Taiheki

Taiheki (体癖、たいへき) is a concept on one's bodily tendency in sensitivity, temperament, movement and personality. The concept was established by Haruchika Noguchi (野口 晴哉), who was the founder and a teacher of seitai (整体) in Japan. Noguchi said that man's tendency of sensitivity can be divided into five categories, each of which is divided into two types, one of which is active (odd-numbered types) whereas the other of which is passive (even-numbered types). In addition, there are two anomalous types. Thus, 12 types of taiheki in total have been defined. Among them, odd-numbered types have a tendency to release of compressed energy in a active way, whereas even-numbered types are passive and require others' attention to release compressed energy. The 12 types are like pure colors in color, and they are usually mixed up with each other in one person (this is called complex taiheki).

The concept of taiheki is somehow similar to the typology by Ernst Kretschmer, Enneagram of Personality and Four Temperaments. However, taiheki is not only applicable to psychological aspects such as one's emotional or behavioural tendency, but also to one's physical characteristics including shape of face and body, balance of weights, and tendency seen in movement. According to him, all these aspects are correlated with state of 5 lumbar vertebrae. In Japanese, tai (体) means “body”, whereas heki (癖) represents “habit” or "tendency". Noguchi established the concept of taiheki through his as activity as healer and seitai teacher sometime during early 1950's.

A modified weight scale called as Tairyo Haibun Kei (体量配分計) (body mass distribution meter) is used to tell somebody's taiheki. The scale's platform is divided into left and right parts for both legs, and each of the parts is further divided into 3 parts: frontal right, frontal left, and rear parts. Thus one stands over the 6 parts of the platform. When he makes postures, such as brace and forward-bending position, the scale gives data of biased balance of his weight in certain direction for each posture. Accoding to Noguchi, each taiheki has a distinct tendency of biased balance of weight in each posture. One can hence determine somebody's taiheki based on the collected data.

Alternatively, without using special apparatus, one's taiheki can be estimated by observation of his/her physical constitution, postural characteristics, kinetic features, or psychological tendency in sensitivity .

Noguchi's seitai provides excises specifically designed for each taiheki, to adjust its unbalanced tendency when it is excessive. It is thought that in general one's taiheki doesn't change dramatically in adulthood. . Noguchi himself was taiheki type 9 mixed with twisted type, whrease his wife, Akiko Noguchi was taiheki type 1.

Upwards and Downwards category: Types 1 & 2
L1 vertebrate is important in movement of people having these taiheki. They are sensitive to honour and shame. They often have thin and tall body, as well as long neck. When they stand upright and bend themselves forward, they often put their weight on the frontal part of their soles. They are good at constructing and telling logics. In relation to their high linguistic ability, they are sensitive to words, and highly susceptible to verbal suggestion. Hence, they often become ill or healthy simply due to their own assumption or other person's words. They require long sleep and often have a dream with story. When they have a posture in which they bend themselves forward slightly, they often bend their neck and above. Because they persist in good reason, truth, and rules, they can't take action without having good enough reason for themselves. They tend to overview the world, as if from the view point of heaven. Thus, Noguchi said that people with Upwards and Downwards category are least wild and like xian/sennin/hsien (in Taoism, Xian is believed to live in high mountain, or in heaven, be immortal, and have some magical power. By this simile, Noguchi meant that people of these taiheki are like living in imaginary world with overview of the real world). They tend to wear plain and conservative clothes.


 * Taiheki type 1 has a strong tendency of sublimating surplus energy into intellectual activity . People with this taiheki always try to understand the world linguistically . That is to say, they have a intense motivation to understand everything by explaining it with his own words. They like to think about something new actively, but, just getting an idea of results during their consideration, they often become satisfied quickly and lose their motivation to do it for real . When they feel tired, they often have a pain at the back of their neck . They cannot make an action without any good reason. When they have surplus energy, they tend to ponder more and become less active than usual. When you need to scold a person with taiheki type 1, Noguchi recommended to say things shortly to encourage his/her own thinking . If you give lengthy scolding, the person would regard you as stupid . It is said that most men have taiheki type 1 to some extent, and many characteristics accepted to be typical of men can thus be understood as a part of features of taiheki type 1.


 * Taiheki type 2 also likes thinking, but often gets stuck when trying to understand thngs with their own words. When they stuck with thinking, that is soon reflected by physical problems, such as stomachache. Differed from taiheki type 1, people with taiheki 2 are passive. They feel difficulty in taking action under their own responsibility and decision, whilie they feel ease when taking action according to opinions of, or under responsibility of, others. Whent tired, they often feel pain in Sternocleidomastoid muscle.