The History of Reiki | My teacher William Lee Rand with the International Center for Reiki Training spent more than twenty years researching Reiki and the history behind it after realizing there was a great lack of accurate information on the topic.
While Mikao Usui played a significant role in expanding the Reiki system, many wrongfully consider him the creator of Reiki. In doing so, they think that the word “Reiki” only applies to the healing modality that he discovered and helped to develop. However, when researching the origin of Reiki, one can find that there were at least four other styles of Reiki being practiced in Japan before Usui Sensei developed his own style of healing.
Two Japanese Reiki researchers, Hiroshi Doi Sensei and Toshitaka Mochitzuki Sensei, give a very in-depth explanation of these older practices in the book An Evidence-Based History of Reiki. Those interested in diving deeper into the history of Reiki and going further than we will go in this chapter should certainly consider reading their book.
Mataji Kawakami created his healing system, Reiki Ryoho, in 1914. He went on to publish multiple books on the subject, but there were other Reiki healing styles in use at the time as well. These styles included: Reikan Tonetsu Ryoho (created by Reikaku Ishinuki), Senshinryu Reiki Ryoho (created by Kogetsu Matsubara), and Seido Reishojutsu (created by Reisen Oyama).
The History of Reiki
Nearly ten years after Mataji Kawakami had begun his own system of Reiki healing, Usui Sensei had a mythical experience in March 1922 in which he developed his own style of Reiki, known as Usui Reiki Ryoho. Researchers find it interesting that Usui Sensei chose to use this name and it seems to indicate that he was aware of other styles, like Reiki Ryoho, in use at this time.
Because of the circumstances that arose during World War II, other forms of Reiki soon fell into disuse and they remained relatively unknown to the greater public. Meanwhile, Usui Reiki continued practicing his own style and it soon grew in popularity.
The History of Reiki
Many people raise debate over what should or should not be referred to as Reiki. However, we must consider that not only have many systems of Reiki healing been created that do not have a link to Usui Sensei, but also that Reiki energy itself has been around for thousands of years, if not longer. Many feel it has been around since the beginning of time itself. Therefore, it makes sense to say that any system using Reiki energy can be called Reiki and not just those systems linked back to Usui Sensei.
However, a thorough understanding of the Usui Reiki system is important since it will provide practitioners and masters with a solid foundation for understanding Reiki healing, thus making it easier for you to connect with its essence. The reason why the Usui Reiki system has sustained itself while others have gone relatively unrecognized is largely because Hawaya Takata brought Reiki to the Western world where Usui Reiki predominately became the most practiced form of Reiki around the world.
Usui Sensei
Usui Sensei was born in 1865 near present-day Nagoya, Japan. Throughout his life, he expressed interest in learning and he studied many subjects extensively. His curriculum included psychology, medicine, and religion alongside the art of divination, which has long been known as a worth skill in Asia. Usui Sensei later joined Rei Jyutsu Ka, which was “a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities.”
The History of Reiki
Through his life, Usui Sensei held many jobs, including that of a civil servant and journalist. He helped rehabilitate prisoners and he later became Shinpei Goto’s secretary (Goto was the head of the Department of Health and Welfare and later became Tokyo’s Mayor). Usui Sensei became a successful businessman thanks to the connections he made through his job.
The History of Reiki
However, despite being a successful businessman, Usui Sensei was inspired to direct his attention towards discovering his life’s greater purpose. During his search for this purpose, he learned of a special state of consciousness that, once achieved, would give a person an understanding of their life’s purpose while also guiding them to achieve that purpose. This special state is known as An-shin Ritsu-mei (propounded “on sheen dit sue may”) and, in this special state, one would always be at peace no matter what was going on in the outer world. This state also maintains itself once achieved without any effort from the individual. Peace wells up inside the person as they achieve their purpose and enjoy enlightenment.
Usui Sensei was able to understand this concept on an intellectual level, but he sought to actually achieve it. He dedicated his life to reaching this state and began Zazen meditation to try and achieve it. He found a Zen teacher who let Usui Sensei in as a student, but after three years of practice, he had not found success. It was at this time that his teacher suggested a severe practice in which the student has to be willing to die (ego) in order to achieve An-shin Ritsu-mei.
The History of Reiki
Usui Sensei accepted that and, after preparing for death, he went to the sacred mountain Kurama Yama in February 1922. He went to fast and meditate and intended to do so until he passed on to the next world. At this time, he was not trying to discover a method of healing. Rather, he was seeking the special spiritual state that he had been striving for. After fasting for twenty-one days and growing weaker and weaker, Usui Sensei suddenly saw a White and Gold light enter his mind. He came in through the top of his head and he said it was as if he had been struck by lightning. The force made him fall unconscious. This also happened to me 6 months after l learnt Reiki 1.
