Promotion of my acupuncture book

Good afternoon
I believe I was about 2 years ago so bold as to promote one of my own little "books" here. This is less a "book", much less any sort of text book, than an outline of my personal views on acupuncture "the Japanese way" as opposed to the so-called "authentic" Chinese style. Personally I am firmly convinced that MOST people (individuals and nations!) would benefit from the softer Japanese style much more than the Chinese way of doing acupuncture. (I would not volunteer to receive a Chinese style treatment)
In the end, everybody has to form her/his own opinion about this. (an Australian person studying Japanese acupuncture in Japan found this text very helpful)
I just took the liberty of summarizing MY views of the topic, along with some reference material and quite a number of pictures. Maybe those pictures could help YOU to make your own picture of the situation. If there are any questions I am capable of answering .. I will do my best.
The book is available via Smashwords.com in a whole array of formats and via Amazon as Kindle format.

"Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way"
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/420707

Unfortunately, this and the other ebooks are "not selling". That is why I choose to make them available for "free". Free means, you can download and read them, but I would be eternally grateful, if you could spare a tiny "donation" AFTER reading them. In the style of "shareware" items. The ebook is commercially available for about 5 USD. So, a "donation" of let's say 3 USD would be great. The send small amounts like that, I think PayPal should be suitable: my PayPal account is: thomas@s7.dion.ne.jp
http://www.einklang.com/Books.htm



Thank you.

Acudiversity ...

English: Hua Shou. Expression of the fourteen meridians. (Tokyo, 1716). http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/Images/1200_pixels/hua_t08.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been trying to help foreigners wishing to observe Japanese acupuncture in Japan for at least 15 years. Unfortunately, I must say, Japanese practitioners are not very forthcoming when I ask/ed for their help.
Most (close to 100%) of the people who contacted me in the past already hold some licence(s), whether those are related to acupuncture, herbal medicine or western medicine. Most also had already studied, at least to a certain degree, the kind of Chinese medicine often designated als "TCM" (Traditional Chinese Medicine). It is well known, however, that there is only a limited amount of "traditional medicine" in TCM, since it has been cooked up in the 1960s by Mao as a propaganda tool. So, the people who contacted me, did so, because they were dissatisfied and wanted to learn "something else". This latter one is usually named "Japanese acupuncture".

However, there is a problem with "Japanese acupuncture".
In China EVERYTHING is controlled by the state and only state sanctioned things / concepts are permissible, so that people go there and "learn" (teaching TCM is a commercial product, marketed in a quite capitalistic manner) in a month or so. That's easy, because there is only one state sanctioned TCM, which is not to be questioned or doubted and presented in palatable form for "those foreigners".

Here in Japan things are different. Nobody in a position of power cares enough to even try to regulate oriental medicine. Since the introduction of Chinese medicine to Japan about 1,500 years ago, the Japanese have adapted it to their own particular needs and added quite a number of ingenious inventions (probably most well known: the use of needle tubes) of their own. Over this period of 1,500 years "Chinese medicine" evolved into "Japanese medicine". Anybody claiming that it must today be still the same it has been 1,500 years ago is a little out of touch with reality. The reality of evolution.
As opposed to China, there has been no "cultural revolution", permitting only one "true TCM" and eliminating everything that might pose a threat (?) to the welfare of the state, all the different schools and techniques that have developed in Japan are alive and well. Mildly exaggerated: there are probably as many styles out there as there are practitioners.

To the best of my knowledge, even in the face of all those rather unpleasant efforts at "standardization", there simply is no "THE Japanese acupuncture". No practitioner I know could give a definition of what Japanese acupuncture is.
But precisely THAT is, what makes is interesting: the wondrous variety, where nobody can claim to be right and tell others they are wrong.
With reference to the term "biodiversity", I would like to name this situation:
        acudiversity

The other day, somebody from Germany contacted me, wishing to study "Japanese acpuncture". The person claimed to have already studied "TCM" (4 weeks) in China.
When I told that person, that in the absence of any organized (commercialized) courses in languages other than Japanese the only way getting a taste of Japanese acpuncture would be spending some time here and visit as many practitioners as possible, the person apparently got angry at me ("so there is no way of learning Japanese acpuncture?") and terminated the correspondence. That's fine by me.

However, I would like emphasize (again and again!): the variety of Japanese acupuncture styles is exactly what makes it so attractive.
Attractive in itself AND for the needs of the people of the world at large.
Personally I am convinced, that the "Japanese acupuncture" is much better suited for the world population than "Chinese acupuncture".
I would not volunteer to get a Chinese acupuncture treatment, BUT use moxibustion or acpuncture on myself before I consider anything else.

