Wikipedia
is a concept on one's bodily tendency in sensitivity, temperament, movement and personality. The concept was established by , who was the founder and a teacher of 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 an 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, means “body”, whereas represents “habit” or "tendency". Noguchi established the concept of taiheki through his as activity as healer and seitai teacher sometime during the early 1950s.
A modified weight scale called as (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. According 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, whereas his wife, Akiko Noguchi was taiheki type 1.