NAJOM Editorial March 2019
An Opportunity Awaits: April 27-29, 2019
Three times a year, for 25 years, a small group of Japanese medicine practitioners and helpful family members have been gathering in the small living room of a house in Vancouver, Canada, stuffing freshly printed copies of NAJOM into manila envelopes. March, July, November. A resolute seasonal rhythm.
Some things never change, and yet they do. The first issue of the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine inspired by Mizutani Junji went out to 40 members and subscribers in July 1994. Many of those original members, now internationally renowned teachers in the field of traditional Japanese medicine, are among NAJOM’s 400 members and subscribers in 23 countries, still listening for the heavy thud of NAJOM coming through the mailbox. The majority are in the US, Japan, and Canada, but NAJOM also has engaged members in Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey, Nicaragua, and Israel, reflecting to a certain extent where Mizutani Sensei has travelled, teaching the art of moxibustion, emphasizing the classics, and embodying the gentle attributes of Japanese Medicine.
“There was no moxa before NAJOM in North America and Europe,” Mizutani Sensei says. “Also, no contact needle, no teishin, no sotai, no shonishin, no Toyohari, no Shudo style.” Mizutani Sensei alone has given 40 workshops around the world. He has coordinated the publication, in English and Japanese, of more than 1,500 articles and reports on every aspect of traditional Japanese medicine.
“Over the past 25 years, there has been a steady increase in North America and the rest of the world in access to information and teachers of Japanese styles,” says Mizutani Sensei’s former classmate and NAJOM co-founder, Stephen Brown. NAJOM has provided “cohesion” and become a vehicle for growth that extends far beyond its membership.
The result: more Oriental medicine practitioners are adopting Japanese approaches. Mizutani Sensei notes that acupuncture students are now travelling to Japan rather than China to study Oriental medicine in its home culture. And, he says, western enthusiasm for tradition Japanese medicine is even influencing a resurgence in Japan (see Merlin Young’s Moxafrica update this issue).
So, this April, when NAJOM hosts the first ever gathering of its membership – founders, teachers and practitioners old and new – there will be much to celebrate. It will also be a good time to look forward.
“The world has changed drastically in the last 25 years,” says Brown Sensei. “We were just starting to e-mail when NAJOM was founded. Now we are instantaneously linked globally by digital technology. The journal format is still useful, but more than text, visual data is becoming the medium of information exchange. Content without video is less interesting/compelling, and less influential at the end of the day. Creating new video and visual content is essential if NAJOM is to thrive and continue contributing to diversity in East Asian Medicine.”
We at NAJOM need to explore our technological opportunities and expand our human and financial resources.
The next 25 years will require a broader spectrum of support and decentralization for NAJOM to stay robust,” Brown Sensei says. Echoing Mizutani Sensei: “Obviously, the key players won't be around in another 25 years.”
Before you is NAJOM’s 75th issue, marking the divide between our first 25 years and our next 25 years. I invite you to read it with more attention than usual: words from our founding fathers; no less than 13 articles on our theme topic, “A Closer Look at the Skin,” written by highly regarded teachers and future teachers. Take this opportunity to reread the excellent 2009-10 NAJOM series, “A Conversation with Skin Scientist Denda Mitsuhiro,” by Matsuda Hirokimi. Don’t overlook our seminar reports: we have first-hand experiences from participants of three different annual study tours.
Finally, dig out NAJOM’s very first, July 1994, issue and read Mizutani Sensei’s “Looking Forward.” The important things never change. We will see you in April: prepare yourself to take another step forward with NAJOM. If you can’t be there in person, the entire event will be available on YouTube thanks to Takashima Masa-aki Sensei.
A reminder that our theme for our July 2019 issue is “Memory Loss: Gaining Clarity,” (deadline May 10).
Best wishes,
Cheryl Coull, editor
An Opportunity Awaits: April 27-29, 2019
Three times a year, for 25 years, a small group of Japanese medicine practitioners and helpful family members have been gathering in the small living room of a house in Vancouver, Canada, stuffing freshly printed copies of NAJOM into manila envelopes. March, July, November. A resolute seasonal rhythm.
