Shiatsu is a form of Japanese bodywork based on concepts in traditional Chinese medicine such as qi meridians. Having been popularized in the twentieth century by Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000), shiatsu derives from the older Japanese massage modality called anma.
Shiatsu practitioners believe that an energy called ki flows through a network of meridians in the body.
Introduction page, Anma Tebiki
Anma is a practice of traditional Japanese massage; the word also refers to practitioners of that art. Modern shiatsu is largely derived from anma.
A photograph of a typical Meiji-era anma
A blind practitioner and a woman. As well as musicians, the anma practitioners were the popular occupation of the blind till the establishment of deaf and blind institutes opened in the 1870s, which granted them wider fields of employment.
The cover of Anma Tebiki