The History of Reiki
Mikao Usui
Any comprehensive history of Reiki must firstly begin with a look at the system’s founder, Mikao Usui. Usui was born on the 15th of August 1865 in the village of Taniai (now called Miyama cho) in the Yamagata county of the Gifu Prefecture in Japan. Prior to Usui’s time, Japan was an isolated, pre-industrial, feudal country dominated by the Tokugawa Shogunate. In 1867, the Meiji Emperor began to open up Japan after a long period self-imposed seclucion which had left it isolated from the Western world, though culturally rich and prosperous. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan emerged as an important new power, both in Asia and upon the greater world stage as well.
Usui was born into a family of hatamoto samurai – a high level within the ranks of samurai who were the shogun’s personal guard. Due to the major changes that were happening in Japan from the 1860s onwards, the samurai class were no longer required. Many individuals from samurai class families were educated to a high standard and offered positions within the new structure of the Japanese government. Others went into other branches of professional life: Usui’s brothers, Sanya and Kuniji, grew up to become a doctor and a policeman respectively.
Early Life
It is believed that Mikao Usui was born a Tendai Buddhist, and during his childhood studied in a Tendai monastery.
Tendai is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism: a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school. The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Jianzhen in the middle of the 8th century CE. Usui’s spiritual beliefs would have also been heavily influenced by Shinto, a polytheistic and animistic faith that is regarded as the native religion of Japan.
According to some sources, Usui began training in a Japanese form of martial art called aiki jutsu at the age of 12, and also studied an early form of another tradition known as daito ryu. By his mid-twenties, he had attained proficiency in both systems, and also gained his menkyo kaiden (highest level of accomplisment) in weaponry and grappling in 1889.
Career and Family
Though he is often referred to as “Dr Usui” in the West, Mikao Usui was not a medical doctor. He had a broad and wide ranging education however that did include medicine, along with history, religion (Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism), psychology and a host of other subjects. Usui was a well travelled man, and his career quite varied. According to some researchers, Usui held a number of civil service positions within the Japanese government, including that of private secretary to a politician called Shinpei Goto, who became the Mayor of Tokyo in 1920.
Usui Mikao was married to a woman named Suzuki Sadako, and they had two children: a boy named Fuji and a girl named Toshiko. Fuji (1908 – 1946) went on to teach at Tokyo University and Toshiko lived a short life, dying at the age of 22 in 1935. The entire family’s ashes are buried at family grave site at the Saihoji Temple in Tokyo.
According to some researchers, Usui became a zaike: a lay Tendai priest who resides at home with his family rather than inside the temple where the majority of Buddhist clergy were based. At the time that Usui Mikao became a zaike some say he took the Buddhist name of Gyoho, Gyohan or Gyotse.
Early Teachings
Unfortunately, it remains remains impossible to know precisely when Usui began to offer the spiritual teachings that would eventually form the early system of Usui Reiki Ryoho. According to some sources, Usui began offering spiritual guidance to many people in his community as early as the turn of the 20th century.
It is believed that Usui’s early methods were primarilly centred on the attainment of spiritual enlightenment, though without the attachment of religious dogma or belief. These teachings were focused on developing awareness of one’s true and complete nature through the use of meditation techniques and other contemplative methods. Usui was especially fond of waka, a poetic form traditional to Japan. The Meiji Emperor was a notable composer of waka Usui was known to have found much spiritual inspiration within the Emperor’s poetry.
Here is an example of the Meiji Emperor’s waka used by Usui Mikao.
Asamidori sumiwataritaru ohzorano
hiroki onoga kokoro to mogana
As a great sky in clear light green
I wish my heart would be as vast.