For people interested: I summarized some of these views in a little ebook: "Acupuncture .. the easy way - or the hard way".
It ***IS*** commercially available through Amazon and Smashwords.com, but since nobody has been buying it, I now offer it as free download from my website:

http://www.einklang.com/Books.htm

Only STANDARD patients need apply ...

According to the following article:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-07/25/c_133511336.htm?__scoop_post=582bc7a0-1479-11e4-d3d7-842b2b775358&__scoop_topic=1035125#__scoop_post=582bc7a0-1479-11e4-d3d7-842b2b775358&__scoop_topic=1035125

China has issued "acupuncture treatment protocols" for so-called standard treatments:
"The National Technical Committee on Acupuncture and Moxibustion Standardization Administration of China and China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion (CAAM) issued the protocols."

Well, everybody watch out!
Only STANDARD patients with STANDARD symptoms will be accepted in STANDARD clinics, that use Chinese(!) STANDARD protocols to treat STANDARD diseases/conditions with STANDARD techniques and (naturally) SUBSTANDARD (=Chinese) materials.
That fits just beautifully into the Chinese mindset where everybody and everything has to be exactly the same.
Wonderfully suited for mindless robots.

Everybody is naturally FREE - as long as THIS concept is allowed - to choose "scientific standard treatment" for their respective symptoms.

Speaking only for myself, I take the liberty of being equally free in NOT accepting take kind mechanistic robot treatment for myself.
In this respect Japan is an "acupuncture paradies".
Since nobody, at least nobody in any sort of powerful position, gives anything (a rats ass, if you pardon the expression) about oriental medicine, its development and application, there are about as many "styles" here as there are acupuncturist. Although people love to quarrel here too, nobody is more "right" or "wrong" than anybody else.
This makes the country a glittering, fascinating treasure island for insights, techniques, knowledge and off course the manufacture of products with a quality far superior than anything that comes from China.

I firmly believe, that the "Japanese way" of acupuncture is much better suited for MOST people of the world than the Chinese standard stuff.

(I took the liberty of expressing my opinion in form of an ebook:
4) "Acupuncture .. the easy way - or the hard way"　・・　
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/420707

Which I will shortly make also available for free (hoping for minimal "donations")

My book ...

After I published my book (the fourth one)  - "Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way" through Amazon.com as  Kindle version, it is now, after me passing through the depths of the "reformatting hell" in almost any conceivable ebook format available at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/420707　. Although I have no idea how that works, the site says, this makes it also available through most of the worlds "appli stores" - whatever that may be.

At last ... it is now available in all formats from the above URL.
This includes ePub, which can be read on iPads and iPhones I am told.

If interested in the opinions (the book deals strictly with my PERSONAL views on things!) of a heretic in this strange world ... please, by all means, have a look..

"Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way"

Ich habe kürzlich einige meiner ganz privaten Vorstellungen im Zusammenhang mit "japanischer Akupunktur" zusammengeschrieben (diesmal auf Englisch). Ganz persönlich bin ich der Ansicht, dass die Art, wie viele japanische Kollegen behandeln - eben "japanische Akupunktur" - für viele "Ausländer" (die meisten nicht-Chinesen) besser geeignet ist, als die "authentische" chinesische Akupunktur.

Da ich weder Akademiker, noch gelehrter noch sonstwie Intellektueller bin, kann es sehr wohl sein, dass meine Ansichten völlig falsch sind. Aber solange wir noch (theoretisch) Redefreiheit haben, dachte ich aber, dass ich vielleicht ja auch das Recht habe, falsche Meinungen kund zu tun.

Abgesehen von den Textabschnitten, die ich von anderen Leuten geborgt habe, handelt es sich um Ansichten, die nicht auf wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten, sondern nur 30 Jahren klinischer Erfahrung beruhen.
Ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass der eine oder andere Hinw

Mein Büchlein ist seit gestern als Ebook bei Amazon erhältlich:
Acupuncture: The easy way - or the hard way

Falls Interesse besteht ...

Leuten, die keinen solchen ebook reader haben, wie mich zum Beispiel, biete ich eine PDF Datei direkt an.

eis Leuten, die eventuell orientalische Behandlungsmethoden in Erwägung ziehen, ein wenig behilflich sein kann.

Akupunktur - Tradition im Ausverkauf ...

