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NAJOM 7
Volume 5, Number 13 (July, 1998)
What Is the Sawada Style Taiji Method?
By Fumihiko Shirota
This article originally appeared in the February 1998 issue of Ido no Nippon (The Journal of Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion) and has been translated and reprinted with special permission.
Since the Sawada style is the treatment method that was used by the famous acupuncture and moxibustion practitioner
Takeshi Sawada, let us first discuss what he was like as a person.
Sawada Sensei was born in the tenth year of the Meiji era (1878), studied Judo and bonesetting, moved to Korea and began to
work there. During his studies, he began to notice that many of the pressure points used in Judo were the same as those used in
moxibustion. After realizing this, he spent twenty years studying two texts, A Demonstration of the Fourteen Meridians and Diagrams of the Three Treasures of Japan and China. He studied assiduously and
tried to apply the classical texts to modern times. Sawada Sensei is said to have remarked, “The foundation of classical medicine is the
concept of meridians, an idea whose principles have been passed down for thousands, if not, tens of thousands of years, without
changing. When I practice and keep the meridians in mind, I don't really expect to have any affect on an illness. But since the
illnesses end up being cured the way I want them to be, I really have no choice but to be surprised.” The Sawada style is one where
the classics are applied faithfully. It is a style where it is thought that if one follows the classics without trying to do things in one’s own personal way, the patient’s illness will be cured correctly. Sawada Sensei's greatness was not in creating any new method of treatment; rather, his genius was in the way that he interpreted the Classics. Sawada Sensei returned to Japan in the tenth
year of the Taisho era (1922) and opened up a practice in the Koishikawa district of Tokyo, and it is said that he had so many
patients that “they formed a small city at his front gate”.
In the Sawada style, it is said that all illnesses originate in the five Zang (Yin organs), and all symptoms can be cured by
regulating the five Zang and six Fu. In addition, by regulating the five Zang, the patient will become full of Yuan (Original) Qi and their bodies will be able to apply their natural healing abilities in order to cure illness. This will probably be easier to
understand if we look at one of Sawada Sensei's cases:
“One patient (a college student) came with his mother. UB18 was swollen on the right, UB20 was swollen on the left, and his spine
was curved. While noting these things during the examination, I palpated the swollen areas with my fingertips, saying, ‘There
are problems here with your Liver and Spleen. The Liver area (the Liver being on the right) is swollen, as is the Spleen area
(the Spleen being on the left), thus your Liver and Spleen are swollen.’ “I then did moxa on UB18 and 20 and told
him ‘This will fix it. When the Liver and Spleen are healed, your spine will also fix itself.’” His mother then said, ‘He also has sinusitis,’ whereupon I said, ‘When the Liver and Spleen are healed, the sinusitis will be healed along with many other things. There
is nothing to worry about; he’ll be just fine. When the Taiji (Yin/Yang) balance of the five Zang and six Fu are healed, then his
head, nose, ears, eyes, and throat will also all be healthy.’” (From Foundations of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapy, Ido
no Nippon) In other words, it is a general therapy that
aims to treat distortions in the whole body, and is thus called the Taiji method (the word Taiji comes from the Yi Jing, a Chinese
classic. It expresses the root and expression of all phenomenal manifestation). Local therapies that are more symptomatic are not
regarded as being important. Therefore, one who wishes to practice Sawada style must become able to detect the patient's
problems as they relate to the whole body. There really is not a definite path to learn this skill. For instance, even if one knows
the western name for a disease, it will not be much help because the name will not refer to what the patient’s problems are. For example,
different people may have stomach ulcers, but the way that the ulcers distort each individual will differ. What must be relied
upon is the sensation in your fingertips as you palpate and investigate the troubled spots on the patient's body. Tsubo have a
distinct feel beneath the fingers. However, I believe that in the beginning you won't be able to feel them. Without training, no one
can feel them. In the beginning, you should ask the patient how the spots feel as you palpate them. As you do this, you will
gradually come to understand. Also, for beginners, while you are training your fingertips, continue to use moxa on the
Sawada fundamental points (Fig. 1). You will be surprised at how much the patients will improve. You don't even have to do all
of the points, as they may cause too much stimulation for weak patients or children.
