Shiatsu The Complete Guide

Miscellany, Product Reviews

Christmas is fast approaching so, in case you are still looking for present ideas, a few quick reviews of some of the Shiatsu books in my collection. I begin with Shiatsu: The Complete Guide by Chris Jarmey, the founder of the European School of Shiatsu.

This is not one of the set books for my Shiatsu College course but I already had Chris Jarmey’s Shiatsu foundation book in my collection and grabbed this one when I saw it. Even though it is not on the syllabus I use this book a lot.

The diagrams are simple and clear and there is a good section on stretching, something that I have not seen in other Shiatsu books. I have another Chris Jarmey book, The Concise Book of Muscles, so it is not surprising that the section on Shiatsu stretches includes good information on how they work the muscles and tendons. All of the usual Shiatsu and TCM theory is there: Five Elements, Yin Yang and Masunaga. He also includes a glossary of tsubos at the back and some case studies. Some of the techniques in this book are different to the ones being taught to me by the Shiatsu College. There seems to be more emphasis on stretching but it is good to compare other approaches.

One of the reasons I consult this book is because of the language. Chris Jarmey explains Shiatsu in a very spiritual way. Combining this language with some of the other texts is an excellent way to see all sides of Shiatsu theory and practise.

Tony Brown @ December 17, 2006