The sun rose and he soon awoke, realizing that he no longer felt weak. Instead, he was filled with an enjoyable feeling of vitality like he had never experienced before. He described it as a miraculous kind of high-frequency spiritual energy had overtaken his normal state of consciousness. An amazing level of awareness had now overtaken him. He was overjoyed.
The excitement Usui Sensei was filled with led him to run down the mountain where he met with his Zen master to share his good fortune. On the way down the mountain, he tripped on a rock and placed his hands over his toe as anyone would in response to the pain. But, when he did this, he realize healing energy flowed through his hands all on its own. He was amazed that the pain instantly disappeared from his toe and it was healed. He now understand that this was his life’s purpose: to heal and train others.
The History of Reiki
It was in April of 1922 that Usui Sensei moved to Tokyo where he began a healing society called Usui Reiki Healing Method Society. He later opened a Reiki clinic where he gave treatments and taught classes. Over time, Usui Sensei developed a system of healing, mostly after 1923 when the Great Kanto earthquake and tsunami left many people in Tokyo injured. Due to the number of people in need of help, Usui Sensei chose to share his healing methods with other teachers.
This was when Usui Sensei developed Gassho, Byosen scanning, Gyoshi ho, Reiji-ho, Seishin-to-itsu, and many of his other practitioner techniques. This was also when he developed his formal attunement method, which he called Reiju kai. This made it easier for other people to learn the Reiki system and become teachers themselves. Prior to this system, he had to hold a student’s hands to pass on the Reiki healing method, but this took a lot of time. Usui Sensei also developed the Reiki symbols, which are currently received in Reiki II by students. Usui Sensei only had three symbols (there was no Master symbol).
The History of Reiki
Usui Sensei called the first degree of his Reiki training Shoden, and it was divided into four levels: Loku-Tou, Go-Tou, Yon-You, and San-Tou. The second degree was called Okuden, or Inner Teaching, and it had two levels: Okuden-Zen-Ki and Okuden-Koe-ki. The third degree was known as Shinpiden (Mystery Teaching), which is what those in the Western world call the Master level. This level includes Shihan-Kaku (assistant teacher) and Shihan (venerable teacher).
Usui Sensei’s teaching methods were highly favored and the demand for Reiki became so great that he soon had to move to a bigger clinic in Nakano, Tokyo. Usui Sensei’s reputation as a healer began to spread across Japan and he soon began traveling so he could treat and teach even more people. It’s said he directly taught more than 2,000 students as he travelled. The Japanese government soon issued him the Kun San To award for his honorable work. However, in 1926 while traveling to Fukuyama, he died from a stroke.
Mr. J. Ushida who had been trained by Usui Sensei took over as the president of the society and was responsible for erecting the Usui Memorial. Mr. Ushida was later followed by: Mr. Ilichi Taketomi, Mr. Yoshiharu Watanabe, Mr. Toyoichi Wanami and Ms. Kimiko Koyama. The current successor to Usui Sensei is Mr. Mahayoshi Kondo, who became president in 1998.
Many people in the West work under the misconception that there is a “lineage bearer” or “Grand Master” of the society, but that is not the case. The society simply has the succession of presidents listed above.
Chujiro Hayashi
Prior to his passing, Usui Sensei asked Chujiro Hayashi Sensei to open a clinic and expand and develop the Reiki system further using his own experience as a medical doctor in the Navy. Hayashi Sensei was very motivated by his request and soon opened Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai (Institute), a school and clinic.
Located in Tokyo, Hayashi Sensei kept careful records at his clinic that detailed the illnesses and conditions of each of his patients. He also recorded what hand positions worked best to treat the different conditions and illnesses. He used these records to create the Reiki Ryoho Shinshin, or the Guidelines for the Reiki Healing Method. This became a class manual that he gave to his students, but the handbook was only used if Byosen scanning was not able to find the best hand positions to use.
Hayashi Sensei made some changes to the way Usui Sensei had done Reiki treatments. While Usui Sensei had one person sit in a chair and receive treatment from one practitioner, Hayashi Sensei had them lie down so they could receive treatment from multiple practitioners at once. He also made a new and more effective attunement system and increased the value his students received while traveling by using a new method of teaching. Hayashi Sensei encouraged students to continue receiving Reiju regularly from their local teacher or Shihan to refine the quality of the Reiki energy they were channeling.
In 1937, Hayashi Sensei made a trip to Hawaii prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At that time, the Japanese military asked him to give them information about the location of military targets and warehouses in Honolulu. He refused and the Japanese government declared him a traitor. This meant that he and his family would be ostracized from Japanese society and be disgraced by others. In his mind, the only solution was seppuku (ritual suicide). He died honorably in May 1940.
