How was Shiatsu created in Japan?

The trigger for Tokujiro Namikoshi Sensei to create shiatsu therapy was to treat his mother's rheumatism.

Tokujiro was born in 1905 in Kagawa Prefecture, a warm area of Japan. The family moved to Hokkaido when he was 7 years old. It was a village at the foot of Mt. Yotei, an unexplored land at that time and a village without doctors.

The family was to live here, and soon after moving, his mother started complaining about knee pain. Suddenly, the change of the cold Hokkaido climate and the tiredness of the trip from the warm southern land might have responded to the body. The pain was getting stronger and the ankles, wrists, elbows, shoulders, etc. became worse.
It was a disease name called multiple rheumatoid arthritis.

At that time there were no medicines and no doctors. So the family members had no choice but to rub and put pressure on the painful areas in turns.

His brother continued to smooth rub his mother's body from morning to night .
Over time, his mother's pain began to become less.

His mother always said, "Your hand is the most comfortable," and the mother said, "It's easier if you press here with your palms like this," or "You should press with your fingers."

Tokukiro Sensei began to press softly and slowly with his fingers and palms and he learned all the tricks.

This was an opportunity to create Shiatsu therapy. After that, he studied everything about the human body, determined the basic pressure point of the whole body's shiatsu, like the acupressure points, and organized Shiatsu therapy physiologically and anatomically.

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