Rosanne's four Japanese teachers
Kiiko Matsumoto
Kiiko Matsumoto was Rosanne's first and ever-appreciated Japanese teacher. Rosanne assisted Kiiko weekly in her busy Boston clinic for 2 1/2 years. During that time she observed miraculous changes in patients, often instantly before her student-eyes. A genius practitioner and astute student herself of several leading teachers in Japan, Kiiko has synthesized the practices of the best of them into one discipline. She teaches this discipline to crowds of acupuncturists in various locations around the U.S. She is an exemplar of abdominal reflex palpation and palpation of individual distal points. Her work is efficient, effective, and strongly based on her steady knowledge of the Chinese classics.
Miki Shima
Rosanne took a two-year intensive in San Francisco with Miki Shima, president and founder of the Japanese American Acupuncture Foundation. The course included lectures about the history of Japanese acupuncture and related subjects. Additionally there were demonstrations and practice with extraordinary vessel and channel divergent treatments, abdominal diagnosis, Akabane and various Japanese needling techniques, and Japanese pediatrics. An inspiring teacher and talented practitioner, he conveyed a reverence for the combination of the art and the science. His influence is remembered and appreciated by Rosanne to this day.
Shoji Kobayashi
From Tokyo to Boston, Shoji Kobayashi annually brings ten of his teachers to lecture and individually train licensed acupuncturists in the state-of-the-art specialty of Shakuju (shak uu joo). Rosanne has attended his seminars since 2007. The focus in Shakuju is on the development and refinement of the delicate contact-needling skill. The body is viewed as reflective of the universe, which is made of visible and invisible "Qi," or core energy. Concurrent with science, it is believed that energy changes but is never destroyed, like water changing from light vapor to solid ice. Shakuju's intent is to interact in a skillful way that encourages the body to convert and adjust the Qi and thereby strengthen weakened areas. The session finishes with an energetic state where obstructions are minimized and the body is no longer drained, leaked, or otherwise impaired. Rather than interacting with disharmonies, disease, or possible causes of ill health, returning to one's dynamic naturally healthy state is the focus of Shakuju.
T. Yamamoto M.D., Ph.D
Rosanne studied Yamamoto modern scalp acupuncture, a full treatment modality developed by Dr. Yamamoto. The treatment, taught at Boston's Sloan-Kettering hospital complex, uses tiny hair-thin needles at various locations, mostly along the hairline. These needles act as reflexes to effect changes in distant areas of the body. Exact locations are verified by reference points tested on the neck. The neck is a largely overlooked section of the body from which all the major meridians/energy pathways course. As energy rapidly emits from the needles along the hairline, people often feel sensations elsewhere and quickly slip into a deep, relaxed state. Autonomic nervous and brain functions are allowed to coordinate and spread to the rest of the body, enhancing the totality of Rosanne's acupuncture treatment.