Akupunktur hat in Japan inzwischen eine etwa 1500-jährige Tradition. Gemeinsam mit der Kampo genannten "chinesischen Medizin" (zum Einnehmen) wie sie in Japan verwendet wird und sich somit von der "chinesischen Medizin" in China unterscheidet, bildeten diese Formen der orientalischen Medizin, wiederum natürlich in Verbindung mit den verschiedensten Formen der Volksmedizin, für 1350 Jahre die Hauptströmung der medizinischen Versorgung in Japan. Es gab ja nichts anderes. Die "westliche Medizin" ist hierzulande erst seit ca. 150 Jahren verfügbar und wurde von den zuständigen Regierungsbehörden über den besagten Zeitraum als "einzig wahre Medizin" verbreitet.
Zwischenzeitlich gab es ja auch bekannterweise offizielle (von Regierungsseite) Versuche, die orientalische Medizin vollständig abzuschaffen / verbieten.

Wie dem auch sei, jedenfalls handelt es sich hier um richtig "gediegenes" Handwerk mit der besagten 1500-jährigen Tradition. Diese Form der medizinischen Versorung hat sich über 1500 Jahre wieder und immer wieder bewährt und als wirksam erwiesen.
Daher sollte es heutzutage eigentlich überhaupt nicht erforderlich sein, für diese Behandlungsform Werbung zu machen.
Dachte ich.

Weit gefehlt.
Sogenannte "orientalische Medizin" - wobei ich dabei häufig nicht weiss, wovon überhaupt geredet wird - ist im Moment gerade große Mode. Das heißt, es gibt unzählige Leute, die eine Lizenz erwerben und dann exotische, neuartige Therapieformen praktizieren.
Während Akupunktur fast immer vollständig vom Patienten getragen werden muss, können sich Kliniken zum Knocheneinrichten (Sekkotsuin) auf ihr Schild schreiben, dass darin ALLE Arten von Versicherung akzeptiert werden. Folglich gehen die meisten Patienten Heute zu den Sekkotsuin, wo sie für eine Behandlung ca. 5 Euro zahlen und nicht zum Akupunkteur, wo die Behandlung 40 Euro kostet.

Diese Sekkotsuin laufen entsprechend gut, so dass sie buchstäblich wie die Pilze aus dem Boden schießen. Rund um meine Praxis herum natürlich aus. Traditionelle Verhaltensweisen, wie sich vor Eröffnung einer solchen Klinik bei den bereits laufenden Kliniken vorzustellen, sind inzwischen VÖLLIG ausgestorben. Ich habe das bei Eröffnung meiner Klinik damals noch gemacht ...

Massenweise "Billigware" als Konkurrenz führt dann (natürlich) dazu, dass meine Klinik immer schlechter läuft. Auch wenn ich mich noch NIE darum bemüht habe, hier "Geld zu machen*", stört mich dies dann doch.
*    （http://www.einklang.com/Kanpo2003.htm） (auf Japanisch)

Vor kurzem habe ich einmal versucht, mich nach eine Teilzeitbeschäftigung als Akupunkteur hier in Japan umzusehen. Akupunkturkliniken, die nach Personal suchen, habe ich eigentlich noch nie gesehen. Immer nur die besagten Kliniken zum Knocheneinrichten, oder aber Orthopädiekliniken, die irgendwo einen sogenannten Rehabilitationsraum mit haufenweise Maschinen/Geräten haben, durch den vormittags etwa 100 "Patienten" geschleust werden müssen, damit es sich bezahlt macht. (Das haben mir die Leute in diesen Kliniken selbst gesagt.) Die Aufgabe des Akupunkteurs besteht dann darin, die Leute an irgendeine dieser Maschinen anzuschließen, den Zeitschalter auf 10 Minuten einzustellen und danach die Leute wieder freizusetzen.
Bei meinen kürzlichen Versuchen zeigte sich, dass die Bezahlung für Personen mit einer Akupunkturlizenz bei etwa 900-1000 Yen/Stunde (ca. 9-10 Euro) liegt. Das ist die gleiche Bezahlung, die absolut ungelerntes Personal im "Convenience Store" oder an der Tankstelle bekommen.
30 Jahre Übung, Studieren, klinische Praxis sind also buchstäblich ***NICHTS*** wert. Denn Leute, die überhaupt nicht studiert und/oder gar keinen Beruf erlernt haben, bekommen das gleiche! Dann frage ich mich, wozu die 30 Jahre Bemühungen den eigentlich gut waren. Und darauf folgt auch wieder die Frage: Warum soll ich diese Arbeit überhaupt machen?

Aus Stellenanzeigen ist ersichtlich, dass Krankenpfleger in der Regel offenbar 1500-2000 Yen/Stunde erhalten und auch ein gewöhnlicher Zimmermann verdient mindestens so viel wenn nicht mehr.

Hierzu gibt es nun sicherlich zahlreiche Ansichten, Denkansätze etc. aber ich persönlich habe zunächst einmal den Eindruck, dass hier ein äußerst fundiertes Handwerk mit 1500 Jahre Tradition einfach nur für Dumm verkauft wird - im Ausverkauf als Ramsch auf dem Grabbeltisch angeboten.

