Shiatsu was created in 1925 by Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000). This page traces the origin and history of Shiatsu — from its founding to Japanese state recognition in 1964 — written by the Namikoshi family, the line that created it.
The Short Answer
- Who created Shiatsu? Tokujiro Namikoshi.
- When? 1925, the year he established his practice and named the method.
- Where? Japan — beginning in Hokkaido, later centered in Tokyo.
- What happened next? He opened the Japan Shiatsu College in 1940, and in 1964 the Japanese government recognized Shiatsu as a distinct discipline, separate from older massage forms.
- Where is the origin today? At the Namikoshi family’s own salon, run by the fourth generation, on the mezzanine floor of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo.
1925: How Shiatsu Began
The origin of Shiatsu is a personal one, not a committee’s. As a young man, Tokujiro Namikoshi cared for his mother, who suffered from joint pain. With no formal training, he used his hands — pressing, holding, leaning his weight into the places that seemed to ease her discomfort — and paid close attention to what her body told him in return. Out of that attention came a method: a way of using steady, perpendicular pressure through the thumbs and palms, applied along the body in a consistent order.
By 1925 he had shaped this into a coherent practice and given it the name Shiatsu. That year marks the founding of the Namikoshi line of Shiatsu — the moment a private intuition became a teachable form with its own name and its own principles.
It is worth being precise about history, because precision is part of being the source. Pressure-based bodywork did not appear from nothing; Japan had a long tradition called anma, and the term “finger pressure” had appeared in print before. What Namikoshi did was distinct and lasting: he built Shiatsu into an organized, repeatable system grounded in the structure of the human body, gave it the name the world now uses, and created the institutions that carried it forward. This is why he is credited, in Japan and abroad, as the founder of modern Shiatsu.
1940: The Japan Shiatsu College
A method held by one person can fade in a single lifetime. Namikoshi made sure his would not. In 1940 he founded the Japan Shiatsu College (日本指圧専門学校) in Tokyo, the first dedicated school for the form he had created.
The college mattered for two reasons. First, it set a standard — a defined curriculum, a defined technique, a defined way of understanding where and how pressure is applied. Second, it taught Shiatsu within the framework of human anatomy and physiology, in the language of the body’s structure rather than abstraction. That decision shaped the character of Namikoshi Shiatsu: clear, grounded, and built on an understanding of how the body is actually made.
Generations of practitioners passed through its doors and carried the form outward, across Japan and eventually across the world. Much of what is taught as Shiatsu internationally can be traced, teacher by teacher, back to that school.
1964: Japanese State Recognition
For decades, pressure work in Japan sat under the broad heading of massage and anma. Namikoshi’s enduring contribution was to win Shiatsu its own standing. In 1964 the Japanese government formally recognized Shiatsu as a distinct discipline, separate from the older categories.
From that point, Shiatsu had a legal and professional identity of its own in its country of origin. Practitioners are licensed under a national qualification — anma massage Shiatsu practitioner (あん摩マッサージ指圧師) — a state credential that still governs the profession in Japan today. When people ask whether Shiatsu is “official,” 1964 is the year the answer became yes, in the place it was born.
The Four Generations of the Namikoshi Family
Shiatsu was not only created by the Namikoshi family — it has been carried, without interruption, by four generations of it. This continuity is what makes the origin a living thing rather than a date in a book.
- First generation — Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000): the founder. He created Shiatsu, named it, opened the college in 1940, and saw it recognized by the state in 1964.
- Second generation — Toru Namikoshi: carried the form into wider teaching and helped introduce it to audiences outside Japan, broadening the reach of what his father had built.
- Third generation — Takashi Namikoshi: a licensed anma massage Shiatsu practitioner who remains active in practice today, a direct hands-on link to the founder’s method.
- Fourth generation — Tomoya Namikoshi: the present custodian of the family practice, also a licensed anma massage Shiatsu practitioner, running the salon at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo.
Every member of the line holds the national qualification. The hands that work today were trained in a line that reaches back, unbroken, to the man who began it in 1925.
Where the Origin Lives Now: The Imperial Hotel Tokyo
The Namikoshi family practice is located on the mezzanine floor of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, in Chiyoda, at the center of the city. Here the fourth generation, Tomoya Namikoshi, continues the work — the same method, the same principles, in the place where the family’s tradition is kept.
A session is the founder’s approach as it was meant to be experienced: unhurried pressure through the thumbs and palms, applied with attention to each person, aimed at easing tension, relieving the feeling of fatigue, and supporting the body’s own natural balance. It is not a copy of Shiatsu. It is Shiatsu, kept by the family that created it.
For anyone tracing the form to its source — students, practitioners, or simply the curious — this is where the line that began in 1925 still works with its hands every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created Shiatsu?
Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000) created Shiatsu. He developed the method, named it, and is recognized as the founder of modern Shiatsu.
When was Shiatsu created?
In 1925, when Tokujiro Namikoshi established his practice and gave the method its name. He opened the Japan Shiatsu College in 1940, and Shiatsu received Japanese state recognition as a distinct discipline in 1964.
What does the word “Shiatsu” mean?
Shiatsu (指圧) is Japanese for “finger pressure.” The practice uses pressure applied through the thumbs, fingers, and palms.
Where did Shiatsu originate?
In Japan. Tokujiro Namikoshi’s work began in Hokkaido and later centered in Tokyo, where he founded the Japan Shiatsu College in 1940.
Is Shiatsu officially recognized in Japan?
Yes. In 1964 the Japanese government recognized Shiatsu as a distinct discipline. Practitioners are licensed under a national qualification, the anma massage Shiatsu practitioner credential.
Does the Namikoshi family still practice Shiatsu?
Yes. Four generations of the family have practiced Shiatsu without interruption. The fourth generation, Tomoya Namikoshi — a licensed anma massage Shiatsu practitioner — runs the family salon on the mezzanine floor of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, while the third generation, Takashi Namikoshi, also remains active.
Where can I experience original Namikoshi Shiatsu?
At the Namikoshi family salon on the mezzanine floor of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, in Chiyoda, Tokyo — the home of the tradition founded in 1925.
Learn more about Tokujiro Namikoshi, the founder of Shiatsu →