(waka translation is copyright Hyakuten Inamoto)
Though enlightenment appeared to be the goal of Usui’s early teachings, students appeared to have considerable physical benefits from the techniques as well. Through the practice of tenohira (hands on healing) individual practitioners found that they were able to help both themselves and others through the use of Usui’s techniques. During this period, Usui’s system of healing and spiritual deveopment would have been referred to as Usui do (the way of Usui) or Usui teate (Usui hands on healing method). Though the word Reiki was used in connection with Usui’s teaching’s, it was not used to describe the methods themselves: only the energetic principle behind them.
Later Teachings
From 1922 onwards, Usui’s teachings became both more formalized and more widespread, following an experience of profound spiritual importance that he had while enduring 21 days of fasting and meditation on Kurama-Yama (Kurama mountain, near Kyoto). Kurama-Yama has long been renowned in Japan as a holy mountain; the Buddhist temple there was founded in 770 AD. During Usui’s time, the Kurama temple belonged to the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism, but since 1949, it has been associated with the newly formed Kurama-Kokyu sect.
According to his students, while engaged in spiritual disciplines (known as kushu shinren) at Kurama, Usui attained enlightenment. Quickly following his experience, he noticed that his healing abilities were considerably magnified, and felt the need to solidify his teachings and make them accessable to a greater number of people. He decided to settle in Tokyo, and to found an organisation dedicated to teaching his methods, and helping people with Reiki. This organisation was known as the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (society for Usui’s spiritual healing method) and is still exists in present day Japan. From his premises in Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo, Usui provided both teaching in his healing methods along with therapeutic assistance for clients.
In 1923, Tokyo was struck by a devastating earthquake which killed over 100,000 people, and left many more injured and homeless. Usui was noted for his contribution towards the relief efforts, and worked tirelessly to assist vistims of the disaster. After the earthquake, he moved his home and teaching studio to Nakano ku, which is just outside of Tokyo. He also travelled widely across Japan teaching students and offering treatments to people. It is said that Usui had over 2000 students in total (according to his memorial stone in Tokyo), and that 21 of those students were trained as Shinpiden teachers.
Mikao Usui suffered a stroke on March 9th, 1926, and passed away at the age of 62. One year following his death, members of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai erected a memorial stone in his honour. This memorial is located The Saihoji Temple (a Pure Land Buddhist Temple) in Tokyo. The memorial’s text was composed by Masayuki Okada and engraved with brush strokes written by Juzaburo Ushida in 1927. Usui’s memorial is single-handedly the best source available to Western researchers about Usui’s life and teachings. For a complete transtaltion of Usui’s memorial, copyright Hyakuten Inamoto, please read below:
Reiho Choso Usui Sensei Kudoko No Hi
Memorial of the merits of Usui Sensei, the founder of Reiho (Reiki Ryoho)That which is attained within oneself after having accumulated the fruits of disciplined study and training is called ‘Toku’ and that which can be offered to others after having spread a path of teaching and salvation is called ‘Koh’. Only with high merits and great virtues can one be a great founding teacher. Sagacious and brilliant men of the olden time or the founders of new teachings and religious sects were all like that. Someone like Usui Sensei can be counted among them. Sensei newly founded the method based on Reiki of the universe to improve the mind and body. Having heard of his reputation all over, people crowded around to seek his teachings and treatments. Ah, how popular it is!
Sensei, commonly known by the name ‘Mikao’, with an extra name ‘Gyohan’ is from Taniai-mura (village) Yamagata-gun (county), Gifu-ken (prefecture). He is descended from Chiba Tsunetane. His father’s name was Taneuji, and was commonly called Uzaemon. His mother was from the Kawai family.
Sensei was born on August 15 of the first year of Keio (1865 A.D.). From his youth he surpassed his fellows in hard work and endeavor. When he grew up he visited Europe and America, and studied in China. Despite his will to succeed in life, he was stalemated and fell into great difficulties. However, in the face of adversity he strove to train himself even more with the courage never to yield.
