If you’re not familiar with jôsetsu-hô, it’s a traditional Japanese moxibustion method that uses string measurement and palpation to locate highly effective moxa points. Rather than relying solely on fixed anatomical landmarks, practitioners use a proportional measuring system, using string or a measuring triangle, to guide treatment and locate the points.
This is really interesting. To give you an example, to treat headache, you wrap a piece of string around the head at the level of the forehead. Then you get that same length of string and put it round the neck at the level of the Adam’s apple and drape it backwards, so the ends meet at the posterior midline. The point for headache is at the ends of the string!
To give you more sense of how it works in practice, here’s an extract from Felip Caudet’s new book The Lost Art of Jôsetsu-Hô Moxibustion.
A quick word of explanation: Felip uses a shorthand to explain the steps. The first thing he does is to get a measurement, and he assigns a letter to it, like A or B. This measurement is often used to get a reference point and he calls those R1, R2 etc. Reference points are not used for treatment, just as navigation points to the treatment points.
Finally, the measurement or the reference point can be used to get the actual treatment points and he calls them P1, P2, P3 etc. It’s very simple once you start doing it and the illustrations are childishly simple. The jôsetsu-hô technique below is for abdominal pain. I think you’ll find it useful!
A five-point set for abdominal pain
Abdominal Pain
These five points can be used on all types of abdominal pathologies. In particular, they treat abdominal pain coming from the stomach, intestines, uterus, bladder, gall bladder or urethral tract. Applying the right number of cones is important, easily reaching 30 cones per point. In all cases, however, the dosage should be adapted to the patient’s condition, using fewer cones if they are weak and more if they are robust. Occasionally, abdominal pain and diarrhoea may occur during treatment, although both symptoms are considered benign.
Applications Non-recurring, acute abdominal pain.
Method
Put the patient’s feet together and wrap the string around the perimeter of both feet: (A).
Wrap the string an extra half-turn around the perimeter of the feet (B). This gives you a perimeter and a half: (C).
Loop the string around the neck at the superior margin of the laryngeal prominence, with the ends of measurement (C) meeting inferiorly on the posterior midline. P1 is located on the midline.
To locate the remaining four points, measure 1 cun laterally on either side of P1 to get R1 and R2. From these two reference points, find P2 and P3, 1 cun superior, and P4 and P5, 1 cun inferior.
If you’d like to explore more of these elegant and practical techniques, The Lost Art of Jôsetsu-Hô Moxibustion is available now in paperback and Kindle, with a launch discount until 31 July:
Coming soon: The Moon over Matsushima Second Edition
First published in 2012, The Moon Over Matsushima embarked on a journey of exploration filled with unexpected twists and turns. It unveiled the ancient relationship between acupuncture and moxa, and explored the nature and biochemistry of mugwort. In this stunning new second edition, revised and updated, Merlin Young explores cutting edge research from the pharmaceutical industry that could revolutionise our understanding and practice of moxibustion today. He uncovers the mysteries of Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channels, their connection to chronic disease and pain, and their remarkable affinity for moxa and its heat signature, as well as its key chemical components. In this short article, we explore the mysterious world of Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channels and how this modern research might revolutionise our understanding of moxibustion.
A New Model for Understanding Moxibustion: TRPs and Modern Strategies for Difficult Diseases and Pain
Merlin Young
There’s not been much research on the mechanisms of moxibustion in English. About twelve years ago, Jenny Craig and I thought its actions were mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Then we switched our attention to ‘Heat Shock Proteins’ (HSPs). More recently, a new picture has started to emerge—richer and more compelling—that tells us much more. This new knowledge comes to us from pharmaceutical companies, who, in their unending quest for new blockbuster drugs, have been funding research into this field. As an unexpected side-effect, they’ve opened up a whole new window for us to understand the mechanisms of moxibustion. Their research strongly suggests that much of moxa’s effect is down to ‘Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channels’ (TRPs). These TRPs comprise a set of specialised sensory proteins that are expressed on the surfaces of cells which lie, not only beneath the skin surface, but also deeper in the peripheral nervous system and deeper still in the central nervous system including the brain.
