A pressure point (Chinese: ç©´ä½; Japanese: kyÅ«sho 急所 "vital point, tender spot"; Sinhala: නà·'ල/මර්ම ස්ථà·à¶± Nila/Marma Sthana (in Angampora); Telugu: మరà±à°® à°¸à±à°¥à°¾à°¨à°‚ Marma Sthanam; Malayalam: മരàµâ€à´®àµà´®à´‚ marmam; Tamil: வரà¯à®®à®®à¯ varmam) derives from the meridian points in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Indian Ayurveda and Siddha medicine, and the field of martial arts, and refers to an area on the human body that may produce significant pain or other effects when manipulated in a specific manner.
The concept of pressure points spread through the Tamil martial art called Varma kalai, which is a martial art that concentrates on the body's pressure points. The concept of pressure points is also present in the old school Japanese martial arts; in a 1942 article in the Shin Budo magazine, Takuma Hisa asserted the existence of a tradition attributing the first development of pressure-point attacks to Shinra SaburÅ Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1045â€"1127).
Hancock and Higashi (1905) published a book which pointed out a number of vital points in Japanese martial arts.
Accounts of pressure-point fighting appeared in Chinese Wuxia fiction novels and became known by the name of Dim Mak, or "Death Touch", in western popular culture in the 1960s.
While it is undisputed that there are sensitive points on the human body where even comparatively weak pressure may induce significant pain or serious injury, the association of kyūsho with notions of Death are not scientific and are disproven.
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