One day, he climbed Kurama-yama and after 21 days of a severe discipline without eating, He suddenly felt One Great Reiki over his head and attained enlightenment and he obtained Reiki Ryoho. Then, he tried it on himself and experimented on his family members. The efficacy was immediate. Sensei thought that it would be far better to offer it widely to the general public and share its benefits than just to improve the well-being of his own family members. In April of the 11th year of Taisho (1922 A.D.) he settled in Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo and set up the Gakkai to teach Reiki Ryoho and give treatments. Even outside of the building it was full of pairs of shoes of the visitors who had come from far and near.
In September of the 12th year (1923 A.D.) there was a great earthquake and a conflagration broke out. Everywhere there were groans of pains from the wounded. Sensei, feeling pity for them, went out every morning to go around the town, and he cured and saved an innumerable number of people. This is just a broad outline of his relief activities during such an emergency.
Later on, as the ‘dojo’ became too small, in February of the 14th year (1925 A.D.) the new suburban house was built at Nakano according to divination. Due to his respected and far-reaching reputation many people from local districts wished to invite him. Sensei, accepting the invitations, went to Kure and then to Hiroshima and Saga, and reached Fukuyama. Unexpectedly he became ill and passed away there. It was March 9 of the 15th year of Taisho (1926 A.D.), aged 62.
His spouse was Suzuki, and was called Sadako. One boy and one girl were born. The boy was named Fuji and he succeeded to the family. Sensei’s personality was gentle and modest and he never behaved ostentatiously. His physique was large and sturdy. He always wore a contented smile. He was stout-hearted, tolerant and very prudent upon undertaking a task. He was by nature versatile and loved to read books. He engaged himself in history books, medical books, Buddhist scriptures, Christian scriptures and was well versed in psychology, Taoism, even in the art of divination, incantation, and physiognomy. Presumably sensei’s background in the arts and sciences afforded him nourishment for his cultivation and discipline, and it was very obvious that it was this cultivation and discipline that became the key to the creation of Reiho (Reiki Ryoho).
On reflection, Reiho puts special emphasis not just on curing diseases but also on enjoying wellbeing in life with correcting the mind and making the body healthy with the use of an innate healing ability. Thus, before teaching, the’‘Ikun’ (admonition) of the Meiji Emperor should reverently be read and Five Precepts be chanted and kept in mind mornings and evenings.
Firstly it reads, Today do not anger, secondly it reads, Do not worry, thirdly it reads Be thankful, fourthly it reads, Work with diligence, fifthly it reads, be kind to others.
These are truly great teachings for cultivation and discipline that agree with those great teachings of the ancient sages and the wise. Sensei named these teachings ‘Secret Method to Invite Happiness and ‘Miraculous Medicine to Cure All Disease’; notice the outstanding features of the teachings. Furthermore, when it comes to teaching, it should be as easy and common as possible, nothing lofty. Another noted feature is that during sitting in silent meditation with Gassho and reciting the Five Precepts mornings and evenings, the pure and healthy minds can be cultivated and put into practice in one’s daily routine. This is the reason why Reiho is easily obtained by anyone.
Recently the course of the world has shifted and a great change in thought has taken place. Fortunately with the spread of this Reiho, there will be many that supplement the way of the world and the minds of people. How can it be for just the benefit of curing chronic diseases and longstanding complaints?
A little more than 2,000 people became students of Sensei. Those senior disciples living in Tokyo gathered at the ‘dojo’ and carried on the work (of the late Sensei) and those who lived in local districts also spread the teachings. Although Sensei is gone, Reiho should still be widely propagated in the world for a long time. Ah, how prominent and great Sensei is that he offers the teachings to people out there after having been enlightened within!
Of late the fellow disciples consulted with each other about building the stone memorial in a graveyard at Saihoji Temple in Toyotama-gun so as to honor his merits and to make them immortalized and I was asked to write it. As I deeply submit to Sensei’s greatness and am happy for the very friendly teacher/disciple relationships among fellow students, I could not decline the request, and I wrote a summary in the hope that people in the future shall be reminded to look up at him in reverence.