An AI created impression of TRPs on a cell
So far 28 TRPs have been discovered in mammals, each evolving to keep us out of harm’s way—helping us not only stay warm, avoid scalding from cold or heat, but to avoid noxious agents in our environment. These proteins are expressed on the surfaces of cells, much more widely in the body than first thought, even in the brain. They comprise tiny channels into the interior of cells, which are normally closed. Whenever these TRPs get triggered by a specific ‘agonist’, these channels open and allow specific ions to pass into the interior of the respective cell, waking the cell up to transmit further information (often through to the brain where sensations of pain, heat or cold are experienced). TRPs and chronic pain
Unfortunately, as we age, these sensors can become dysfunctional. A typical manifestation of such dysfunction is a chronic pain condition. In this situation, a specific TRP may be stuck open in a chronically ‘up-regulated’ state, like a switch jammed in the ‘on’ position. TRPs are now known to be implicated in a number of very nasty life-limiting chronic diseases, which is why the pharmaceutical companies are on the case. Biomedicine isn’t good with these sorts of conditions. What Big Pharma hopes to discover is a new drug that can be patented for profit, that can safely tweak these dysfunctions. But to affect the up-regulated TRPs in the brain, they need to get their drug safely through the blood-brain barrier, and this isn’t just very difficult, it’s dangerous.
However, this Big Pharma-funded research has unexpectedly opened up a whole new way to review our humble moxa therapy. It certainly doesn’t discount those other mechanisms (ANS regulation, or HSPs, or indeed qi flow) but it adds a fresh dimension of understanding, which includes explaining why moxa has long been favoured over acupuncture for two things—treating chronic and difficult diseases (including chronic pain) and promoting longevity. Three of these TRPs, which are both temperature sensitive and reactive to chemicals, are often co-expressed on the same cells. This almost certainly means that they evolved together, with everything working optimally when they are fully functional. Unfortunately, it looks like many aspects of today’s chronic diseases (and ageing itself) reflect situations when they don’t work so well together—in fact, when they might even work against each other, maintaining a chronic imbalanced state.
Now, here’s how this new research affects our understanding of moxa in a remarkable way. We are sure that moxa can separately modulate all three of these pain-related TRPs—one of them through heat, and two of them through absorption of chemicals through the skin. These TRPs respond only to two chemicals, which, by extraordinary coincidence, happen to be the two dominant chemicals in mugwort. And although several other materials were mentioned in the classics, we think that this highly improbable interaction with mugwort explains why it emerged as the favoured material for moxibustion. It may also explain why, over 2,000 years ago, moxa got its reputation for treating chronic disease, and why moxa maintained its reputation for promoting longevity, century after century. In both instances, our acumoxa predecessors were merrily tweaking these TRPs in their patients with moxa, without knowing a thing about them! Given what we now know, and what more we can expect to emerge in the coming years, we have an extraordinary opportunity to review our moxibustion techniques. We can look for specific ways of using moxa that might provoke downstream effects through the chain of TRPs between skin and brain. We should strive to keep our techniques as simple as possible, while employing thoughtful strategies, based on this new knowledge, to enhance their effectiveness. We must also make sure they remain unpatentable, so the therapy remains super-cheap and accessible.
What types of conditions could we hope to treat? Up-regulated TRPs cause pain, so down-regulating them with moxa means that chronic pain conditions could respond very well—we’ve already seen exciting results with fibromyalgia. A new approach to moxibustion could potentially also help Parkinson’s Disease, dementia, chronic anxiety states, sickle-cell disease, and even obesity. We have the chance to devise a whole new range of 21st-century point protocols for various conditions, applying moxa to maximise its TRP-regulating effects. And we can do this while trusting to a two-millennia long safety profile, which gives us quite an advantage over Big Pharma—moxa is cheaper, safer and easier to apply!
