45 Start Your Day with Cup of Urine

Uroposia of the Yuro Clan


One word sums up in a nutshell the fact that humans drank their urine from old. The word, "uriposia," can be found in modern Western medical dictionaries. "Uri" takes the same root as "urine." "Posia" refers to drinking. Putting the two together yeilds "drinking urine." Uriposia in Greek. The fact that it appears in modern Western medical dictionaries is evidence of the existence of the practice. If that was not the case, it wouldn't be fonund in the dictionaries.

One of my friends in the publishing industry gave me a copy of Seicho Matsumoto's Genjin and suggested I read the chapter about mysterious medicines, which I have included here in part. I have included this passage to substantiate the widespread existence of urine therapy in Korean and China, as I have elated from my talks with Chinese and Koreans.


The excerpt, from pages 78-79 of the original, revolves around a conversation between Suian and Genpo.

"Have you ever read Sangokushi?"

"Of course I have. It's the story about the three warring stated, Gi, Shu and Go which emerged at the end of the Eastern Han period of Chinese history(220AD)."

"That's right. There was a geopgraphical history in the work entitled History of he Gi State that covers the tales of the Toi tribe. This is where the Yuro people lived. Today that is the Bo Hai region in eastern Manchuria. The Yuro people built their villages around communal latrines in the village center. As the area is very cold, it was hard on them to have to use ourtdoor latrines in subfreezing temperatures in the winter. Consequently, it is assumed that they built indoor toilets, as History of the Gi State derides these people as unclean. I think that's because the Yuro people washed their faces, hands and entire bodies with urine.

"Do you really think so?"

44 Start your day with a cup of urine

Forgotten Chinese Korean Hereditary Secret


One day, one of my Japanese patients in Toronto brought along a Chinese friend who was anxious to see the type of treatment I performed. When I launched into the efficacy of urine therapy, the old man replied in excellent Japanese.

"Oh yes, urine therapy. Where did you hear about that? Urine treatment is an old Chinese family secret that has been handed down through the ages. That's right. Urine can cure anything. Urine has gone into decline since the development of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, but in the old days, all medicine was made from excrement and urine. You're aware of the famous Goou medicine from Toyama Prefecture? That's made of cow manure. All these medicines came from China. Modern medicine is no good. The best medicine is that made by God, not by man," he said, laughing heartily.

A Korean acquaintance of mine who lived 10 years in Toronto related to me an interesting story about the medicinal effects of urine and manure. Once during his childhood, he developed a strange cyst on his buttocks. To teat this, his father fanned the fumes from burnt human excrement that had been specially dehydrated toward the cyst twice a day for two days. The cyst oozed with pus and cleared up shortly afterwards. Fumes from burnt dehydrated manure were also used to revive dying trees, he said. Even today, urine and manure are used as medicine in rural Korea, he noted.

43 Start Your Day with a Cup of Urine

During one of these visits to the reservation around two summers ago, I brought up urine therapy, as usual. The patient, Stephen Forbister, was chief of the tribe on the reservation. As I told him about urine, his eyes widened in wonder.

"I've heard about this before," he exclaimed.

"In fact I think old man Adam Keewaton probably drinks it. He doesn't hear too well, you know. Nobody knows his age exactly, but he's getting on in years, that's for sure. Everyone marvels that he has never been sick. I have a feeling he drinks urine. I'll ask him about it the next time I see him," Stephen said.

Unfortunately, the story ends here. I wanted to ask Adam about urine myself, but didn't have enough Ojibwa (tribal language) skills to talk to him, and before I knew it, I had to leave the reservation. Adam's story weighed heavily on my mind, but before I could confirm it, I had to move on to the next reservation in Kakuwanaga on the eastern edge of Ontario.

After returning to Toronto, I told my Indian friend, Vern Herper about my talk with Chief Forbister. Vern was living in the city and started urine therapy as soon as I told him about it. He was so impressed by its efficacy, he recommended it to virtually all his acquaintances.

The moment I told him about my experience at Grassy Narrows, he blurted out, "As a matter of fact, I've been waiting to tell you something as well. I heard about urine therapy just the other day in a meeting of the elders at a reservation in Manitoba. They asked me to speak up at the meeting, but nothing came to mind, so I mentioned urine therapy. One of the elders said the Indians had practiced urine therapy from long ago, but were stopped by the white missionaries. He surprised me by saying the Indians need to start up urine therapy again. Urine therapy is nothing new. So, there's no doubt the old man on the Grassy Narrows Reservation drinks his urine."

Vern spoke jubilantly as though he had trapped some big game.

42 Start Your Day with Cup of Urine

One day, my landlady, Mrs. Shkilnyk, 78, called me up to her apartment on the second floor of the building. She told me there were some people she wanted me to meet.

