Sagen Ishizuka
| Sagen Ishizuka | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | March 6, 1850 Japan |
| Died | October 17, 1909 (aged 59) Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Other names | 石塚左玄 |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | Food education, macrobiotic diet |
Sagen Ishizuka (石塚 左玄 Ishizuka Sagen?, March 6, 1850 – October 17, 1909) 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 kudzu.
He was born into a modest family of traditional doctors, and continued their tradition by going into medicine. Having little wealth, he ended up teaching himself basic techniques while working as a language teacher. By the age of 16 he had already learned the Dutch language, essential to study Western medicine in Japan (he later also successfully mastered German, French and English). During the next seven years he taught himself anatomy, botany, chemistry, physics and astronomy.
At the age of 24, he enlisted in the army as Imperial Japanese trainee doctor. At 31, he received the degree of military pharmacist and later of "military doctor." He remained in the army for 22 years, retiring with the high degree of "chief military pharmacist." This experience was very useful, since he was confronted in practice with all sorts of diseases and injuries (he participated in the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 and First Sino-Japanese War of 1894).
During his professional career he was disappointed by the western medical system and became gradually convinced that traditional medicine (which often relied on prescribing a simple change of diet) was more effective. He also suffered from eczema from childhood and chronic nephritis that conventional medicine could not heal. He developed a theory that the secret to health and healing was to strengthen the body from the inside from a balanced regime. The scheme was, however, almost the equivalent of the traditional Japanese diet (a way of eating that had been ignoring the opening of Japan to the West, towards the 1870s).
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