All of these are discussed in the forthcoming second edition of The Moon over Matsushima. This has been updated with over 40 new pages, which unpick this Big Pharma research and discuss its implications. What’s more, shortly after publication, a new, shorter book The Moon at the Window will follow. Listing moxa treatments for over 300 conditions, this second book will also discuss how we might best approach any difficult modern condition in light of both our ancient and now super-modern understandings. Published by Sayoshi Books, our hope is that these two books will galvanise important discussion and collaborative investigation, both in Japan and the West into this extraordinary therapy that we call moxa.
Unlike any other book on moxibustion, The Moon over Matsushima Second Edition will open your mind to the use of moxa in the past, present, and future. Don’t miss out on these cutting-edge insights. Sign up for more information about the launch and receive exclusive updates by filling out the form below:
WELCOME! YOU JUST TOOK ANOTHER STEP ON YOUR ONTAKE JOURNEY
Thank you for choosing our Ontake Warm Bamboo books and tools! This page is your gateway to everything you need to get the most out of your Ontake practice.
Getting Started: How to Load and Light Your Ontake.
Follow this link for a playlist of videos about the basics of Ontake application.
Learn how to load, light, and apply Ontake with ease.
Discover Dr Manaka’s meridian frequencies and explore much more.
Watch an interview with Oran, where he shares the background of Ontake and the concepts that inspired its development.
Discover our comprehensive courses that will take your Ontake practice to the next level.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced practitioner, there’s something for everyone.
If you’ve not studied with Oran before, and you’d like to, here are three online courses with Net of Knowledge. If you’re looking for the basics, start with Ontake 101, which covers everything from loading and lighting Ontake to treating sore throat and midline pain. And it only costs USD30! If you’d like something a bit longer, check out the other two!
Ontake Moxibustion 101
Getting Started with the Ontake Method
In this highly practical introductory module you will:
(1) Discover what Ontake is and the kind of things the Ontake Method can do. (2) Learn how to load, light and extinguish the Ontake. (3) Acquire three basic strokes to get you started: tapping, rolling and super-knocking. (4) Explore a simple treatment model for the rapid relief of pain anywhere on the midline of the body with Ontake, including sore throat, neck pain, middle back, pubic symphysis and epigastric pain.
Ontake Moxibustion for Meridian Therapy and Toyohari Practitioners
Treating the Back and Consolidating the Pulse
This highly enjoyable two-hour recorded webinar explores Ontake’s origins in Japan, with an overview of historical and contemporary uses. Using numerous short video clips, dynamic presentations, and frequent breaks for questions and reflection, students learn how to load and light Ontake and contrast the different application methods for deficient and excess areas along channels.
In this highly practical introductory two-hour, you will learn:
(1) How to load, light and extinguish Ontake (2) Protocols to augment the root treatment (3) Protocols for assessing the lustre of the skin and balancing kyo and jitsu with Ontake (4) A simple routine for treating the back to consolidate the pulse
(1) Dr Manaka’s meridian frequencies and how to apply them (2) Protocols for symptom relief (3) Protocols for whole-body regulation (4) The integration of Dr Tan’s holographic models with Ontake for the rapid relief of pain
Presented by Oran Kivity and compered by Michael Max from the Qiological podcast, the format is varied and dynamic, with lectures, PowerPoints, group Q&A sessions and teaching videos. Each lesson is linked to a section in a fifty-page workbook packed with learner-centred quizzes and exercises. Engagingly filmed, produced and edited to hold the attention of distance learners, Moxa in Motion presents a step-by-step guide to utilizing the Ontake Method that will leave you confident in your new skills and more effective in your practice.
All our Ontake products are available in the Ontake Shop (and quite a bit cheaper than on Amazon). Feel free to sign up for our Ontake newsletter so you get to hear about our occasional promotions.
Celebrate World Bamboo Day with Ontake: 15% Off All Products Until September 30!
Every year on September 18th, we celebrate World Bamboo Day, a global event designed to raise awareness about the importance of bamboo and its many uses in community and economic development. This day is a reminder of bamboo’s immense potential, from its traditional applications to modern innovations. Bamboo plays a vital role in sustainable practices, environmental conservation, and even health and wellness.
