Where does Shiatsu come from?
A simple Japanese word meaning ‘finger pressure’, Shiatsu is the name coined earlier last century to describe an increasingly distinguished form of healing. Massage, along with acupuncture and herbalism, had for centuries been an integral part of traditional Chinese medicine. As it developed in Japan, however, the practice of massage known by the old name of ‘Anma’ became gradually divorced from medicine and more associated in people’s minds only with relaxation and pleasure. Certain practitioners were concerned to preserve massage and related techniques as an accepted healing art. Shiatsu thus emerged as a form of manual therapy incorporating gentle manipulations and stretches derived from newer disciplines such as physiotherapy and chiropractic, with pressure techniques exerted through the fingers or thumbs. Shiatsu became recognised by the Japanese Government as a therapy in its own right, distinct from Anma and Western Massage, in the middle of the 20th century. Oriental Medicine,
