Shiatsu: The Listening Hand
Anatomy and ethics of touch
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Pressing harder is not pressing better. The full book in English — 27 chapters, 134 drills, the Japanese original alongside, and the interface in either language.
The hand is not a tool for pressing. It is an organ for listening.
This app holds the full text of "The Hand Is for Listening — Anatomical Flow Shiatsu and the Philosophy of Mushō," a book by Kazuhiro Kurosawa, a licensed anma-massage-shiatsu practitioner (a national license in Japan). Twenty-seven chapters, some 220,000 words in English, with the Japanese original alongside. It works offline, with nothing further to buy.
■ What is different here
Most shiatsu books in English map the receiver's body — meridians, points, where to press. This one begins a step earlier, with the body of the one doing the pressing.
Where does pressure come from? Not from the arm. Whatever you press into the floor, the floor returns — ground reaction force — and that force is threaded, like a single string, from the soles of the feet to the tip of the thumb. Threaded pressure, the "play" in the joints, the extension relay, the reaction-pressure method: Part II sets these out in the language of anatomy and biomechanics. It is written as much to protect the practitioner's own thumbs, wrists, and shoulders as to reach the receiver.
Alongside it runs an ethic. The one who touches is always the stronger. Mushō — taking no shō, the diagnostic patterns of East Asian medicine — is not the abandonment of knowledge. It is the refusal to let knowledge stand in front of the body: a silence permitted only to those who have learned all there is to learn. Hahagokoro — a mother's heart, Tokujiro Namikoshi's word — is reread here as the ethic of restraining one's own strength. Neither mystification nor mechanistic reduction — the precision of the middle ground.
■ What is inside
• 27 chapters — introduction, Chapter Zero, Chapters 1–23, closing chapter, appendix
• 134 practice drills — type, aim, steps, and how you'll know
• The reader's map — three routes: home, student, professional
• A safety quick-reference for home and care
• The source library — the author's lecture materials and essays, kept as they were written (in Japanese)
Written for practitioners of the manual therapies, for students of the body, and for anyone who lays a hand on someone at home.
■ Two layers
The main text reads straight through. Beneath it lie the scholarly notes — sources, reservations, and a line kept clear between established findings and what is still hypothesis. Read only the main text, and you can lay your hands on someone today. Climb down into the notes to see how firm the ground is.
■ English and Japanese
Both texts are in the app, and the interface reads in either language. Switch in the settings; your reading progress carries across.
■ Reading
• Text size; serif or sans-serif
• Three themes — Soft, Sepia, Night
• Scholarly notes fold away — safety notes always stay open
• Chapters marked as read, drills marked as done
■ Safety
Shiatsu is not a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. This app is an educational reader. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition. If a symptom concerns you, see a doctor.
The first principle of safety in these pages is one line. When in doubt, do not touch. Signs that forbid touching, and situations that call for medical care, are set out in the introduction, Chapter 20, and the appendix.
■ Privacy
The app makes no network connection of its own and collects nothing. Your reading progress and display settings stay on your device. No account, no advertising, no analytics.
■ The author
Kazuhiro Kurosawa — a licensed anma-massage-shiatsu practitioner. Director of Tsumugu Shiatsu. Part-time lecturer in the anatomy practicum, Faculty of Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and at Tokyo Kuretake College of Medical Arts and Sciences. Member of the Japanese Association of Anatomists. President of the Kanagawa Shiatsu Association.
Shokushinkai — shoku, to touch; shin, the core — is the small study and practice circle he leads. This book and app are its doorway.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
• The English interface is now complete — the reader's map, what the circle holds to, and the letter series all read in English.
• The author's affiliations have been brought up to date.
The developer, Kazuhiro Kurosawa, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Kazuhiro Kurosawa
- Size
- 17.6 MB
- Category
- Health & Fitness
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English and Japanese
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- Infrequent
Medical Treatment information
Contains
Health or Wellness Topics
- Copyright
- © Kazuhiro Kurosawa