To mark the occasion, we’re excited to offer a 15% discount on all products in the Ontake Shop, available until September 30. Whether you’re a long-time practitioner or new to bamboo-based therapies, now’s the perfect time to stock up on your favorite tools. Simply use code BAMBOO24 at checkout.
Bamboo: A Versatile Marvel
Bamboo is truly one of the most versatile materials on the planet. Here are just a few examples of its incredible uses:
Construction
Over one billion people around the world live in bamboo houses, which are strong, sustainable, and eco-friendly. In fact, bamboo can be used to build homes, roads, and bridges. In China, bamboo bridges can support trucks weighing up to 16 tons!
Medicine
Bamboo has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine. Ingredients from the black bamboo shoot are known for treating kidney diseases, while bamboo roots and leaves have also been applied to address conditions like cancer and some sexually transmitted diseases.
Food and Preservation
Bamboo shoots are a staple in Asian cuisine. In Japan, the antioxidant properties of bamboo skin are used to prevent bacterial growth, serving as natural food preservatives.
Bamboo in Therapy: Warm Bamboo Ontake
In the world of acupuncture and holistic therapy, bamboo is at the heart of the Ontake Method. Bamboo’s lightweight and durable properties make it ideal for Ontake Warm Bamboo therapy, where heated bamboo is rolled over the skin to promote circulation, relieve pain, and restore balance.
This World Bamboo Day, we celebrate bamboo’s power not just as a tool for building and healing but also as a natural gift that continues to improve lives globally.
In honour of World Bamboo Day, we’re offering a 15% discount on all products in the Ontake Shop, valid until September 30. Whether you’re looking to expand your toolkit or try something new, this is the perfect time.
We all know the soothing effects of warmth— how a hot water bottle can provide instant relief. Ontake, since its inception, has been used similarly to relieve pain, functioning as a small, mobile source of warmth applied directly to the body. But beyond this, when we incorporate theoretical frameworks like kyojitsu, Dr Manaka’s meridian frequencies, and the holographic mappings of Dr Tan and Kurakichi Hirata, we unlock Ontake’s potential to address pain in various areas, far beyond the local application. Each of these theoretical models acts as a ‘force multiplier’, layering the effects of the meridian system and body correspondences over the treatment.
What sets Ontake apart is its simplicity. Unlike the intricate techniques of okyu small cone moxibustion that require extensive training, the basic Ontake strokes can be learned in minutes. Ontake is easy to apply, enjoyable for patients, and remarkably effective in reducing pain. This combination of effectiveness and simplicity is what makes this simple moxa device increasingly popular around the world (Oran Kivity, NAJOM)
This post is written to provide a visual accompaniment to an article published in the North American Joiurnal of Oriental Medicine. In that article, I explore two systems of treatment that use holographic mappings of the body: Dr Tan’s Balance Method and Kurakichi Hirata’s zones, and uncover how these systems have been integrated into the Ontake Method. The article cites three cases which can be viewed here.
In the first case, our model has chronic jaw pain, which extends over the top of her head to her neck. She describes pain in the small intestine, gallbladder and stomach channels, but with palpation, it is evident that the most reactive channel is stomach.
Because the elbow is isophasal with the jaw (both are hinge joints), we palpate around the elbow for abnormal tissue, then apply Ontake on the large intestine channel at 108 beats per minute. As the stomach channel pain is relieved, the other channel pains also clear.
The treatment finishes with DU 14, the meeting point of all the yang channels.
In the second case, our model has chronic knee pain in his right leg. It’s on the spleen channel. According to Dr Tan’s theory, we should treat this from the left elbow or the left knee. Paired channels include TB, ST and LU. Because there are abnormal tissue findings at the lung channel around the elbow, Ontake is applied to the area at the lung frequency (126 bpm). This relieves the pain.
