Japanese Style Acupuncture

The refined simplicity and elegant beauty of Japan.

The ubiquitous style of acupuncture—the one that most people have experienced—is undoubtedly TCM, or, Traditional Chinese Medicine. This is the body of knowledge and practices compiled by the Chinese Communist Party’s government and what is required to learn to become licensed in America. It has its faults and limitations, but, it works if you work it.

Contrasting this style is what is known as Classical Chinese Medicine. This is the Medicine that was used for thousands of years and is based exclusively on oral lineages and ancient classical texts. Classical is, in my opinion, the most beautiful living body of medical knowledge known to the world.

The Japanese began learning acupuncture from the Chinese hundreds of years before the Chinese Communist Party and TCM even existed. They took what the Chinese had used for thousands of years and put their own subtle refinements on it. In many ways, Japanese acupuncture is as close as you can get to the original classical Chinese style of acupuncture. The Japanese have, as I’ve said, refined it somewhat, but scholars generally agree that they have stayed true to the classics. Japanese acupuncturists themselves are quite notorious for sourcing classical texts in their treatment rationale.

When I first began studying Chinese Medicine, I sort of scoffed at the Japanese style. It was so gentle. How could it possibly be effective? Then two years into my studies, I visited a friend in Idaho who was a licensed acupuncturist practicing in the Japanese tradition. My first night at his house I slept hard after having an afternoon coffee that kept me tossing and turning. The next morning he saw me looking a bit wrecked and offered a treatment.

I went from feeling like I wasn’t going to make it through the day to feeling on top of the world. We went on to hike a dozen or so miles, eat at three different restaurants, and drive all around the city.

And that was pretty much all it took.

So what’s different about Japanese style acupuncture?

In TCM, you are looking to needle based on measurements of where a traditional acupuncture point is located. You find where the point is typically located on everyone, and you jam a needle in there.

While Japanese does use measurements as approximations as to where the needle site is going to be, this is just a starting place. A Japanese acupuncturist will gently at first, then sometimes more deeply, palpate the area to find the incredibly precise location that will access the energy flow as necessitated for the treatment.

In Japanese meridian therapy in particular, you are really treating the channel of energy, not the point. Japanese acupuncture is looking at systems within systems. It is truly a holistic healing art.

The insertion of the needle itself is very different. In TCM, the method of insertion is to use a plastic guide tube and slam the needle in as far and deep as possible. Once inserted, the needle is then pushed fairly deeply into the body, relatively speaking. Manipulation is then often somewhat vigorous in order to elicit a sensation of qi.

Japanese insertion is meant to be as light, painless, and shallow as possible while being executed deftly. Once the needle is in, it may stay at this level or be inserted slightly more as dictated by the situation at hand, except in certain instances of performing orthopedic acupuncture on thicker muscles. The practitioner may manipulate the needle ever so slightly, but not with the goal that the patient feels it. The goal is for the practitioner to feel it. Everything is precision and intention with Japanese style.

The patient will in fact often experience sensations at the needle site and along the channel with Japanese acupuncture, but not the same way as with TCM. The sensations are more channel specific, more subtle, sometimes just more downright bizarre.

What I really love personally about Japanese style other than the fact that it works for my patients, is that it feels like bonsai gardening. As a practitioner you enter a meditative state and work with the tiniest, most intentional actions in order to make the changes you need for your patient. You can feel what needs to happen and the patient guides you along the process.

While my work is still “work” in that I expend energy, it’s also a process that cultivates a richness in my experience of work. I am truly blessed to have found acupuncture, and especially the Japanese style.

Also, I see it’s April Fools Day today. I feel like I’m letting you guys down without performing some kind of trick. Watch out because next year I’m coming hard! You’ve been warned.

See you at your next appointment.

—Jaime