AKINOBU KISHI & KYOKO KISHI

AKINOBU KISHI

Akinobu Kishi is a Shiatsu Master of 45 years experience, who developed his own method of energy bodywork, Seiki Soho, after studying extensively in the fields of Shiatsu, Sei Tai (chiropractic), Bio-energetics and Acupuncture. Born in 1949 in the Gunma region of Japan, he was originally taught by his father, an accomplished judo master, who introduced him to hara-centred movement and shiatsu when he was just eight years old. Kishi went on to graduate in Natural Garden Architecture and started his formal shiatsu training at the Shiatsu Technical College and at the Iokai Centre, founded by Shizutu Masunaga, the initiator of Zen Shiatsu. He also continued to expand his Shiatsu studies with Toru Namikoshi, the originator of Shiatsu Therapy. Kishi assisted Masunaga for ten years, becoming his top pupil, and he is regarded as the heir to Masunaga's work. He continued to further his research into energy body-mind work with a chiropractic training (Sei Tai), with Haruchika Naguchi. Later, he studied Buddhism, Taoism and Shinto under the guidance of Shinto Master Hifumi Jinko, and became a Shinto priest - for eleven years. In 1971, he started teaching Shiatsu at Kyonhi University of Oriental Medicine and travelled to France, Russia, China, Canada, and England, where he continued to teach Zen Shiatsu throughout the 70s. At the age of 29, Kishi became seriously ill. His illness prompted him to stop teaching Zen Shiatsu and to give birth to Seiki Soho, a new method of healing - a synthesis of all his life’s work experience and research. He came to realise the Ki (energy) in the human body, like the Ki in nature, has its own self-rebalancing movement. Sometimes, due to individual, social and cultural habits, the the body’s tendency to correct itself, becomes stagnant and we experience disease. Instead of trying to change the client’s condition, the Seiki practitioner supports the self-correcting tendency of the client’s body. In Seiki, after recognition of the signs where the energy is trying to re-balance itself, sensitive touch is applied to key points, allowing the natural adjustment to take its own momentum. Akinobu Kishi’s work has become popular in the West, where he has been a major influence to teachers like Paul Lundberg, Bill Palmer, Sonia Moriceau and Giuseppe Montanini. Indirectly, he has had even wider presence in the development of the Shiatsu world in Europe, as many teachers here have studied extensively with Pauline Sazaki, one of Kishi’s senior students. Together with his wife Kyoko, he continues to teach in Japan, across Europe and Canada, where they run their yearly programme.   KYOKO KISHI Kyoko Kishi is Akinobu’s main pupil and colleague. She has been studying and practising Seiki for over 16 years. Prior to being a Seiki practitioner and teacher, she was a successful Kimono maker. In the past seven years, as well as assisting Kishi’s teaching, she has been teaching Seiki across the world - her speciality being 'women’s health'. Her approach to teaching is highly sensitive, skilful and compassionate.