In the following case, this time not from my practice but from that of my French colleague Nelly Lapierre, you can see how HOT can be used to treat a chronic painful condition of overlapping toe. The second toe had curled over the big toe, and walking was extremely painful. As you can see from the graphics in the video, the toes are in zone 1, so Nelly treated zone 1 in other regions with amazing results.
This video is in French with English and Japanese subtitles.
Moxibustion is ancient. Even more ancient than needling. In modern acupuncture, however, it is often considered too time-consuming, too risky or too difficult to master. And yet the classics say: for chronic conditions, moxa has no equal.
Coming to the rescue of time-poor, risk-averse, present-day acupuncturists is the Ontake Method from Japan. This innovative approach uses a piece of bamboo filled with burning moxa wool to roll, tap and press on the meridians using a metronome programmed to each meridian’s frequency. The rhythmic application of heat, frequency and pressure triggers rapid shifts in your patients’ body condition and mood but this method generates only a little smoke.
I’ve included a couple of short exceertps from Module 1, which focus on the Ontake origin story. Modules 2 – 6 feature less talk and more action, focusing on practical aspects of the Ontake method, including a theoretical model to treat sore throat, midline pain, including pubic symphisis pain. Check it out!
NET OF KNOWLEDGE
If you’ve not studied with me before, and you’d like to, I’ve got three online courses with Net of Knowledge. If you’re looking for the basics, start with Ontake 101, which covers everything from loading and lighting Ontake to treating sore throat and midline pain. And it only costs USD30! If you’d like something a bit longer, check out the other two!
Ontake Moxibustion 101
Getting Started with the Ontake Method
In this highly practical introductory module you will:
(1) Discover what Ontake is and the kind of things the Ontake Method can do. (2) Learn how to load, light and extinguish the Ontake. (3) Acquire three basic strokes to get you started: tapping, rolling and super-knocking. (4) Explore a simple treatment model for the rapid relief of pain anywhere on the midline of the body with Ontake, including sore throat, neck pain, middle back, pubic symphysis and epigastric pain.
Ontake Moxibustion for Meridian Therapy and Toyohari Practitioners
Treating the Back and Consolidating the Pulse
This highly enjoyable two-hour recorded webinar explores Ontake’s origins in Japan, with an overview of historical and contemporary uses. Using numerous short video clips, dynamic presentations, and frequent breaks for questions and reflection, students learn how to load and light Ontake and contrast the different application methods for deficient and excess areas along channels.
In this highly practical introductory two-hour, you will learn:
(1) How to load, light and extinguish Ontake (2) Protocols to augment the root treatment (3) Protocols for assessing the lustre of the skin and balancing kyo and jitsu with Ontake (4) A simple routine for treating the back to consolidate the pulse
(1) Dr Manaka’s meridian frequencies and how to apply them (2) Protocols for symptom relief (3) Protocols for whole-body regulation (4) The integration of Dr Tan’s holographic models with Ontake for the rapid relief of pain
Presented by Oran Kivity and compered by Michael Max from the Qiological podcast, the format is varied and dynamic, with lectures, PowerPoints, group Q&A sessions and teaching videos. Each lesson is linked to a section in a fifty-page workbook packed with learner-centred quizzes and exercises. Engagingly filmed, produced and edited to hold the attention of distance learners, Moxa in Motion presents a step-by-step guide to utilizing the Ontake Method that will leave you confident in your new skills and more effective in your practice.
A few years ago, I studied teishin techniques in Indonesia with Funamizu Sensei from Japan. One of the techniques he taught was easily adaptable to Ontake practice. I call it Pinch and Press.
Here’s a simple guide you can follow to practise on your thigh. If you’re right-handed, it’s easier to start off on the left stomach channel or the right spleen channel. If you’re left-handed, practise on the right stomach channel or the left spleen channel.
1) SUPPORT HAND With your non-dominant hand, squeeze and lift a handful of muscle around ST 34. Then, release it quickly, allowing the muscle to drop back down. Move proximally and repeat.
