George Ohsawa

George Ohsawa, born Nyoichi Sakurazawa (櫻澤 如一, , October 18, 1893 – April 23, 1966^?), was 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. George Ohsawa introduced the oriental concept of health to Westerners in the mid-20th century, writing about 300 books in Japanese and 20 in French during a 40-year period. He defined health with seven criteria: lack of tiredness or fatigue; good appetite; good sleep; good memory; good humour; precision of thought and action; gratitude.

Ohsawa was born into a poor samurai family during the Meiji Restoration in Shingu City Wakayama pref Japan. He had no money for higher education. Around this time, his spiritual path started. Around 1913, Ohsawa joined the Shoku-yo Kaimovement, studying with Manabu Nishibata (a direct disciple of the late Sagen Ishizuka) in Tokyo. William Dufty described the circumstances of Nyoiti’s family:

Ohsawa states in his books that he cured himself from tuberculosis at age 19 by applying the ancient concept of yin and yang that originated in China, as well as the teachings of Sagen Ishizuka.

Later he traveled to Europe, particularly Paris, France where he began to spread his philosophy (it is in this period he supposedly adopted his new pen name "Ohsawa", after 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.

...
Wikipedia