There in her apartment were three Caucasian men, Ukrainians actually, who had imigrated to Canada after the war. She introduced them to me individually. The moment I had shaken hands with the last of the three, she grasped the shoulder of the second mand and said, "For over a decade now this fellow has been practicing the urine therapy you are advocating. How old does he look to you?"

I peered at him closely and told her I thought he was about 60 or so.

"Way off. He's older than I am; 85 to be precise. He says he's never been sick once, not even a cold. Maybe I'll try this urine therapy after all."

I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by her comment, particularly since she had resisted urine therapy so stridently until then. As I gazed at the man before me, I felt a growing conviction about the power of urine.


After leaving the Grassy Narrow Reservation in 1981, I made a point to visit at least once or twic a year. The main reason for my visits was to give the Indians acupuncture treatment. The Indians living on the reservation have found their time-honored traditions destroyed by modern Western civilization. To compound matters, they cannot adapt to modern Western civilization, and are forced to eke out an existence in limbo somewhere between the two. Additionally, organic mercury effluent from the nearby paper factory has caused physical damage and is casting a dark shadow over their daily lives. Yet the Canadian government had made no move to set up special medical facilities for them. So I decided to visit them to help ease their physical pain, if even a little.

41 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

Urine Therapy as Practiced by Japanese Nobility

Another one of my patients, an ethnic Japanese who was born in Canada but later returned to Japan, related yet another story about urine therapy. The patient's parents had emigrated to Canada before the outbreak of WWII but returned to Japan upon the start of the war, only to return to Canada after the war ended. When I told the woman, then 45 years old, about urine therapy, her eyes clouded over as though she was recalling something from the past.

"My grandmother told me this story while I was living with her as a youngster," she said.

"Back in the old days when Grandma was a child, things were still very scarce and most Japanese were very poor. Girls born into poor families were often sent out to work as live-in maids and babysitters. Our family lived in the mountains of Shiga Prefecture, and being a poor country farming household, Grandma was sent to be a live-in maid at a rich household in Kyoto. Grandma said the master of the household was a member of the nobility with some kind of connection with the Imperial family, but unfortunately, I don't remember his name."

"Everyone there drank a cup of their first urine in the morning for their health, Grandma said. They suggested Grandma to try it, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. So she was told to drink a cup of vinegar every morning, which she did. Incredibly, none of the family members got sick once during the six years Grandma worked at their household. And Grandama didn't catch a single cold during that time either, perhaps due to the vinegar."

If this episode is true, and I believe it is, it provides clear evidence that urine therapy was practiced in Japan. There is a good chance that many Japanese urine therapy practicers are "closet practitioners" who do so in total secrecy

40 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

Soon after the meeting with Mauro and Yukka, Mauro brought a Jewish fellow to my apartment. He was studying movie making at York University and was interested in doing a film on urine therapy after hearing about it from Mauro. He had gotten the approval of the entire class to make the film and said he could drum up the necessary funding for the film.

I was taken aback by the unexpected proposition, but decided to lend my assistance, since plans had already progressed that far. I was personally interested in film making and had even made a film of the Indians while I was on the reservation. But the question of how to depict urine therapy on film was a difficult one.

The young film maker was for having the film in a documentary interview style, including interviews with Western medical doctors. The scene of filling a glass with urine and drinking it would be left to Mauro and Yukka. I would have about a half hour to introduce relevant books and relate my experiences. Three days later, a group of 10 students gathered at the Jewish fellow's apartment for the actual filming.

The students gazed at me askance, seemingly rather incredulous, yet interested in what I had to say. The room was arraged around four old-fashioned film lights that were focused on a big desk which just barely fit into the room. I was seated in the center behind the desk. With their intense countenances upon me, I found my heart pounding. My nervousness got even worse about five minutes before the actual filming was to commence, so much so that I had to go over my speech in my head a couple of times.

The filming went off without much mishap. They said it would be possible to see the rushes in about a month, following development and editing. But as I had to return to Japan sooner than expected, I was unable to see the finished product.

It is regrettable that I was unable to follow up on either the doctor or the film. The reason I brought up these two episodes is my desire to convey to readers the frank and open-minded nature of the Canadian people.

Just think what the outcome would have been had these episodes taken place in Japan. It would be unheard of for a doctor to call on me and listen intently to my experiences. I doubt any Japanese doctor would be willing to personally try urine therapy. Doctors are reverently worshipped by the public, perhaps because they studied long and hard at medical school. For that reason, they have taken it into their heads that they stand head and shoulders above everyone else. Personally, I think this is a serious social misconception.

39 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

Visit from the Homeopathist


Homeopathy is a branch of medicine that perceives limits to modern Western medicine and chemothrapeutic agents and tries to draw on the body's own natural healing powers, utilizing vitamins and herbal medicines to treat ill people. Although such doctors are still a rarity in Japan, they are found increasingly in urban centers in Canada and the United States.