February, the 2nd year of Showa (1927 A.D.
Composed by: Ju-sanmi (subordinate 3rd rank),
Kun-santo (the 3rd Order of Merit)
Doctor of Literature Okada MasayukiCalligraphy by: Navy Rear Admiral,
Ju-yonmi (subordinate 4th rank), Kun-santo (the 3rd Order of Merit),
Ko-yonkyu (the distinguished service 4th class)
Ushida JuzaburoTranslated by Hyakuten Inamoto
Churijo Hayashi
Usui’s teachings evolved considerably during his own lifetime, beginning as an informal method of spiritual development and later solidifying into the system known as Usui Reiki Ryoho. While thhere is the chance that a few of his students of his may still be alive today, it has yet to be verified by researchers. According to Hiroshi Doi, a current member of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, Usui initiated 21 Shinpiden students. Of these 21, some remained in the Gakkai, while others modified Usui’s teachings and later went on to develop their own, indivual systems of Reiki.
One of Usui’s 21 Shinpiden students was a Naval Surgeon and Soto Zen practitioner by the name of Churijo Hayashi. Dr. Hayashi was born on September 15th, 1880 in Tokyo. As Usui, he was married and the father of two children. In May of 1925, Hayashi became a student of Usui’s at the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Tokyo. He was 45 years old at the time, and a retired naval officer, though still in the reserves. As Usui passed away in 1926, Hayashi had less than a year to train with him directly.
Many early members of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai were naval officers; the therapeutic application of Reiki being popular as a form of first aid among them. Churijo Hayashi remained a member of the Gakkai 1931, when founded his own organisation called Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu Kai (Hayashi’s Society for the Research of Spiritual Energy). According to some sources, Hayashi is said to have departed from the Gakki due to personal differences with the organisation’s then president, Juzaburo Ushida.
Hayashi’s Reiki clinic and school was based in Tokyo and run by himself, his wife Chie, and several student volunteers. Hayashi provided a healing guide for his own students, which he entitled the Ryoho Shishin. The Ryoho Shishin as a text is nearly identical to that of the Reiki Ryoho Hikkei which was used within the Gakkai during Usui’s later years. Some researchers believe that the Reiki Ryoho Hikkei many have actually been written by Hayashi as well. Both manuals contain suggestions for treating various health conditions, diseases and injuries, and Hayashi’s detailed knowledge of human anatomy and physiology would have been of great use to the Gakkai in that respect.
There were several fundamental differences between Usui’s and Hayashi’s system of Reiki. Usui’s early approach was primarily centred on spiritual development, with healing being seen as pleasant “side effect” that would result from ongoing dedication to the practice of Reiki. As Usui’s teachings became more formalized, a greater emphasis on healing did occur, but the foundations of the system remained focused on spiritual development and “the improvement of mind and body”. Hayashi’s was much more interested in the therapeutic applications of Reiki, and was one of the first early practitioners to popularise its use as a complementary therapy. As a medical doctor, Hayashi focused on using Reiki to treat a host of diseases and adverse health conditions, and spiritual development, though still important, took something of a backseat.
Hayashi also shortened the teaching time between the various levels of Reiki, with students often learning Shoden and Okuden together within a five day period. With Usui’s approach, students were encouraged to develop their practice at the Shoden level for some period of time before condisering progression to Okuden, and only a small percentage of Shoden students advanced to higher degrees.
In addition to these changes, Hayashi also modified the initiation ritual of Reiju (“spiritual blessing”) to include the use of Jumon (mantras) and Shirushi (symbols); Usui’s original Reiju (and the form still used in the present day Gakki) used neither, nor did it alter from degree to degree as Hayashi’s did. According to some sources, Usui’s Reiju remained consistant regardless of whether it was performed on an initiatory or a follow-up basis. In traditional schools of Reiki, Reiju is performed each time that student and teacher meet, and the student is though to receive the exact benefit they need from it at the time it is given. In short, the ritual does not change, but responds to the changes in the student over time, so that they receive what is necessary for their well-being each time it is given.
