Dr. Kenzo Kase
KINESIO’s President & Founder
Dr. Kenzo Kase® is an American-trained chiropractor, and best known as the inventor of the original Kinesio® Tape and Kinesio Taping® Method.
Dr. Kase was born in Japan in the early 1940s. He was a sickly child, not allowed to attend physical education classes because of this physical frailty. He was plagued by pneumonia, tuberculosis, kidney infections and all kinds of allergies. His grandmother was a Japanese healer who used herbal remedies, acupuncture and moxibustion techniques, and he learned the value of a healing touch.
After graduating from chiropractic college in Chicago, he was able to combine his education in both mainstream and traditional medical techniques and philosophies. Through his own experiences and training, Dr. Kase was never forced to separate different styles and methods of healing. His licensing is in chiropractic and acupuncture, but his medical knowledge is both deeper and broader.
In the research field, he works with surgeons, physiotherapists and natural healers. Part of his genius is his ability make connections between different treatment paradigms and to help each concept get a step or two further.
These days they call it Integrative Medicine, but Dr. Kase has been using this approach for years. He has seen that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all.’ In essence, integrative medicine is the embodiment of alternative and evidence based medicine; a school of thought that does not distinguish between the two. Instead it focuses on wellness, health, and prevention, through education and an emphasis on the patient-physician relationship; as well as the treatment of the patient’s mental, emotional, and physical ailments as a whole.
Kinesio Tape and the Kinesio Taping Method were the brainchild of Dr. Kase’s belief that he could create a device that could help his patients find pain relief, heal the body naturally and in turn give them a better quality of life.
It all starts with the power of a human touch.
In the early 1970s, while treating elderly arthritis patients, Dr. Kenzo Kase became frustrated with the limitations of the available treatment methods. He found he could get the patient’s joint into a position that was less painful and more able to follow normal use, but as soon as they went home they would return to their old habits and painful positioning. Dr. Kase wanted to be able to treat them for a longer period of time.
If only he could find a way to send his hands home with them.
He tried to use tape the joint in position. The tape that was available for medical use was stiff and rigid. Patients received some benefit from the taping, but it had bad side effects: skin problems and rashes and other painful results. And the tape was so stiff that in many cases they could not move the joint at all. This was not a way to get better.
That was when Dr. Kase realized that the existing tapes were not going to solve the problem. He worked with product engineers and went through a long process of trying different qualities. Eventually they had a tape that was flexible enough to preserve range of motion, but lightweight and hypo-allergenic to stay on the skin without causing a rash. The new tape imitated the thickness and resilience of human skin.
Based on the principal of releasing the body’s natural healing power – anyone can use Kinesio tape to help improve recovery and reduce pain. Dr Kase’s unique method is used by famous athletes to deal with injuries, by elderly people managing joint pain, and by surgeons to speed post-surgical healing. Tens of thousands of trained medical and therapeutic practitioner’s worldwide use Kinesio Medical Taping which is the product of 40 years of evolution based on continuous research and clinical validation. We believe that people with passion to live different can change the world. Live Different is a core value of our company. Kinesio live different means making life easier for anyone who utilizes our 4 different tapes which are designed to achieve optimal patient results based on the condition being treated.
Professional Experience
Years
Positions
January, 2015 – Present
President Kinesio University
April, 1984 – Present
Founder and Director Society of Kinesio Taping Association International
April, 2008 – Present
Founder and Director Society of Kinesio Taping Therapy (SKITT)
March, 2006 – Present
Board of Executive Council Japan Olympic Committee
December, 2005 – Present
Founder and Chairman Kinesio Taping Academy
May, 2003 – Present
Vice President Japan Sepaktakraw Federation
March, 1998 – Present
Emeritus President Natural Chiropractic College
March, 1983 – February, 1998
President Natural Chiropractic College
April, 1980 – March, 1996
Owner and Practitioner Kase Chiropractic Clinic in Tokyo, Japan
April, 1976 – July, 1976
Instructor at University of New Mexico
June, 1975 – September, 1979
Owner and Practitioner Kase Chiropractic Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Education
Years
May, 1970 – September, 1974
Doctor of Chiropractic – National University of Health Sciences (NUHS) in Chicago, Illinois, USA
April, 1960 – March, 1964
Business Administration / Economics – Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan
Publications
More than 50 clinical books, in Japanese and English, and translated into numerous other languages
Co-Author, Kinesio Taping Manuals Published by Kinesio Taping Association International including
Clinical Therapeutic Applications of the Kinesio Taping Method
Kinesio Taping for Lymphoedema and Chronic Swelling
Kinesio Taping in Pediatrics, Fundamentals and Whole Body Taping
Muscle Unit Training (MUT); Makino Publishing Co., Ltd
Dr. Kase Therapy (DKT); The Science News Co., Ltd
Kinesio Sports; Baseball Publishing Co., Ltd
Kinesio Taping in Pictures and Illustration; Idono Nihon Co., Ltd
Spine and Chiropractic; Sougeisha Co., Ltd
Effective Kinesio Taping for Lower Back and Knee Pain; Futaba Publishing Co.
Chiropractic Basic Manual Technique; Enterprise Publishing
Cryotherapy Manual; Science (Newspaper) Publishing
…and many others