I've written before about Zen Shiatsu, and its creator, Shizuto Masunaga... here, and here and I could have sworn more places, but perhaps not.

Masunaga passed away in 1981, before I had gotten into shiatsu, or out of high school for that matter, which is unfortunate, as it would have been a treat to watch him work.

Well, lo and behold, some rare video of him surfaced (thank god for youtube!) and while it's not the best quality, you can see Masunaga Sensei in action as he teaches a class on a visit to Canada.

I admit to having a laughed a little, in astonishment, as I pictured using some of these moves on a few of my clients, or attempting to, and imagining them either screaming, or leaving, never to be seen again.

I posted the third of four in a series, because of what he does to this woman, who I'm really hoping was a flexible as she appears to be in the video. At one point I seriously wondered if she was even conscious or maybe just an inanimate object being used for demo purposes.

Interesting to note is how he gives pressure, especially with his knees on her legs.. how he really gets in there. If you're not familiar with Zen Shiatsu, what he's doing is placing the limbs into 'stretch positions', meaning the positions at which a particular meridian can be brought to the surface and most easily accessed with pressure by palms, elbows, knees, or feet.

Masunaga's stye of shiatsu does not focus much, if at all, on acupressure points.. it's more about regulating the flow of energy through all the meridians evenly. You'll also see him doing hara work on her and then lifting his receiver up in such a way as to adjust her spine.

If you make it through the whole nine minute video, be sure to enjoy the bonus neck-crack right at the very end!