Hayashi wrote in 1938, that he had trained 13 Shinpiden students, his most notable ones being Tatsumi (a notable Japanese healer), Chiyoko Yamaguchi (founder of Jikiden Reiki) and Hawayo Takata (who brought Reiki to the West in the 1930′s and was integral in developing its popularity). After Hayashi’s death in May of 1940, his wife Chie stayed on at her husbands’s clinic in Tokyo, effectively becoming the second president of the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu Kai and continuing his work in Japan.
Hawayo Takata
Hawayo Takata, a first generation Japanese-American, was born on Christmas Eve in 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Her parents, Mr and Mrs Otogoro Kawamura, had emigrated from Japan to Hawaii; Hawayo, their second daughter, was named after their adopted home. Hawayo Takata grew up in the village of Hanamaulu, where father worked as a sugarcane cutter. She studied at the village’s Japanese school, and worked as an assistant teacher with the first grade from the age of 12. Eventually, the young Takata left school to work as the head housekeeper for a local sugar cane plantation, and she remained in the family’s employ for 24 years. It was here that she first met her husband, Saichi Takata, who worked as the plantation’s bookkeeper. Unfortunately, Mr. Takata passed away at the young age or 34, leaving Hawayo widowed with two young daughters to care for.
After her husbands death, Mrs Takata’s health began to decline By 1935, she found herself in a very poor condition physically, suffering from asthma and severe abdominal problems. For a number of reasons she decided to travel to Tokyo to seek help for her health problems. Once there, she was admitted to hospital to undergo surgery for gallstones and a stomach tumor. However, Takata was hesitant to go ahead with the operations, and asked the hospital staff if there were any less invasive procedures which might be of help. The hospital’s dietician, Mrs Shimura, suggested that a visit to Dr Churijo Hayashi might be helpful, and Takata, following her advice, decided to visit his Reiki clinic in Tokyo.
Takata was amazed at the efficiency of the treatments, and after several weeks of daily sessions, she began to see a marked improvement in her condition. Intrigued, she enquired with Hayashi about becoming a student herself. Although initially reluctant (as the techniques were traditionally not taught to foreigners), he eventually agreed to train her in his methods. Takata spent just over a year studying with and working alongside Dr Hayashi, during which time she completed her Shoden and Okuden degrees.
Having completed her training as a Reiki practitioner, Takata returned to Hawaii in 1937. Dr Hayashi and his daughter followed a few weeks later, and stayed for six months: helping Takata to establish her new Reiki practice in Honolulu. It was during these six months in Hawaii that Takata received her Shinpiden training. When Hayashi departed home to Tokyo, he made a public announce ment that Hawayo Takata had become a “Master of the Usui System of Natural Healing”. She was his thirteenth, and final, Shinpiden student.
By 1939, Takata’s Reiki clinic was established in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, and her reputation as an acclaimed healer was growing. She worked tirelessly, sometimes providing treatments for several hours at a time. Information about Takata’s life and practice is quite readily available; Hawayo Takata’s Story by Helen Haberly records many details of Takata’s individual cases, including types of illnesses treated, treatment lengths and clients’ histories. Eventually she relocated to Honolulu, and for the next 30 years, travelled around the islands practicing and teaching Reiki.
From the 1970′s onwards, Takata began teaching Reiki on the mainland of the U.S. and Canada. Initially she offered only Reiki I and II, and her teaching fees were modest enough for most working people to manage. Her Level I was US $100 in 1975 and increased to US $125 in 1976. The second level was US $400. It was not until 1976 that Takata began teaching Level III, which was priced well beyond the means of most individuals: To become a Reiki Master, Takata charged US $10,000 from 1976-1980. It was Takata’s opinion that her students would have more respect for the system of Reiki by the payment of such a high fee, and that only those who could manage the necessary financial sacrifice would truly appreciate her teachings. Takata was the first teacher of Reiki to introduce such high fees into the system, which seemed to contradict Usui’s original wishes that Reiki should be widely accessable to all. However, Takata stuck by her decision, and trained 22 Master students altogether from 1976-1980.
