View Single Post
Old 09-02-2008, 10:56 AM   #8
Peter Goldsbury
 
Peter Goldsbury's Avatar
Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,308
Japan
Offline
Re: Misogi - The diet part

Quote:
Ellis Amdur wrote: View Post
Nah, the salt water thing was a stupid macho competition he got into with a Japanese yoga fellow at the Omotokyo headquarters. This allegedly damaged his health.
My understanding is that the Misogi-kai from Kenzo Futaki and then Abe Seiseki emphasized a specialized diet, including brown rice. Ueshiba, I recall reading, would eat such a diet when staying with Abe, but did not otherwise subscribe to it.
Best
On Lou Perriello's website, I saw a photo of Masatake Sekiya Sensei. The photo was clearly taken after I knew both gentlemen. Lou had separated from the New England Aikikai and Sekiya Sensei had aged somewhat, since I trained under him in the UK around 1978. Sekiya Sensei came to live in the UK for a year at the request of his son-in-law, K Chiba, in order to ease the pain for the British Aikikai of Chiba's withdrawal from the UK and his handover to Minoru Kanetsuka.

The point of this post is that the Sekiyas were macrobiotic and that Mrs Sekiya had cooked for O Sensei in the very last years of his life. Nothing about misogi: everything about 'balance'.

Actually, this was a very interesting experience for some members of the British Aikikai. Kanetsuka Sensei and his wife Susan were in the middle of very serious research into 'food suitable for aikido' and aikido was being very actively promoted for health at that time. So there was very much brown rice and miso soup in the Kanetsuka household (which was actually very good indeed). Sekiya Sensei accepted this, but gently argued that it was all a matter of balance of yin and yang. Genmai might be OK healthwise, but, really, what was lost on the yin roundabouts had to be regained on the yang swings at some point.

So there was no misogi diet for O Sensei, only 'balance'. I have mentioned the brown rice and miso regime in the Kanetsuka household and the closest thing I have ever been to a misogi diet was a small group of us surviving for two whole weeks exclusively on brown rice (the best California long-grain variety available in London) and green tea. I lost several kilos, became quite 'spaced out' on occasion, and remember that yonkyo somehow became much easier to accept--and do.

It was all the more interesting, therefore, to see that a certain Hombu deshi named Katsuki, sent to gain 'international experience' in the UK, cared nothing at all for brown rice or macrobiotics. After zazen and training on Saturday mornings at Ryushinkan, he always looked forward to a huge 'English' breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding, with bread fried in the fat, served in a nearby cafe close to the dojo. Occasionally he joked that this breakfast kept him going for the rest of the week. This opened our eyes to the 'reality' of the life of the Hombu-- always believed to be a Shangri-la of serious training, serious eating and--always--glowing health .

Best wishes to all,

Last edited by Peter Goldsbury : 09-02-2008 at 11:05 AM.

P A Goldsbury
_______________________
Kokusai Dojo,
Hiroshima,
Japan
  Reply With Quote