Sugiyama Waichi

Sugiyama Waichi was a Japanese acupuncturist, blind from an eye disease in infancy, who is widely regarded as the father of Japanese acupuncture. He studied under Ryomei Irie in Edo and, after a reported hundred-day fast and prayer in a cave, developed the shinkan, or insertion tube, a technique using extremely fine gold and silver needles that made acupuncture markedly less painful. After his treatment reportedly cured a neurotic disease affecting the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, his methods received official state endorsement. He went on to establish around forty-five schools that taught massage and acupuncture specifically to blind students, creating a lasting association in Japan between blindness and the acupuncture and physical-therapy professions. He lived from 1614 to 1694.