Takata’s Teachings
Takata often stated that the system of Reiki was on oral tradition, and was not known to have provided any of her students with written material. She did not her students to take notes during their classes, but some of them did write up their own notes afterwards. Many of these student testamonials contradicted each other, so it may be the case that Takata taught different things to different people. She seemed to teach whatever material she felt was appropriate at the time, and modified both the system of Reiki and its factual history by doing so.
Takata seems to have taught a simple version of the Gokai or Five Reiki Precepts to all of her students, and this is one aspect of Reiki that appears to have been consistantly taught by various teachers of differing lineages, both in Japan and in the West as well. As far as the remainder of the system goes, her teachings were variable. Her system seems to have been almost entirely focused on the therapeutic application of Reiki known in Japanese as tenohira (hands on treatment). She was credited with teaching students a series of 12 hand positions, which she called the Foundation Treatment. She also encouraged students to practice healing on themselves, friends and family.
Takata seems to have been aware of the hara (abdomen in Japanese; seat of one’s original energy) and encouraged some of her students to focus a substantial amount of time upon that area in Reiki treatments. However, not all of Takata’s students were aware of the hara as a concept, and she notably did not teach hatsurei ho or any other traditional methods of building strength within the hara through meditation and breathing exercises. However, Takata did seem to have knowledge of many traditional techniques that Hayashi had passed to her, including byosen reikan ho (scanning technique), suchu reiki (group Reiki), ketsueki kokan ho (finishing treatment). Perhaps she believed that Americans would be ameanable to a simplified system of Reiki though, as these techniques were not passed consistantly to all of her students. After Takata’s death, many Western Reiki practitioners, lacking a Japanese understanding of the human energetic system, began to devise Reiki meditations and techniques based on the Indian chakra system instead…a practice which is still quite popular in Western Reiki today.
Since the mid-1990′s, researchers have uncovered many details about Usui’s life and teachings, but prior to this time Takata’s account was the primary informative source about Usui in the West. Takata herself never met Usui, and her teacher Churijo Hayashi only knew him within the final year of his life. Throughout the 1970′s Takata told her students a history of Usui that although factually incorrect, remains popular until this day. Takata taugh that “Dr Usui”, as she called him, was the president of the Doshida University in Kyoto, and later travelled to America to teach Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago. In fact, neither of these academic institution have Usui on record as a staff member, and it does not appear that he had any association whatsoever with them.
Although Usui was born a Buddhist, Takata often referred to him as a “full-fledged Christian misister” in the early days of her practice. It is thought that by doing so, she was attempting to make the system of Reiki seem more paletable to Westerners from a Judeo-Christian background. Japanese-Americans suffered from unfair persecution and discrimination following World War II, and were often urged to make every effort they could to seem less Japanese, and more “American”. This seemed to be less of a possible motivating factor in later years. In Takata’s advertising from the late 1970′s, Usui is referred to as a “Zen Buddhist Monk”; perhaps because by that time, Zen had become a popular spiritual movement withing American culture.
