracle of Dietetics" (about the philosophy of the Far East) and "Zen Macrobiotics" (about his dietetics and the practice of Far Eastern medicine).

For him, macrobiotics is a philosophical system and a practice.

According to Ohsawa, macrobiotics is fundamentally the basis of science and of all philosophies and religions of the Far East. Its implementation is the solution to all practical problems in life. For Ohsawa it is therefore important to recognize the perception of reality, i.e. the laws of nature, and to apply them in daily life. The basis: The world is a manifestation of the embodied infinite, one and undifferentiated. This one infinite principle can be divided into two principles: an expanding force (yin) and a constricting force (yang). Through their opposition, the infinite manifests itself. Nevertheless, it always remains divided. Both forces are striving to unite again. This constant re-creation of the (lost?) Unity creates all phenomena of the manifest world through the interaction of mutually complementary opposites. Since this phenomenon is infinite and the relative world is an expression of this phenomenon, every stage of development in the world is a different stage of evolution. This view therefore includes the concepts of the unity of all things, that of unbroken continuity and that of constant change.

Works

Published in German are u. a .:

  • Zen macrobiotics
  • Macrobiotics
  • life and death
  • The only principle. The philosophy of macrobiotics
  • Practical Guide to Macrobiotic Medicine of the Far East
  • Life guide macrobiotics
  • You too are Sanpaku
  • Macrobiotic nutrition according to Ohsawa. Translated from Japanese and compiled by Jiro Nakamura and Marie Arnoldi, Fritz Gebhard Verlag, Heidelberg, 11th revised edition 1980, no ISBN.

literature

  • Ronald E. Kotzsch: Macrobiotics. Yesterday and Today. Japan Publications, Tokyo a. a. 1985, ISBN 0-87040-611-6 .

Web links

Commons : George Ohsawa  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
Wikiquote: Georges Ohsawa  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ macro-biotic.jp ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.macro-biotic.jp
  2. ↑ Ohsawa: Practical Guide to Macrobiotic Medicine of the Far East. Verlag Mahajiva, Holthausen 1990, ISBN 3-924845-31-X , pp. 11-12.
personal data
SURNAME Ohsawa, Georges
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sakurazawa, Nyoichi (pseudonym); 桜 沢 如一 (real name, Japanese); Sakurazawa, Musagendo (pseudonym); Sakurazawa, Yukikazu (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese philosopher, founder of macrobiotic nutrition and philosophy
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1893
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1966