The very next afternoon, Yukka's family doctor called and asked me to tell her about urine therapy. She had graduated from the University of Nova Scotia and set out her shingle six years earlier. Anxious to try anything that would help her patients, she called on my apartment that very evening. I told her in detail of my experiences, showed her the book on urine therapy written by Englishman J.W. Armstrong and offered her a cup of coffee. She was also very interested in palm treatment.

I told her I would be happy if Mauro and Yukka's health was restored and suggested she try urine therapy once she saw its effect on the two. But she said she would try it the very next day. To be truthful, I was overwhelmed by her readiness in accepting urine therapy.

She also asked me to treat her painful hip with palm treatment. I obliged and started to treat her right there. After about an hour, the pain in her hip (which actually originated in her kidneys) was relieved. She had a look of disbelief written all over her face. As she left for home, she exclaimed a doctor shouldn't be called a true doctor unless he or she can actually heal the sick.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to learn how she progressed afterwards, as I returned to Japan soon afterwards. But I have a feeling she is recommending urine therapy to her patients.

38 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

Early the next morning, Mauro appeared at my apartment looking very invigorated. He brought along a friend, Yukka, a stewardess from Air Canada. Yukka had escaped the political turmoil of Hungary in 1952 and came to Canada as a political refugee. She hadn't had a period in four years, perhaps because of her irregular work schedule.

While I was treating her, she related a very interesting story about urine.

"I was very interested in your urine therapy, which Mauro told me about last night," she said.

"To be truthful, I was recently asked by a television station to interview Hungarians who are now traveling in Canada. They told me that in rural Hungary, wives mix a bit of their menstrual blood and urine into their husband's morning coffee to strengthen their husbands' bonds of fidelity toward them. They said it was an old custom that is still practiced in Hungary today. I wanted to ask my family doctor about this, but wanted to get your opinion first," she said.

"It's up to you whether to ask a Western doctor his opinion about urine. The main problem is how knowledgeable he or she is about its efficacy," I replied.

"It may be a good idea to bring it up with your family doctor. One of my friends, Dr. Newberry, previously told me that urine is bacteria-free, so there should be no problem in drinking it. Since your doctor is a homeopathist, she should be knowledgeable about urine. Please tell me what she has to say," I told her.

Yukka visited her family doctor the very nxt day.

37 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

Water of Roses


A young Italian fellow paid a visit to my Toronto apartment one day. Introducing himself as Mauro, he said his friend Brando had recommended me. He said he was in terrible condition, he had been to Western doctors on numerous occasions but had always come away with a packet of medicines which only made his condition worse.

I went to his room and started treating him immediately. I always tell my patients about the type of treatment I perform and its effects. I also tell them about urine therapy, depending on their attitude. That's because even if a patient tries urine, his or her condition usually reverts back to its former state if he or she doesn't believe in its efficacy. Each part of the body has the power to heal natually. But the onset of illness is an indication that that power is on the wane.

I explained this to Mauro. He turned to me with a bewildered expression. "I've heard about urine therapy," he exclaimed.

"As a kid, my mom always told me that urine is the 'water of roses,' particularly when she was changing my sister's diapers. 'It's very important,' she would always say. Sometimes she would rub my face with my sister's diapers."

Mauro vowed to try urine therapy the very next day. I left him beaming as though he had discovered some priceless treasure.

36 Start Your Day with a Glass of Urine

As I noted before, I don't recommend urine therapy per se. I leave it to the individual to try it once he or she believes in its curing powers. This woman was convinced urine was her only alternative. In her case, physical reactions to urine appeared immediately. These reactions, curing pain (koten hanno), are such that it appears as though one's condition has worsened, but, in fact, they indicated that the body is changing for the better and moving toward a higher plane of well being.

I made house calls daily during the threee-week period this Canadian woman was experiencing these reactions, giving her acupuncture and palm treatments. At one point, her condition seemed to have deteriorated so much that her family urged her to enter the hospital, but she steadfastly refused. This decision paid off; in a month her asthma attacks stopped and she returned to normal. Afterwards she had occasional attacks, abut they were much less severe and eventually disappeared completely.

With this experience behind me, I told the Okinawan woman that urine therapy would help her bronchiectasis. But I explained carefully about koten hanno and told her to continue drinking urine for at least three years if she really believed in urine's efficacy no matter what types of reactions she experienced. I also stressed that urine therapy was responsible for her grandfather's remarkable health and his peaceful death.

A few days later I got another call from her. She said she had started immediately after our talk. I reminded her that one of my asthma patients in Toronto was cured by urine and assured her that people with similar symtoms woul be cured.