George Ohsawa (born Nyoichi Sakurazawa (櫻澤 如一); October 18, 1893 – April 23, 1966) was a Japanese author and proponent of alternative medicine who was the founder of the macrobiotic diet.

Around 1913, he joined the Shokuiku movement, studying with Manabu Nishibata, a direct disciple of the late Sagen Ishizuka, in Tokyo.

William Dufty describes the background ("Nyoiti" is a variant transcription of "Nyoichi"):[2] The gradual introduction of sugar into the Japanese diet brought in its wake the beginning of Western diseases.

It was in this period that he adopted his pen name "Ohsawa", supposedly from the French Oh, ça va,[citation needed] which means "All right" or "I'm doing fine" as a reply to the question "how are you doing?").

Over 100,000 copies were distributed before he was incarcerated and tortured by the Kempeitai in May and faced continued violence from the police, right-wing groups, and military.

[5] Ohsawa also created a stir by predicting the deaths of several notable people, including John F. Kennedy[6] based on the condition known in Japan as "sanpaku" (literally "three whites"), a traditional Japanese physiognomic diagnosis in which a white area below as well as to each side of the iris appears when the eye is viewed straight on.

The assassination of President Kennedy led Tom Wolfe to write:[7][8] Abdul Karim Kassem, Ngo Dinh Diem, and President Kennedy, all sanpaku and, now, shot to death, all destroyed by the fate of the sanpaku, which is more than coincidence and should be an alarm signal to men and nations, say the Macrobiotics, for thus it has been demonstrated by their leader, George Ohsawa, Japanese prophet of the Unique Principle.This article caught the attention of William Dufty, who, finding relief in the brown rice diet recommended by Ohsawa, became an advocate of macrobiotics, and traveled to Paris to meet with Ohsawa and publisher Felix Morrow.