Some things never change, and yet they do. The first issue of the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine inspired by Mizutani Junji went out to 40 members and subscribers in July 1994. Many of those original members, now internationally renowned teachers in the field of traditional Japanese medicine, are among NAJOM’s 400 members and subscribers in 23 countries, still listening for the heavy thud of NAJOM coming through the mailbox. The majority are in the US, Japan, and Canada, but NAJOM also has engaged members in Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey, Nicaragua, and Israel, reflecting to a certain extent where Mizutani Sensei has travelled, teaching the art of moxibustion, emphasizing the classics, and embodying the gentle attributes of Japanese Medicine.
“There was no moxa before NAJOM in North America and Europe,” Mizutani Sensei says. “Also, no contact needle, no teishin, no sotai, no shonishin, no Toyohari, no Shudo style.” Mizutani Sensei alone has given 40 workshops around the world. He has coordinated the publication, in English and Japanese, of more than 1,500 articles and reports on every aspect of traditional Japanese medicine.
“Over the past 25 years, there has been a steady increase in North America and the rest of the world in access to information and teachers of Japanese styles,” says Mizutani Sensei’s former classmate and NAJOM co-founder, Stephen Brown. NAJOM has provided “cohesion” and become a vehicle for growth that extends far beyond its membership.
The result: more Oriental medicine practitioners are adopting Japanese approaches. Mizutani Sensei notes that acupuncture students are now travelling to Japan rather than China to study Oriental medicine in its home culture. And, he says, western enthusiasm for tradition Japanese medicine is even influencing a resurgence in Japan (see Merlin Young’s Moxafrica update this issue).
So, this April, when NAJOM hosts the first ever gathering of its membership – founders, teachers and practitioners old and new – there will be much to celebrate. It will also be a good time to look forward.
“The world has changed drastically in the last 25 years,” says Brown Sensei. “We were just starting to e-mail when NAJOM was founded. Now we are instantaneously linked globally by digital technology. The journal format is still useful, but more than text, visual data is becoming the medium of information exchange. Content without video is less interesting/compelling, and less influential at the end of the day. Creating new video and visual content is essential if NAJOM is to thrive and continue contributing to diversity in East Asian Medicine.”
We at NAJOM need to explore our technological opportunities and expand our human and financial resources.
The next 25 years will require a broader spectrum of support and decentralization for NAJOM to stay robust,” Brown Sensei says. Echoing Mizutani Sensei: “Obviously, the key players won't be around in another 25 years.”
Before you is NAJOM’s 75th issue, marking the divide between our first 25 years and our next 25 years. I invite you to read it with more attention than usual: words from our founding fathers; no less than 13 articles on our theme topic, “A Closer Look at the Skin,” written by highly regarded teachers and future teachers. Take this opportunity to reread the excellent 2009-10 NAJOM series, “A Conversation with Skin Scientist Denda Mitsuhiro,” by Matsuda Hirokimi. Don’t overlook our seminar reports: we have first-hand experiences from participants of three different annual study tours.
Finally, dig out NAJOM’s very first, July 1994, issue and read Mizutani Sensei’s “Looking Forward.” The important things never change. We will see you in April: prepare yourself to take another step forward with NAJOM. If you can’t be there in person, the entire event will be available on YouTube thanks to Takashima Masa-aki Sensei.
A reminder that our theme for our July 2019 issue is “Memory Loss: Gaining Clarity,” (deadline May 10).
Best wishes,
Cheryl Coull, editor
Other Sample Articles from the pages of NAJOM
|
Perspective on Ho-sha and kyo-jitsu
by Stephen Birch |
Questions to Senior Acupuncturists
|
The Characteristics and Essence of Japanese Acupuncture
|
|
Acupuncture & Moxibustion for Depression
|
The Potential of Head as a Treatment zone
|
Bamboo Tube Moxibustion
|