2) DOMINANT HAND Hold the Ontake in your dominant hand, with the lighted mouth facing down. When your support hand lifts the muscle, touch the mouth to the top of the mound. As you release the muscle, let the Ontake drop down with it, keeping the mouth in contact with the skin.
3) SEQUENCE Pick up the muscle with your support hand, creating a mound. Place the Ontake on top of it. As you release the mound briskly, the Ontake follows, and the patient feels a sudden warmth and release. Immediately pinch the muscle again and repeat, contacting the Ontake with each release. You can repeat this at the same spot or move to another location.
4) INTEGRATING THE METRONOME This is a fast sequence done to a beat. On each beat, perform one Pinch and Press sequence. If you’re counting to four, you do four sequences—Pinch and Press, Pinch and Press, Pinch and Press, and so on.
APPLICATIONS The downstroke, aided by gravity, makes this a dispersing technique, excellent for easing tight muscles. You can use it anywhere there’s enough tissue to pinch—tight legs, tight arms, and especially my favourite application: tight shoulders. Enjoy!
Heated bamboo is applied to the skin rhythmically, using a metronome. This approach integrates traditional acupuncture theory, modern holographic models and research on the meridian frequencies by the renowned 20th-century Japanese doctor Yoshio Manaka.
INTRODUCING ONTAKE
Ontake Warm Bamboo is a moxibustion technique with two additional components: pressure and rhythm. A short piece of bamboo is filled with moxa wool. When the moxa is ignited, the bamboo gets hot and can be held, tapped, pressed or rolled along the acupuncture channels. Additionally, using a metronome, these techniques can be applied rhythmically at specific frequencies of beats per minute.
A MOBILE MOXA BOX
Make a long bamboo tube about 4 cm long, without a joint. The thickness of the bamboo tube wall should be about 3–4 mm. Fill it with semi-pure moxa, leaving a space at both ends of the bamboo. —Makoto Yamashita
Ontake functions in the same way as a traditional moxa box, except it’s far smaller and much more mobile. In contrast to a moxa box or a moxa stick, it can be rolled on the skin and pressed deep into the soft tissue. It fits comfortably in your hand and can be tapped or rolled rhythmically over any part of the body, including the face. It allows you to be agile and flexible, treating small or broad areas quickly, and crucially, patients love the experience, which is pleasant and calming.
Any part of the bamboo can be applied to the skin. You can roll with it, knock percussively with the side, tap the lighted end briefly on the skin or press deeply into articulations with the lip. Even without any theory or training, applying heated bamboo to a painful area can get results.
ONTAKE APPLICATIONS
Ontake has been around for a short time in Japan, perhaps since the 1960s, and historically it was used as a local branch tool. So, for example, if there was tightness or pain at the shoulder, it was applied there. In the last ten years, however, its uses and applications have grown more sophisticated, and it can be applied with a growing number of theoretical models.
DR MANAKA'S MERIDIAN FREQUENCIES
Dr Manaka's wooden needle and hammer
Rhythmic percussion of the meridians has been a tradition in Japanese acupuncture going back to the Mubunryu style in the late 1500s when blunt gold and silver needles were lightly tapped with a wooden mallet on reactive points on the abdomen. In the late 20th century, Yoshio Manaka, a renowned Japanese doctor, acupuncturist and researcher, developed percussive tapping treatments using a wooden hammer and needle.
He then researched specific tapping frequencies of beats per minute for each acupuncture channel. These frequencies advanced the efficacy and range of his methods considerably, and his meridian frequencies became an important part of his routines. Here’s a table listing the twelve channels, and Ren and Du and the frequency of beats per minute that they respond to.
104
Midline channels (Ren and Du Mai)
108
Large intestine and liver
112
Bladder
120
Gallbladder, small intestine, kidneys
126
Heart, lung
132
Stomach, spleen
152
Sanjiao
176
Pericardium
Ontake treatment has also proved effective when applied at the meridian frequencies. When heat is applied in this way, there are rapid changes in soft tissue tension, exceeding the effectiveness of the wooden hammer and needle in quite unexpected ways.
