The Origin of Shiatsu · Since 1925
The Namikoshi Lineage
Four Generations of Shiatsu
Open daily,
11:00–19:00 JST (last session starts at 19:00)
Four generations, from 1925 to today.
Shiatsu began here in 1925, when Tokujiro Namikoshi gave form to a way of working with the body using only the hands and fingers.
What has been handed down through the Namikoshi family is more than knowledge of where and how to press.
It is the disposition that comes before technique: to face another person first as a person, and to lay one's hands on them with care for their body, drawing on the strength they already carry within themselves.
Now spanning more than a hundred years, this work has passed through four generations, from hand to hand and finger to finger, and continues today at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo.
To be the origin is not simply to be old.
It means having been the first to open the path, and choosing to keep that spirit clear rather than reshaping it to suit passing trends.
These pages follow the four generations of the Namikoshi lineage — Tokujiro, Toru, Takashi, and Tomoya — and the line of shiatsu that runs unbroken from its beginning to the present day.
Shiatsu was established under that name by Tokujiro Namikoshi in 1925 — and kept, in an unbroken line, by four generations of his family.
Tokujiro Namikoshi
浪越徳治郎
The Founder of Shiatsu
Shiatsu began in 1925 with Tokujiro Namikoshi. Born in 1905 in Kagawa Prefecture, the third of five children, he moved with his family of seven to Rusutsu Village in Hokkaido at the age of six, after his father's business failed. The sudden shift from temperate Shikoku to the harsh north took a toll on his mother, Masa, whose joint pain gradually spread throughout her body.
Rusutsu had no doctor and no medicine. The children took turns stroking their mother to ease her discomfort, and she told them that Tokujiro's hands felt best of all.
Following her words, he pressed firmly and vertically on the stiff areas of her back and lower back, one point at a time. As her tension eased, his confidence grew that the human body could be met with the hands alone, without medicine or instruments. This was the origin of shiatsu.
His mother told the children: Tokujiro's hands feel best of all.
After obtaining his anma and massage license, in 1925 he opened the world's first shiatsu practice in Muroran, Hokkaido. He founded a shiatsu school in Tokyo in 1940.
That school and its affiliated facilities are under separate management today. Shiatsu was recognized in law in 1955, and in 1964 became independent under the Anma, Massage and Shiatsu Practitioners Act.
His clients ranged from prime ministers such as Shigeru Yoshida to figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali.
Toru Namikoshi
浪越徹
From Japanese Shiatsu to SHIATSU Across the World
The shiatsu born in Japan eventually crossed national borders, and Toru Namikoshi, the second generation of the lineage, carried it to the world. What had once been rendered in English as "fingertip pressure" took on a name of its own: SHIATSU. The Oxford English Dictionary lists "shiatsu" as one of the words that entered English directly from Japanese, a sign of how far the practice had travelled.
Toru devoted his life to introducing and teaching shiatsu around the world. His hands reached the rings of international sport and the leaders of nations alike. Among those he attended to was George Foreman, the world heavyweight boxing champion. Matsuko, Toru's wife and the mother of the third-generation Takashi, gave shiatsu to President Havel, who led the Czech "Velvet Revolution."
The journey by which "Japanese shiatsu" became "SHIATSU known across the world" cannot be told without Toru.
Continuing the path opened by the founder, he spread awareness of shiatsu internationally and helped establish its name in the wider world, carrying the lineage forward to the next generation.
Takashi Namikoshi
浪越孝
A Century of Hands, Seen Through the Lens of Science
Takashi Namikoshi is the third-generation head of the Namikoshi lineage, carrying forward the legacy of his grandfather Tokujiro and his father Toru. Across four generations of the Namikoshi family, fourteen Japanese prime ministers have received shiatsu from their hands, a tradition passed down across the decades.
Inheriting the will of the first two generations, Takashi has devoted himself to building a scientific foundation for shiatsu, continuing clinical research in collaboration with physicians. In 2019, a joint study conducted with St. Luke's International Hospital was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine. The randomized controlled study examined shiatsu in the context of chronic lower back pain.
Product development with a bedding maker
Takashi Namikoshi, the third generation, worked with NISHIKAWA Co., Ltd., a bedding house founded in 1566, on the joint development of a pillow. It began with what he heard from clients as a shiatsu practitioner and took shape through repeated prototypes. Sold in Japan as the "nishikawa Namikoshi pillow," it ships with a self-shiatsu guide he recommends.
