Specificity of Tokujiro Namikoshi's method
There are two main characteristics that distinguish the Namikoshi method from others:
- Digital pressure is exerted almost exclusively with the fingertips of the thumbs and only exceptionally with the fingertips of the other fingers. Pressures, vibrations and wave movements are exerted with the palms of the hands. Pressures with elbows, knees and feet are excluded.
- The cultural model of reference is Western academic medicine.
"The Namikoshi school practices and teaches Shiatsu in relation to direct action on the joints, osteomuscular apparatus, tendons, muscles and especially on the peripheral nervous system, making the most of all the possibilities offered by reflexotherapy, activating all the body's own ability to receive a stimulus and transmit it, as well as in the nearby area, even in areas and organs distant from the point where the action took place." (Lo Shiatsu, Fabrizio Meloni, ed. Gli Abbicci).