(click image for larger view)
It is very important to determine the strength of treatment based on each patient's condition. “Total body therapy” means treating
the problems of the whole body; it does not mean doing treatments on the whole body. For children, treating GV12 by itself is
sufficient, and would be considered Taiji therapy. Since, as I mentioned in the beginning of this article, the Sawada style is one
where you must put aside your individual desires and faithfully follow the Classics, it is a very orthodox style. Because of this, I
feel that anyone can become proficient in it if one studies sincerely. Let us now look at some concrete case histories from Mukoda
Hiroshi, Chairman of the Nissan Koseikai Foundation Center for the Study of East Asian Medicine at Tamagawa Hospital, as
reported by the Clinical Acupuncture and Moxibustion Information Association. In reading these cases, it should become clear
as to what the Taiji method is.
Case 1 - Acute Lumbago
The subject is a 67 year old male who recently returned from a trip. He began having lower back pain around the time he
boarded a train to return home with the pain becoming fairly severe upon arrival. The pain was so severe the next morning that he
was unable to get out of bed without the help of family members. He could not straighten his back and with a family escort was finally
able to make it to the clinic. His ability to turn over in bed and put on socks was very limited. There was no lateral curvature in
his spine, but the ROM in the lumbar area was very limited. There was pain on palpation of UB24, 27 and 53 (more on the right
than on the left) accompanied by much muscle tightness. On his abdomen, there was pain on palpation of GB24 and 26 (more
on the left than on the right, along with some
NAJOM Volume 5, Number 13 (July, 1998) 8 ticklishness). I used seven cones of moxa on the sides of his abdomen only. He came
back the following day and was almost completely recovered.
Case 2 - Weak Constitution
The subject is a 64 year old female. Height 150cm, weight 40kg, BP 130/80. Since having children, she has had a weak constitution
having caught colds easily. This has not changed, even after her children grew up. Since she tires easily and her digestive
system is in poor health, she has been coming for acupuncture and moxibustion treatments once or twice a week for two years.
The treatment consists of moxa on GV 20,
CV12, St25, CV4, UB20, UB21, UB32, LI11, St36, and Ki6. Her health has gradually improved since the treatments began,
and she now rarely catches colds.
Case 3 - Bronchial Asthma
The subject is a 57 year old male. Height 157cm, weight 53kg, BP 110/60. His condition began two years earlier in February.
He has been on medication for the last two years, but has attacks every two to three months. The treatment consisted of three
cones of moxa on CV12, Lu6, UB17, UB18, UB20 and GV20, and seven cones on St36, St40, and Jie Wen. His condition did not
improve during the first year of treatment. However, after one year of treatment, the frequency of attacks began to suddenly decline.
Now, after two years of treatment, he has no more attacks.
Case 4 - Urticaria Perstans
The subject is a 76 year old female. Main complaint of whole-body itching. Two months earlier, in April, her entire body began to itch for no apparent reason. She went to a dermatologist who diagnosed her
as having urticaria perstans. She has taken medication for the itching for two months, to no avail. The itching is so severe that it
interferes with her sleep. The dermatologist asked Mukoda Hiroshi to try acupuncture and moxibustion on the patient. The treatment
consisted of fifteen cones of moxa on UB12 and LI15, and two cones on CV12, GV12, UB20, UB21, and St36. She was taught to apply three cones daily at home on CV12, St36, GV12, and LI15. She was able to sleep the first night after applying the moxa. The itching began to disappear very quickly and was almost gone within two
weeks. The urticaria has also been cured.
Case 5 - Edema of the Lower Limbs
The subject is a 73 year old male. His main complaint is swelling in his legs, which had begun about a year earlier. It started just at
the joints, but has recently begun to spread from the knees giving him great discomfort. He has had several exams at an internal
medicine clinic, but because their findings showed nothing wrong with his heart or kidneys, it was assumed that the problem
was due to old age. However, the discomfort became so severe for him that he looked for help elsewhere and came in for treatment.
The treatment was CV9 and 12, UB17, St36, Shi Mian, Ki6 and GV20. The patient was taught to do moxa at home on Shi Mian. After doing moxa at home for about a week, he began to see results, and after three months, both the swelling and discomfort were almost completely gone.
Translated by Joshua Lerner.
Fumihiko Shirota graduated from the Medical
Department of the Shinshu University Medical
School. He conducted research on the growing
influence of Western science on Oriental medicine.
He is now a professor at the Oriental
Medicine Research Annex of Tokyo Women's
Medical College, and is the Director of the
Japan Oriental Medicine Association, Inc.
Moxibustion
Therapy