HISTORY OF SHIATSU
Shiatsu is considered a typically Japanese technique, but its origins date back to ancient Chinese philosophical ideas.
In the sixth century A.D. monks brought from China to Japan a synthesis of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Trade between the two peoples favored important channels of cultural exchange and in the seventh century a delegation of Japanese students were invited by the emperor to China to study medical techniques. In the era in which Japan was run by dynasties of Samurai warriors, martial arts became particularly important. All these war techniques and in particular ju jitsu learned how and where to strike, with minimum effort and maximum effectiveness, from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), studying the vital points of the human body.
Shiatsu was born in Japan at the beginning of 1900, as a reworking of another type of manual treatment, the Anma, evolved during the Edo period (1602-1868) in Japan, which in turn derives from the Tuinà, which is one of the branches of TCM, whose first written text dates back to about 200 BC, and already looks like a codification of a very ancient tradition.
It was only around 1900 that Shiatsu took shape and substance. The creator was Tamai Tempaku, who published a book called "Shiatsu Ho" (digital pressure method) in 1919. An expert in Anpuku, Anma and Do-in, his influence was decisive for the formation of two important personalities such as Tokujiro Namikoshi and Shizuto Masunaga, who would then make Shiatsu known throughout the world.
The word Shiatsu means, in Japanese, "to press with the fingers", and in fact Shiatsu uses manual pressure on certain parts and points of the human body. According to Shiatsu, in our body there are energy channels, the meridians, along which flows the vital energy, Ki, and each of them is connected to an organ. Pressing stimulates the affected meridians and related points, with the pressure of the thumbs and palms, it acts in an analgesic way on the organs, obtaining an effect both at physiological and psychological level.
BENEFITS
The practice of Shiatsu brings benefits at various levels. Although it is not possible to make an exhaustive list of all the positive effects brought, we can mention some:
- Creates global psychophysical well-being
- Fights stress
- Improves and regularizes metabolism
- Stimulates individual abilities
- Helps in solving hormonal and intestinal problems and irregularities
- Relieves cervical, lumbago, back and headaches
- Improves circulation
- Has lymphatic drainage effects
- Regulates the sleep/wake cycle (insomnia)
- Fights anxiety and depression
- Trigeminal neuralgia
- Muscle pain
TOKUJIRO NAMIKOSHI
Tokujiro Namikoshi, very young in 1905, moved with his entire family from the countryside of Hokkaido to an island in northern Japan. Because of the very harsh climate, his mother was struck by arthritis in her knees that spread to many other areas of her body. Tokujiro, still very young, decided that he had to help his mother and began to experiment with a technique based on pressure applied with his hands; slowly he realized that the treatments to which he subjected his mother, brought improvements to the state of disease of the parent. Continuing with the experiments he noticed that by pressing on both sides of the back, the glands intended to produce cortisone were stimulated, producing a curative effect for rheumatism. Tokujiro opened the Shiatsu Institute in Hokkaido in 1925 after completing his studies in Anma and Western massage. He left the school in 1933 under the supervision of some of his students to go to Tokyo and found a new school to make his technique known, this happened in 1940. In 1957 it was legally recognized by the American Ministry of Health under the name of Japan Shiatsu School and it was very successful. Namikoshi's style, just because it is recognized by western medicine, does not contemplate in its treatments the theory of meridians; it requires a deep knowledge of the skeletal-muscular structure of the human body and of the nervous system.
SHIZUTO MASUNAGA
Shizuto Masunaga, born in 1925 in the suburbs of Hiroshima (Japan), was the founder and President of the Iokai Shiatsu center in Tokyo. He graduated in psychology from the University of Kyoto and later taught at the University of Tokyo. He was influenced by his mother who had studied Shiatsu with Master Tempaku and graduated from Namikoshi's school, where he remained as a teacher for about ten years. Towards the end of the twentieth century, Shizuto Masunaga brought Shiatsu back to its origins, developing his own personal style, which he called Zen Shiatsu, integrating the studies of Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine with the knowledge of Western Physiology. This system considers the recipient as a whole: through the meridians, a system of channels for the flow of Ki, the operator acts on the mind, spirit, emotions and body of the person. This reflects the simplicity and the spiritual approach of the Japanese Buddhist monks. Zen Shiatsu introduces a diagnostic system known as Kyo/Jitsu which examines the energy present in the meridians, whether it is in defect (Kyo) or in excess (Jitsu) and a new series of exercises, Makko-Ho, specifically to help the flow of Ki within the meridians. Masunaga also developed a form of abdominal diagnosis known as Hara diagnosis and extended the traditional meridian path used in acupuncture to include additional paths. After his death in 1981, his students began teaching and spreading Zen Shiatsu; in particular Wataru Ohashi, Masunaga's collaborator, contributed to the development and spread of this style in America, personalizing it according to his own needs. Masunaga's style of Shiatsu stimulates study and personal development; his theories are now widespread in the USA and Europe.
