Tokujiro Namikoshi, creator of Namikoshi Shiatsu therapy, was born in November 3^rd of 1905 in Kagawa, Shikoku island; but at the age of seven years old, he and all his family –his father Eikichi, his mother Masa, first born Moichi, second child Masazo, his younger brother Haruo, and his oldest sister Sadako- they moved from warm climate of inner sea Seto to severe life conditions of northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The removal change their way of life and they had a painful journey, especially if we have in mind that the transport by that time was primitive. Next day after the end of the journey, the mother started to feel aches in her knees. At the beginning, the family thought that it was just the result of so long and so unusual trip, but they did not take it seriously. After a while, the pain was getting bigger and it extended to ankles, wrists, elbows and shoulders, it became what we call today multi rheumatism.

There was not a doctor in the village where they lived. There was no medicine available. Even knowing that her children could not stand watching her in suffer, the only thing that they could do was taking turns to caress and pressure the aching zones of her body. Maybe, her children wish to help her was transmitted to the mother, and she started a less painful period. Frequently, she said to Tokujiro:” your hands are the ones that make me feel better”. This praise encouraged the lad to work harder in his mother treatment. He was ignorant of any anatomy or physiology, but his sensitive hands and fingers felt differences in skin conditions, warmness, and tightness; and he adjusted his pressure depending on these variations. At the beginning he used 80% rubbing and 20% pressuring, but soon he realized that it was more effective interchanging the percentage. He focused over coldest and most tight parts of the body, so her mother’s health improved faster. He pressured middle zone on both sides of spinal cord so, without any knowledge, he stimulated suprarenal gland to free cortisone which heals rheumatism. Finally, he achieve a total recovery of his mother, and this experimental way, without any knowledge, showed the obstinate powers of self healing that human organism has. He was able to stimulate these powers, and this is the beginning of Shiatsu. After he passed over difficulties in the study of Chinese anma and western massage, Tokujiro Namikoshi opened up in 1925, in Hokkaido, Shiatsu Institute of Therapy.

As the time passed by, some of the people that went to receive treatment, they become his pupils. In 1933, after leaving them in charge of the school, he went to Tokyo to open another Shiatsu Institute, but he realized that to obtain an open recognition of this technique he need the cooperation of other people. His devotion in this task had a final result in February 11^th of 1940 with the establishment of a Japanese Shiatsu Institute. The therapy and conferences obtained a huge recognition for the effects of Shiatsu treatment. In 1955, for first time ever, Shiatsu was legalized.