Zen Shiatsu And The Art Of Healing


By Rebecca Prescott





In developing zen shiatsu, Masunaga facilitated a more complete understanding of the meridian system. He taught how to use the meridians to balance a person’s psychological and physical systems so that the body was in a greater position to heal itself.

Zen shiatsu is generally less painful than Namikoshi’s style, in the hands of a skilled practitioner. The reason is that both hands are kept on the body, and the object is to find the most ‘kyo’ and most ‘jitsu’ meridians, and work on these together. Kyo refers to an ’empty’ meridian – that is, one with the least amount of energy. And jitsu in this context means a meridian with an excessive amount of energy. So, by working on the two together, the body achieves a state of balance.

When a zen shiatsu practitioner is diagnosing for kyo and jitsu, the awareness is on the relationship of meridians to each other. They define each other. If a person’s body was in a complete state of balance, there would be no kyo or jitsu. But if one meridian becomes kyo or jitsu, it causes an imbalance in another. So the key is to assess the meridians in relation to each other to find the ‘match’, that when treated, will balance out.

Shiatsu can be practised at home, on oneself, on family and friends. But a professional shiatsu involves the practitioner having both a good grasp of treatment and diagnosis. Diagnosis, in shiatsu and Oriental medicine, is quite different to the western medical approach. Shiatsu takes a very individualized approach – it doesn’t look for a disease with a set criteria of symptoms. Rather, it assesses the energetic and physical balance – or imbalance- within the conditions the individual is presenting, and treats accordingly. So even though two people may come in with headaches, the treatment, the choice of meridians, the combination of stretches, would be different.


1. Chris Jarmey and Gabriel Mojay, Shiatsu
2. Shizuto Masunaga and Wataru Ohashi, Zen Shiatsu

Rebecca Prescott runs the website http://www.articlehealthandfitness.com Learn more about Massage Therapy and Bodywork here, and there are articles on aromatherapy here.


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