Irgendwann werden die Leute = Patienten aber unter Umständen merken, dass die Billigware nicht unbedingt immer von der besten Qualität ist .....

“Foreign studies” in Japan

Image via Wikipedia

Good evening, or rather good morning from Japan
Well, while this about a sort of “personal endeavor”, it is not really about me, but rather about Japan. And I definitely DO NOT have any qualifications that would make me a legitimate representative of Japan.
But, …
I have now lived in this country for 33 years, but only 22 years in my “home country” Germany. That means, I spent more than half of my live in Japan.
While my original purpose to come here was Japanese archery (Kyudo), I entered a vocational school for acupuncture here, obtained my licenses something like 28 years ago and for 17 years now run my own little (microscopic!) clinic.
Personally I believe, that Japan is a sort of “treasure island” in regard to variety and amount of information, skills, technical know-how etc. when it comes to ORIENTAL MEDICINE. I prefer the term “oriental medicine” over “Chinese medicine”, because it suggests, that there are also other possibilities/views than the state-sanctioned, uniform (the Chinese like to call that sometimes “standardized”) and thus rather dull single pattern TCM. Many people do argue about it, but I am always under the impression, that here in Japan there are as many “styles” as there are practitioners.
While the Chinese vigorously pursue their declared goal of achieving “world domination” in regard to the “intellectual property” of Chinese medicine, the Japanese people on the other hand appear to be somewhat handicapped: first, they are rather shy = are not much interested in “speaking up”; second (related to the first aspect), they seem to suffer from an inferiority complex, because they are not good (at all!) at English and third, they themselves have not very much ambition to present themselves to the world.
Yet, you can rest assured, that in addition to ALL the information pertaining to acupuncture available in China, there is a tremendous amount of additional information available. While I would be VERY cautious when viewing so-called scientific reports originating in China, there is usually MUCH LESS likelihood, that (scientific or otherwise) reports from Japan are outright fake or at least highly questionable. This does not rule out, that some people have opinions that oppose those of other people and a quarrel about right or wrong would be rather futile here.
I have been trying to convince the Japanese people for something like 20 years now, that they should make more of their information, including books, magazines etc., available to the world – meaning they should prepare at least summaries in western languages like English, German, French, Spanish etc. So far, I had very little success.
I do have a little website of my own (with many flaws, because I am not very computer savy): http://www.einklang.com/
Most of it is in Japanese, but there are also German and English sections. And these were the trigger for my above mentioned endeavor. Occasionally foreigners stumble across my pages on their search about information on Japan. It then happens, that I am asked about possible sites/occasions to study a little about acupuncture in Japan. Unfortunately, I am not a very social person and therefore know only few people, who would be willing to help out.
Maybe my constant bugging has contributed to lead to an “official decision” to promote acceptance of foreigners in Japan on the general assembly of the JSAM 4-5 years ago … but nothing much has happened since.
The way I see things, and some of my efforts are detailed here:
http://www.einklang.com/Foreign%20study.htm
or also in blog entries
https://nyuwa.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/ … -a-chance/
https://nyuwa.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/ … e-excuses/
Last year, during the great earthquake Australian visitors were here and one is going to return this year. Incredible!
https://nyuwa.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/ … le-return/
As I said, personally I would love to see the “Japanese way of acupuncture” find a greater audience in the world.
Even if no one here actually has any intention of coming to Japan (that is just fine!), maybe if there were once in a while inquiries as to the possibility of learning (as a foreigner) about acupuncture in Japan, or shadowing in clinics … maybe the Japanese people would finally become a little more stimulated/motivated to actually SHARE some of their very valuable material.
You could try for example the website of the The Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (jsam):
Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion -> http://www.jsam.jp/ -> honbu@jsam.jp　（ask for: Mr. Hirokazu Inami)
http://en.jsam.jp/contents/010000SsehRk/
Japan Acupuncture & Moxibustion Association -> http://www.harikyu.or.jp/ -> info@harikyu.or.jp
Tel：03-3985-6771 Fax：03-3985-6622 (no English page):
If it should prove helpful, please feel free to mention, that you learned about the above mentioned websites through my website (the page about “foreign studies”).
I believe, there is an abundance of material AND techniques probably better suited for western people than a major part the Chinese style.
In case this is completely off course here, I would like to beg your pardon and apologize again.
Greetings from Japan

Related articles

• International Standard of TCM (nyuwa.wordpress.com)
• Foreign Studies 1: Little progress ... or rather regression (nyuwa.wordpress.com)