Takata’s students recall that she told numerous stories and anecdotes about Usui’s life and teachings, few of them based in fact, and often conflicting each other in content. One of her students, Barbara Weber Ray, wrote that “Takata’s retelling of Usui’s story was a long, involved, dramatically highlighted and somewhat speculative third- or fouth-hand account”. Takata would often use fictitious tales from Usui’s imagined life as parables for her students, her “Beggar Story” perhaps being one of the most well known. In this tale, Usui goes into the slums of Kyoto, and offers the beggars and impovrished people Reiki treatments. However, they do not appreciate his efforts, having received his treatments for free, and from that moment on, Usui decrees that one must always pay for Reiki in order for it to be effective. This is of course, a complete fallacy; Usui was actually awarded a medal of honour from the mayor of Tokyo for his charitable work during the Kanto earthquake of 1923, and at no point was he known to have requested payment for each and every treatment he gave or student he taught. Such stories more often seemed designed to reinforce Takata’s ideas about the practice of Reiki, rather than provide her students with factual information about Usui’s life.
In hindsight, it is quite difficult to evaluate the exact nature of Takata’s teachings, or to speculate why she seemed to take the historical and factual liberties that she did in regard to Usui’s life and teachings. Although she is a somewhat controversial figure in the history of Reiki, it is almost certain that without her influence Reiki would be nowhere near as popular and accessable as it is today.
Reiki after Takata
The Reiki Alliance
After Hawayo Takata passed away in 1980, many of her students felt somewhat directionless and confused. Takata had talked for many years about naming an official successor who would follow in her footsteps and preserve her teachings, but no one had officially been recognized. Takata had initiated 22 Master students from 1976-1980, and in 1982 many of them met together to discuss the future of the system of Reiki. At the time, none of Takata’s students were aware that there were still traditional Reiki practitioners and teachers living in Japan, as Takata had claimed to be the only teacher of Usui’s system of Reiki in the world. In fact, Reiki was widely practiced in Japan at the time by both the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai and others. Takata may have been the only Reiki teacher in the West, but she certainly wasn’t the only one left in the world.
However, as much of this was unknown to Takata’s students, and during their meeting in 1982 they felt it was their responsibility to preserve the system of Reiki as Takata taught it. Many students who had taken notes following completion of their training found that the information they remembered was quite different from what others had recalled, and a decision was made to standardise things to some degree. This selection of Takata’s Master students eventually became known as The Reiki Alliance, it’s first offiicial meeting being held in Canada in 1983. The Reiki Alliance decided to name Takata’s granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto as the “lineage bearer” of the system of Reiki, and gave to her the title of the “Office of the Grandmaster”. This was the first instance of either term’s usage within the system of Reiki.
The Reiki Alliance, once established, quickly established standardization in the teaching of Reiki. Their aim was to continue promoting the system exactly as their consensus agreed that Takata had done, making no changes to either her methods or her interpretation of Usui’s teachings. The Reiki Alliance also made the decision to keep in place the prohibitive, US $10,000 fee for Level III (or “Master”) courses, the idea being that the high cost of training would ensure that only those who truly valued it would have the opportunity to progress to teacher level. This decision caused disagreements within the Reiki community, as many of Takata’s students desired to reduce the fee and make Reiki training more accessable to the general public. Because of these disagreements, many of Takata’s students opted not to join the Reiki Alliance, and decided to practice and teach independently.
New Branches
One such student was Barbara Weber Ray, who published The Reiki Factor in 1983. This was one of the very first books on Reiki in the West, and like many writings of the time, it sought to make links between Reiki and popular beliefs that were then emerging in the New Age movement. Many subsequent publications throughout the 1980′s and 90′s contunued this trend, speculating on Reiki’s possible connections with a number of interests popular at the time: ancient cultures such Tibet and Egypt, mythical lost civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria, spiritual gurus such as Sai Baba, distant stars and galaxies, and a host of spiritual beings, Angels, Ascended Masters and discarnate intelligences. Channeling was quite in vogue during the New Age movement of the 1980′s and 90′s, and most new systems of Reiki that have emerged in the West over the last two decades are based on what their founders claim is channeled information. People have claimed to be in genuine communication with any number of intelligences offering new and inproved information about Reiki: Egyptian gods, aliens from Sirius, various Archangels, ancient Lemurians, Tibetan monks and even Mikao Usui himself are only a few.
