What is Shiatsu?

The term Shiatsu comes from the Japanese words shi, meaning finger, and atsu, meaning pressure. According to the Japanese Medical Department of the Ministry of Welfare, Shiatsu technique refers to the “use of fingers and palm of one's hand to apply pressure on particular sections of the surface of the body for the purpose of correcting its imbalances, and for maintaining and promoting health.”

One of the defining aspects of Shiatsu is “Combined Diagnosis and Therapy”. It refers to the use of sensory organs (such as palms, fingers, and thumbs) to detect imbalances in the energetic components of the body, and to perform empirically established routines to correct these problems.

Origins of Shiatsu

The Japan Shiatsu College was founded in 1940 by Tokujiro Namikoshi. Unlike other Chinese and Japanese traditional hands-on-therapy that preceded it, Namikoshi’s Shiatsu reconciled the ancient massage arts of Japan with Western medicine, basing his therapy on Western anatomy and physiology.

Shiatsu has continued to evolve over time; different kinds and styles of Shiatsu now exist and are referred to as types of Derivative Shiatsu. Since the 1980s the evolution of Shiatsu has mainly taken place outside of Japan, mainly in Western Europe and North America.