Profile
Born in 1935 in Kasukabe city, Saitama prefecture, Takeji now lives in Saitama city. In the autumn of his third year of high school, he was given the book “Eternal Boy” (written by Yukikazu Sakurazawa) by his teacher, Mr. Yorifumi Tsukada, and was impressed by the view of seeing things through food and became captivated by the fascinating nature of the Musou Principle. From the following January, Takeji began working to improve his food life at home. However, he was not understood by his family and, at 19 years old, left his house and entered the “Maison Ignoramus” led by Yukikazu Sakurazawa in Yoyogi Nishi-hara, Shibuya-ku. He first worked as a kitchen helper and then, after half a year of experience selling food and books at the agency, he got involved in editing the newspaper “World Government,” which was his lifelong goal along with Yoshimi Climac.
Takeji graduated from the English department (teacher training major) of Kanto Junior College in 1959, but only worked as a teacher for half a year and changed his job to the automobile industry. After 9 years working as a new car dealer, he opened his own used car dealership and then later joined the Mazda Autozam new car sales group, but this turned out to be a big failure.
He remembered attending the Japan Productivity Center Labor Academy and studying the wage system of a certain Japanese car dealer (he wrote a report on it) while experiencing the bubble and collapse of the Japanese economy.
However, at the private library “Monicodo Library” that he started in 1970 at the age of 35, he collected books and magazines related to macrobiotics, including Yukikazu’s works, in addition to literature books. Some of the magazines he has collected include “New World,” “Compa 21,” “Space Research,” “True Food Nutrition Society,” and many more.
In the spring of 2004, Takeji participated in the 38th anniversary memorial “Grave visit to remember the virtues” of Yukikazu Sakurazawa’s death, hosted by the Osaka Macrobiotic Association. This gave him an opportunity to publish the handmade book “The Country We Didn’t Know- MI Diary -” in 2008 (reissued by Bungeisha in 2015). After that, he participated in the establishment of the “Yukikazu Sakurazawa Material Room” of the Japan CI Association and recently has been focused on re-reading Yukikazu’s works and related books, as well as his own writing activities.
The books Takeji wrote include “The Country We Didn’t Know,” “Blinded by Love -Self-portrait of a Day in Youth-,” and five books in the “Universe on the Palm of Your Hand” series (published by Aunsha), including essays such as “The World as Seen through Food” and “What is Expression.” This April, as a tribute to Dr. Sakurazawa, volumes 1 and 2 of “The Worldview of Macrobiotics” were published by Aunsha.
The cooking class at his house is held once a month and is led by Michiko Saito, who has completed the cooking school instructor course at Lima Cooking School. In addition, once every other month, a “GO Study Group” is held, hosted by Shugo Nanabayashi.