Shiatsu here is practised under the Japanese national licence of Anma Massage Shiatsu Practitioner. It is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a physician.
Layering the gaze of science onto a century-old manual art, this work continues to move toward the future.
Today, Takashi still stands at the side of those he works with, hands at the ready. Embodying both the techniques refined over a hundred years of Namikoshi shiatsu and the spirit of the "mother's heart" from which it was born, he passes the art on to the next generation. Like every member of the lineage, he holds the Japanese national license of Anma Massage Shiatsu Practitioner.
Tomoya Namikoshi
浪越友哉
Carrying a Century of Shiatsu into the Next Generation
Tomoya Namikoshi, born in 1994, is the fourth-generation heir to the Namikoshi lineage of Shiatsu. As a child, he fell asleep almost every night to the warmth of his father Takashi's hands, receiving Shiatsu after Takashi returned home. That warmth remains the origin of his own path.
He fell asleep almost every night to the warmth of his father's hands. That warmth remains the origin of his own path.
He trained for years under his father, who came to hold his work in high regard. Tomoya describes their bond as one of parent and child, master and disciple, and rivals all at once. Like every member of the lineage, he holds the Japanese national license of Anma Massage Shiatsu Practitioner.
Today he works to carry correct SHIATSU to the world and to share it with younger generations as an everyday practice for wellbeing. He is also bringing Shiatsu into health, sports, and beauty. At the heart of his path is a simple belief: when the practitioner is healthy and abundant in body and mind, the person receiving shiatsu can be enriched in body and mind as well.
Four generations on, the lineage is not only history. The founder's direct descendant in the fourth generation, Tomoya Namikoshi, receives guests on the mezzanine floor of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo — the founder's own family line of shiatsu, carried on today.
Branches of the School
Shiatsu has not been carried by one family alone.
The school founded by Tokujiro Namikoshi in 1940 sent out a great many practitioners.
One of them was Shizuto Masunaga, who studied there and later taught there.
He went on to propose Zen Shiatsu and to found the Iokai Shiatsu Center.
Hiroshi Nozaki founded Hiron Shiatsu.
The family line runs in one direct descent: Tokujiro, then Toru, then Takashi, then Tomoya.
The wider school of practice branched many times, and each branch carries shiatsu in its own way.
Both belong to the hundred years of shiatsu.
This is a record of lineage, not a ranking.
Frequently asked questions about the lineage
- Is Namikoshi Shiatsu Salon the salon of the family that created shiatsu?
- Yes. The salon is run by the direct line of Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000), who established shiatsu under that name in 1925, carried from Tokujiro to Toru, then Takashi, then Tomoya. It is on the Main Building Mezzanine of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo and is operated by the family's company, Namikoshi Shiatsu Associates. Everyone who gives a session here holds the Japanese national licence of Anma Massage Shiatsu Practitioner.
- Is it the same organisation as other establishments that carry the Namikoshi name?
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No. This salon is on the Main Building Mezzanine of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, its telephone number is +81-3-3581-7354, and it is operated by Namikoshi Shiatsu Associates. Facilities and organisations that use the Namikoshi name in other locations have a different address, a different telephone number and a different operating company, and they take their reservations separately. For this salon: +81-3-3581-7354 or reservation@
namikoshi- shiatsu.co.jp. - Where can I receive a session from the third or the fourth generation?
- At Namikoshi Shiatsu Salon, on the Main Building Mezzanine of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo. Takashi Namikoshi, third generation of Namikoshi Shiatsu, and Tomoya Namikoshi, fourth generation, both still give sessions in person; asking for either of them requires a reservation and carries a different rate (60 min ¥17,600 / 90 min ¥24,800 / 120 min ¥31,900, tax included). Open every day of the year, 11:00–19:00 JST, and the last session of any length starts at 19:00. If we cannot pick up, please leave your name and number on the voicemail and we will call back during opening hours. Shiatsu here is a practice given under the Japanese national licence of Anma Massage Shiatsu Practitioner. It is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a physician.
The origin of Shiatsu, carried by four generations
Namikoshi Shiatsu Salon — Imperial Hotel Tokyo, Main Building, Mezzanine Floor.
The founder's lineage, continuing today.
Open daily,
11:00–19:00 JST (last session starts at 19:00)