Shiatsu Massage

Written by: Jesse Ling / MassageGirls Staff Writer
Added on: Sat Sep 26 2009

Shiatsu massage is a traditional form of therapeutic massage where pressure is applied to certain body parts to bring relief. It gets its medical background from traditional Japanese medicine. The name is a combination of the Japanese word 'shi' meaning hand and 'atsu' meaning pressure, which offers direction on how the massage is done.

Shiatsu is today a licensed medical procedure recognized by governing bodies created by Shiatsu practitioners. Though it has come a long way, Shiatsu is still evolving and has today grown to accommodate modern medical anatomy and physiology.

Shiatsu massage can also be put in the same class as the Chinese therapies of acupuncture and Tui Na. In the early days Shiatsu used to be performed by women and the blind and was considered an almost spiritual practice.

From that time Shiatsu has been integrated with western anatomy and physiology through the work of Namikoshi Tokujiro considered as the father of this type of Shiatsu. It is said he discovered the art when he was seven years old by coincidence as he was helping his ailing mother who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.

Tokujiro founded a school in the 1940's to teach Shiatsu and a teacher who worked at that school-Shizuto Masanuga later went out and opened his own school and gave rise to a different form of Shiatsu massage based on Chinese medical practices and called it the Zen style. Masanuga later published a book on Zen Shiatsu which was largely responsible in taking the expertise past Japanese borders.

The proponents of Namikoshi's type of Shiatsu refuse to accept the Zen shiatsu and other types developed and practiced later on and describe them as derivative Shiatsu. They therefore continue to devote their efforts to bringing together the ancient practices of Shiatsu with western medicine in line with the Japanese resolve to adopt western practices in their culture.

Masanuga followers however keep with the Chinese medicine and went back to Taoist literature on acupuncture to further strengthen their theory and practice. Shiatsu massaging arts have grown to involve therapy by mind concentration as in the yoga practices of Buddhists.

Shiatsu basically operates on applying pressure to places in the body that are directly linked to the central nervous system. This therapy merge the medical acts of diagnosis and therapy at the same instance. It relies on the expertise of the practitioner through the sensory nerves in their hands and fingers to feel anomalies in the body as they massage it and then carry out practical routines to rectify the anomalies.

As can be imagined this requires a lot of experience and thus shiatsu is an art that requires a lot of diligence and commitment to master.

It should also be noted that Shiatsu can also be applied as preventive therapy. By taking care of the body in its entirety rather than focusing on just one area,

Shiatsu improves the entire immune system such that it can provide more protection from diseases.

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