The History of Amatsu

The Amatsu principles originated from the Ancient School of Hi Chi Bu Ku Goshin Jutsu. This is a school of breathing techniques and physical modalities of well-being and translates as "The Secret School of the Opening Flower." The term Amatsu Tatara relates to the scrolls which record the basis of Amatsu.

The scrolls are a collaboration of martial arts, medicine, philosophy, strategy and religion. Traditionally, this knowledge and skill was shared with only a handful of people in each generation that was passed down in an unbroken chain.

The present day head of this tradition is Dr Masaaki Hatsumi (PHD) of Noda City, Japan. He is the founder and grandmaster of the Bujinkan Dojo.

Dr Hatsumi was born in December 1931, he is universally acknowledged as the last traditionally trained Ninja. From a young age he studied many martial arts including Judo, Karate and Kobudo. In his twenties he began an apprenticeship to the late Toshitsugu Takamatsu which continued for fifteen years at the end of which Takamatsu passed the knowledge and skills held in the Amatsu Tatara to Hatsumi.

Dr Hatsumi broke with tradition in the early 1990’s and granted Menkyo Kaiden status (Master teaching licenses) to Dennis Bartram, William Doolan and Chris Roworth.
For more information about Dr Masaaki Hatsumi click the acorn symbol.

Amatsu in its present form has been primarily developed by Dennis Bartram who trained with Dr Hatsumi for many years, as a student in the martial art traditions and in the ancient Japanese medical techniques of Seikotsu (natural healing methods). Dennis Bartram’s background in Osteopathy, Touch for Health, Physiotherapy, NLP and many martial arts provided a wealth of experience to combine Dr Hatsumi’s natural movement principles with research to re-define how pressure therapy can normalise musculo-skeletal injuries by incorporating the principles of biotensegrity.

Biotensegrity is an innovative way of regarding how the body functions. Research by Stephen M Levin MD demonstrates that all biological structures, are mobile, omni-directional, gravity independent structures, made of tensegrous icosahedrons. There are only tension and compression elements in tensegrity systems. There are no shears, bending moments or levers, just simple tension and compression, in a self organising, hierarchical, load distributing, low energy consuming structure. Therefore, standard Newtonian mechanics cannot be applied to the body.
For more information regarding Stephen M Levin MD and Biotensegrity click the acorn symbol.