In the absence of any factual history surrounding Usui’s teachings or the development of Reiki in Japan, many Western practitioners post-Takata seemed to collectively feel the need to invent a range of alternative histories that reflected the popular spiritual trends of the time. This practice is still quite widespread in modern Reiki. Hundreds of new systems of Reiki have emerged in the West over the past 25 years, some bearing very little resemblance to the teachings of Usui. A few of the most popular and longstanding of the Western systems include: Angelic RayKey, Mari-EL, Karuna Reiki, Lightarian Reiki, Celtic Reiki, Christian Reiki, Rainbow Reiki, Raku Kei Reiki, Reiki Plus, Seichim (Egyptian Reiki), Tera Mai Reiki, The Radiance Technique and Usui-Tibetan Reiki.
Most of these systems are a blend of Hawayo Takata’s teachings, plus whatever additional material the founding teacher felt guided to add to them. Many teachers who developed new systems of Reiki in the West felt that “Usui Reiki” (as taught by Hawayo Takata) was an incomplete system and in need of improvements. Such teachers have often claimed that the modifications they have made to Takata’s teachings (generally in the form of additional symbols, levels or attunements) render it more powerful, or somehow more spiritually advanced than the Western understanding of “Usui Reiki”. Many Western teachers, such as Kathleen Milner (Tera Mai Reiki) and William Lee Rand (Usui-Tibetan Reiki / Karuna Reiki) have legally trademarked the names of their respective systems, and even become involved in lawsuits against each other. In the mid 1990′s Reiki Alliance Grandmaster Phyllis Lei Furomoto even attempted to, unsucessfully, trademark the word “Reiki” itself.
The West Looks to Japan
The late 1990′s was a real turning point for the development or Reiki in the West, as practitioners began to research the system’s Japanese roots. Prior to this time, few western Reiki practitioners were aware of the existence of traditional brances of Reiki in Japan. Factual material regarding the life and teachings of Mikao Usui was simply unavailable; Hawayo Takata had been the West’s only source of such material, and to say that she took a few liberties with the truth would be something of an understatement.
One of the first western authors to research the system of Reiki in Japan was Frank Arjava Petter, a German Reiki practitioner and teacher. Arjava lived in Japan ffom 1990-2002, and whilst there uncovered a fascinating depth of information regarding the practice of Reiki there. His books, Reiki Fire, Reiki, the Legacy of Dr. Usui, and The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui, were among the very first to offer western readers a look at Reiki from a Japanese perspective. Once of his best contributions was a traslation of Usui’s original teaching manual, which most western Reiki practitioners were simply unaware of, having been told by Takata that Reiki was purely an oral tradition. Many westerners were also quite suprised to learn about the existence of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, Usui’s original Reiki organisation in Tokyo. As Takata had claimed to be the only surviving Reiki teacher in the world, many western practitioners were amazed to discover that such an organisation existed, and had existed for over 70 years. Unfortunately, the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai was closed to foreign membership, and expressed little interest in opening a diologue with western practitioners.
In recent years, Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai member Hiroshi Doi has begun offering Reiki training to Westerners, with two of his most notable students being authors Frans and Bronwyn Stiene. Authors of the critically acclaimed The Reiki Sourcebook an The Japanese Art of Reiki, the Stiene’s have been dedicated to the practice and teaching of Reiki from a traditional Japanese perspective since the turn of the milleneum. They are the founders of the International House of Reiki, and though based in Sydney, Australia, travel the world annually offering high quality courses and workshops to western students from a wide range of backgrounds. Their joint research into the life and teachings of Mikao Usui, and the subsequent development of Reiki in Japan has been unparalled, and their work has proved invaulable to western students of Reiki.
The Stienes are the founders of the Shibumi International Reiki Association and can be found online at www.reiki.net.au This section on the history of Reiki in both Japan and the West is much indebted to their ongoing research, for which I express my heartfelt gratitude.