BRANCH TREATMENTS WITH ONTAKE
Ontake tapping lines for sinus problems
Ontake is a versatile tool for treating symptoms, especially when using yin and yang principles of opposites. For example, when applied on the sacrum, it is effective for sore throat. The throat is superior and anterior, and the sacrum is inferior and posterior. If the sore throat is central, roll the Ontake on the midline of the sacrum at 104 bpm (Du Mai). If the sore throat is on the left, roll the Ontake more on the right of the sacrum at 112 bpm (bladder), and vice versa. This treatment exploits the relationships between the kidney and bladder channels and the Ren and Du Mai vessels. These principles of treating opposites can be applied not just to sore throat but to midline pain anywhere in the body, for example, pubic symphysis pain, sacral pain and mid-thoracic pain.
ROOT TREATMENTS
There is a tradition in Japanese acupuncture, and especially in moxibustion, of generalised treatments that do not depend on the identification of patterns such as, for example, kidney deficiency or liver excess. Perhaps the most famous of these in moxibustion is the Sawada protocol, “a formula of points that could be used on all patients, regardless of complaint or condition. This formula fortified the patient’s constitution and strengthened the qi and the defensive and healing energies”.[i]
Ontake can be used in the same way, focusing on the yangming channels of the arm and leg and the bladder channel on the back. This sequence is a powerful whole-body root treatment that stimulates healing responses without focusing on patterns or symptoms.
ONTAKE 1, 2, 3 FOR PAIN RELIEF
Holographic mappings on the arm and leg to treat the face
The late Dr Richard Tan was well known for relieving pain rapidly using channel pairings and different holographic models. He called his approach Acupuncture 1 2 3. This approach can be adapted to Ontake: identifying the sick channel, finding a dynamic paired channel and rolling or tapping with bamboo on the paired channel using Tan’s holographic mappings to inform the location. Ontake has the advantage of being needle-free, and the heat creates dynamic and long-lasting changes, arguably more effective than needling.
Hot Needle Therapy (Nesshin Kairyo Jutsu) was a Japanese holographic system of treatment. It was developed by Kurakichi Hirata (1901–1945), who developed a unique dermatome moxibustion system using a heated probe. His goal was two-fold: to develop a system that triggered the body’s healing response and was simple enough to be used at home by lay people. His heated needle never caught on in the West, but Ontake is a safe and effective substitute, breathing new life into this remarkable method, supercharging your sessions and empowering patients to continue treatment at home.
My second book was called Hirata Zone Therapy with the Ontake Method, but shortly after it was published it dawned on me that HZT doesn’t roll of the tongue very well, whereas Hirata Ontake Therapy creates the irresistible acronym HOT! So don’t be confused. HZT and HOT are one and the same.
Ontake Warm Bamboo is a simple and elegant new moxa device, cheap to buy and easy to make yourself. It can be adapted to any clinical practice that uses the meridian system, and it can be used with a variety of theoretical models. Finally, it can empower patients to self-treat safely.
These last few weeks, I’ve been teaching Hirata Zone Therapy in Europe. It crossed my mind, several times, that HZT is not particularly easy to say. And it also occurred to me that the name, Hirata Zone Therapy doesn’t allude to Ontake. So how about Hirata Ontake Therapy instead? It’s accurate and it makes a wonderful acronym: HOT!
Anyway, whatever we call the therapy, here is an article I recently wrote for EJOM which summarises Hirata’s approach and how we can adapt it for use with Ontake.
This article was first published in the European Journal of Oriental Medicine (EJOM) Volume 10, No 1, 2022. www.ejom.co.uk.
When I was a London acupuncturist, I got a job working with a drug agency in Haringey, which led to more work in the field of addiction. At that time, John Tindall had pioneered the NADA protocol for ear acupuncture and for some years, this is what I did: needling five points on each ear on clients in a group setting. This was very much a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and as my experience grew, and in particular, as I learned Manaka-Style Acupuncture, I started to find ways to personalise these treatments. Here’s an article I wrote about that:
