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From Sei-ki by Alice Whieldon

Determined to examine the roots of his trouble, he surrendered himself to meditation and ritual Shinto purification. Some of this time was spent in the mountains near Kyoto meditating and chanting at an ancient shrine, sometimes staying in the forest through the night. He continued even during the harsh winter months, despite Shinto shrines being largely open to the elements and, in order to perform the ritual purification of misogi in the nearby mountain river, had to break ice to pour the frigid water on the crown of his head.

Back in Tokyo his meditations brought powerful and terrifying visions. Alone in his house, the crisis came to climax in three days of spontaneous movement … as years of suppressions and toxins found expression. Obeying his instincts in the absence of any instruction … he resolved to follow the feeling to its end and, surrendering to movement that rearranged his body and mind, Kishi's senses were sharpened and his mind cleared. When serenity finally found him, he was reborn……

Kishi's profound personal experience of [what he came to call ]katsugen struck at the very root of his being, both illuminating and transforming him. His mind/body was altered and one of the first effects was that the haemorrhoids that had beset him from childhood were finally

cured. A physical manifestation of the fundamental change that had taken place, the dramatic and instantaneous manner of this alteration reset his understanding of healing work at its very heart. Because it contained the genesis of his rebirth as well as a fresh approach to Shiatsu, it was finally he who was able to bring katsugen and Shiatsu together in a dynamic therapeutic practice.

Following his transformative experience, Kishi experienced phenomena common to awakening. Initially reluctant to see any patients, they nonetheless continued calling to make appointments and he discovered that he could treat people via the telephone, or even from photographs, with great success. Although his new powers were interesting, earning awed respect from patients and lending him the air of an impresario, he felt uncomfortable using them and dismissed his supernatural powers as party tricks, turning his attention back to straightforward sessions as soon as he was in a state of mind to receive patients again.

But he went back to his work with completely new eyes.