Iokai Shiatsu was developed in the seventies of the last century by Shizuto Masunaga. Bringing back Shiatsu as it was practised at the time in Japan to the original principles of Traditional Eastern Medicine was his life’s work. According to these principles body and mind are one and they are in constant interaction with each other and the world we live in.

Shizuto Masunaga brought Iokai Shiatsu to Europe. The publication of his book ‘Zen Shiatsu’ rapidly made this form of Shiatsu popular in Europe in the late seventies. After Masunaga’s death in 1981, his pupil and close assistant Kazunori Sasaki, the current president of the European Iokai Shiatsu Association (EISA), continued his work. Under Sasaki’s leadership Iokai Shiatsu further developed itself and training programmes were established in various countries in Europe.