Hayashi Sensei’s wide, Chie Hayashi, took over his clinic after his passing and ran it for many years, but she eventually retired. No one was in succession to take over the position so the clinic met its end.
Hawayo Takata
Hawayo Takata was born in 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. After being widowed in 1930, Mrs. Takata was alone to raise two children. She worked very hard to provide for her children but, after five years, she developed a severe lung condition and abdominal pain. She ended up having a nervous breakdown. Soon after, one of her sisters died so Hawayo Takata had to travel to Japan, where her parents were settled, to deliver the news to them.
After informing her parents, Hawayo Takata entered a hospital in Japan where she sought help for her conditions. She was diagnosed with gallstones, appendicitis, asthma, and a tumor. She was asked to prepare for operation but heard of Hayashi Sensei’s clinic, which she visited instead.
Hawayo Takata was not familiar with Reiki but she was impressed that the Reiki practitioners had closely matched the diagnosis the hospital had just given her, so she began receiving treatments. Two practitioners worked with her each day. She later told a newspaper that the tea from their hands was so strong that she thought they must be secretly using some kind of equipment.
One day, she grabbed the large sleeves of one of the practitioner’s Japanese kimono during treatment thinking that she had found the place he was concealing the equipment, but she found nothing. The started practitioner laughed when she explained what she was thinking and he soon explained what Reiki was and how it worked.
Hawayo Takata took four months to heal as she progressively got better with each treatment session. Due to the miraculous results, she wanted to learn the Reiki method for herself. It was in the spring of 1936 that she received First Degree Reiki from Hayashi Sensei. She worked with him for a full year and then received Second Degree Reiki. She returned to Hawaii in 1937 followed by Harsh Sensei who came to help establish the practice in the Western world. In February 1938, Hayashi Sensei initiated Hawayo Takata as an official Reiki Master.
Hawayo Takata gave sessions at her own clinic in Hilo, Hawaii from 1939 through 1949. Takata Sensei ended up establishing several different clinics, including one in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. She initiated students up to Reiki II and became a well-known healer. She traveled across the United States and other areas of the world where she gave treatments. Takata Sensei had her own unique way of practicing and teaching the system. Takata Sensei told one of her most respected students, John Harvey Gray, that she had to change the way she taught because the Japanese way was far too complex to pass to the Western world.
The History of Reiki
Takata Sensei simplified the system and even developed her own hand position system that she called the foundation treatment. This system had eight hand positions. Takata Sensei never taught the Byosen scanning technique, although Usui Sensei and Hayashi Sensei indicated it was the most important part for a student to master. She also did not teach Gassho, Reiji-ho, Kenyoku, Gyoshi-ho, or Koki-ho. Additionally, she came up with her own attunement method for each level of Reiki. She taught students that the attunements empowered the symbols and she also taught a Master symbol which means great light, that was given to Master students.
The reiki symbols at a very subtle meditative level represent the elements of air, water, fire and earth. You are being attuned to your elements or phases that are beyond thought, similar to Chinese Medicine theory
“In her system, the Master symbol was needed in order to give attunements, and it could also be used during Reiki sessions for purposes of healing. She did not encourage her students to receive as many attunements as possible as was taught by Usui Sensei and Hayashi Sensei, but taught that just one set of four attunements for Reiki I and one or two attunements for Reiki II and one for the Master level are all that are necessary.”
Takata Sensei taught a simplified system that was proven to be effective. It produced valuable results for her clients and students, which is why she is considered an important innovator of Usui Reiki Ryoho. While many people feel she should have kept things traditional, one thing that’s very important to grasp is that, if it were not for her, Reiki likely would have fallen into obscurity. It never would have reached worldwide recognition and likely would have been mostly forgotten after Hayashi Sensei’s passing as had the other forms of Reiki.
This is because, following World War II, the United States made Japan unconditionally surrender. The made the USA in complete control of Japan and this meant anyone practicing healing would be required to have a license.
“….the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai decided that they did not want to be controlled by a licensing board and instead chose to go underground. They decided that the members were not to talk to anyone outside their group about Reiki and that they would only practice Reiki with each other. This made it difficult for anyone to find out about Reiki in Japan including the Japanese. Also, because it became very difficult for new members to join, the membership slowly declined. This problem exists even now, and the Gakkai membership continues to slowly dwindle. If this continues, at some time in the not too distant future the Gakkai is likely to come to an end.”
Thanks to Takata Sensei learning Reiki in Japan and then bringing it back with her to Hawaii before World War II, she prevented it from becoming lost. She was a wonderful teacher and promoter and she eventually taught the method across Hawaii and the United States mainland before passing. She left behind 22 Reiki Masters who have helped carry on the tradition and teach more masters.