Shiatsu

Shiatsu (Kanji: 指圧; Hiragana: しあつ) is a form of Japanese bodywork based on the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine.

In the Japanese language, shiatsu means "finger pressure". Shiatsu techniques include massages with fingers, thumbs, feet and palms; assisted stretching; and joint manipulation and mobilization. To examine a patient, a shiatsu practitioner uses palpation and, sometimes, pulse diagnosis.

The word Shiatsu is Japanese. “Shi-” refers to finger, and “-atsu” means pressure. The Japanese Ministry of Health defines shiatsu as “a form of manipulation by thumbs, fingers and palms without the use of instruments, mechanical or otherwise, to apply pressure to the human skin to correct internal malfunctions, promote and maintain health, and treat specific diseases. The techniques used in shiatsu include stretching, holding, and most commonly, leaning body weight into various points along key channels.”

Shiatsu derives from a Japanese massage modality called anma which was itself adapted from tui na. Tui na is a Chinese bodywork system that arrived in Japan by at least the Nara period (710–793 CE). Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000) founded a shiatsu college in the 1940s, and is often credited with inventing modern shiatsu.

There is no evidence that shiatsu is an effective medical treatment.

Shiatsu evolved from anma, a Japanese massage modality developed in 1320 by Akashi Kan Ichi. Anma was popularised in the seventeenth century by acupuncturist Sugiyama Waichi, and around the same time the first books on the subject, including Fujibayashi Ryohaku's Anma Tebiki ("Manual of Anma"), appeared.

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