Principal differences among the styles |
 In Japan the technique is characterized by a fixed form the kata, that is repeated with few varying on all the people; the pressures are intense, often over the threshold of the pain in the search of the maximum effectiveness; the general effect is predominantly invigorating; it is generally a very effective technique but hardly a westerner ax certain levels of physical suffering. In fact the Japanese native styles, particularly the method Namikoshi, has not spread in west. |
 In U.S.A. the shiatsu is modified suiting himself/herself/itself for the applications and the expectations of that people; he is in practice turned into a pleasant and relaxing treatment, but substantially deprived of deep effectiveness. In the practice American (the style Ohashi constitutes the most evident example of it) shiatsus are practically disappeared the intense pressures and you/he/she has become wealthy of stretchings, articular mobilizations, rocking etc., undoubtedly pleasant but poorly effective on the plan of the "energetic awakening"; all of this has confined the practical shiatsu in the world of the relaxing massages, heavily limiting the market of it. |
 In Europe the shiatsu, answering to the social question of health that had spread in the seventies as reaction to the crisis of trust towards the public health, as alternative therapy immediately is qualified, placing side by side himself/herself/itself to all the other conventional (homeopathy, fitoterapia, chiropractic, osteopathy etc) medical practices not .che in these years they are developed and you/they have conquered a vast area of market also imposing himself/herself/itself to institutional level. You/he/she has known in this form a notable success that has brought him/it to a diffusion unprecedented in west and you/he/she has returned his dignity of incisive and effective practice. But today it risks to lose his/her possibilities of development, being confined within the sanitary universe, inadequate both as cultural (the shiatsu is not directly finalized to the care of the pathologies) universe and as potentiality of proposal to the public; also because, planning him/it shiatsu as alternative therapy, the operators you/they have moved their attention from the quality and effectiveness of the pressures to the aspects of diagnosis and therapy (you borrow for the more from the Chinese medicine), losing himself/herself/itself in abstract analysis and theoretical speculations. The "therapist shiatsu" European today's he/she works more with the head that with thumbs and elbows, it is more expert than Chinese theories that skilled in the manualità and all of this has seriously diminished the ability of immediate and concrete impact that constitutes the strength of the shiatsu. |
| | Namikoshi | Masunaga |
| Cultural model of reference | model structural-orthopedic scientific westerner | oriental energetic model with mediations physiological-anatomical modern |
| Operational model of reference | codification of a based map on the original definition of a series of anatomo-physiological points (select, it seems, primarily for their effectiveness the position on muscular insertions, innervazioni, lymphatic ganglions etc.) | codification of a based map on the original riscrittura of energetic runs |
| Technique of pressure | thumbs pressures overlapped (few thumb pressures only) | pressures with knuckles, elbows and knees with a hand that "it holds" (the hand "mother") in various forms another part of the body or the treated limb. |
| Formality of pressure | pressures repeated more times on the same point before passing to other point | pressures brought once alone on every point, repeated along the energetic run |
| Used maps | | |
