A Brief History of Usui Reiki
Beyond its Japanese Origins
An Usui System of Natural
Healing or Reiki is a spiritual practice and healing art that anyone can learn and practice.
It is a gentle hands-on and distant healing discipline that simply, but
powerfully, balances body, mind, heart and spirit using your own natural healing energy. It is not a religion, but honors and
coexists peacefully with all religions and belief systems. Both Jikiden Reiki 's
and other Usui Reiki's
tradition is primarily oral and is passed from teacher to student based on their
personal relationship as a Reiki student and a Reiki teacher. A thumbnail
sketch of Reiki's history follows:
Reiki originated in Japan in the 1920's. Mikao Usui, the founder of
Reiki, created a system of healing he called Reiki. He spent the rest of
his life until his death in 1926 practicing and teaching this method of
natural healing which involves both the physical laying on of hands as
well as distant treatment. Usui authored the
principles of Reiki or Gokai which he is believed to have derived
from the Waka poetry of the Japanese Meiji Emporer.
One of Usui's students, Dr. Chujiro
Hayashi, a medical doctor and retired Japanese naval officer, continued
Usui's work after his death opening a Reiki clinic and school in
Tokyo.
One of Dr. Hayashi's students, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a Hawaiian of
Japanese descent, consulted with Dr. Hayashi in Japan about
life-threatening medical problems in 1935. After being cured of these
medical problems through Reiki, Mrs. Takata studied Reiki under Dr.
Hayashi. In 1938 Mrs. Takata was very honored to be designated one of
Dr. Hayashi's small group of Reiki Shihans or Reiki Teachers. Mrs.
Takata taught Reiki in Hawaii, the mainland of the United States, in
Puerto Rico and in Canada. During the last two years of her life, Mrs.
Takata initiated 22 Reiki Shihans who she called Reiki Masters. Mrs.
Takata took on herself the title of Grand Master or Reiki.
After Takata-sensei's death in 1980, Mrs. Takata's granddaughter Phyllis
Lei Furumoto was designated by 21 of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters as Mrs.
Takata's successor and as a Grand Master. One of Mrs. Takata's Reiki
Masters, Barbara Webber Ray, went her own way, and developed her version
of Reiki which she called the Radiance Teachnique. Phyllis Furumoto is
currently recognized by the Reiki Alliance, which was the Reiki
organization formed in 1981 by the above mentioned 21 of Mrs. Takata's
Reiki Masters, as the present Grand Master and Lineage Bearer of the
Reiki Alliance which practices the Usui Shiki Ryoho method of Usui
Reiki. Paul Mitchell, another of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters, was later
designated by Phyllis Furumoto as the Head of the Discipline of the
Reiki Alliance. The Reiki Alliance is a worlwide organization of Reiki
Masters tracing their Reiki lineage to Hawayo Takato and practicing USUI SHIKI RYOHO REIKI SEMINARS. The Reiki Alliance stated mission is to promote the
Usui Shiki Ryoho method of Usui Reiki and support its Reiki Master
members. Phyllis Lei Furumoto has taught and has encouraged the teaching
Reiki worldwide.
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Jikiden Reiki History
In 1938 two years after Hawayo Takata completed her Usui Reiki studies
withDr. Chujiro Hayashi, a Japanese student of Dr. Hayashi,
Chiyoko Yamaguchi, first learned Usui Reiki at the age of 17. Her uncle
Wasaburo Sugano had brought Dr. Hayashi to teach Usui Reiki to himself
and his entire extended family which included Chiyoko in Ishikawa,
Japan. Chiyoko studied Shoden and Okuden, the student levels of Reiki
directly from Dr. Hayashi. Chiyoko was later attuned as an Usui
Reiki teacher.
Chiyoko Yamaguchi spent her remaining 65 years of life treating others using the
Reiki she was taught by Dr. Hayashi. All of her three sons received
Reiki Reiju. Her youngest son Tadao Yamaguchi began
treating people with Usui Reiki in 1965 at a very young age. In the late 1990s,
Tadao Yamaguchi and his mother founded the Jikiden Reiki Kenkyukai or
Jikiden Reiki Institute and through it started teaching a form of Usui Reiki.
They called this form of Jikiden Usui Reiki meaning which means directly handed-down
without alteration. This Reiki is based on
the Usuii Reiki Mrs. Yamaguchi learned from Dr. Chujiro Hayashi and her uncle Wasaburo
Sugano and that her son Tadao learned from her. Chiyoko Yamaguchi died in 2003. Tadao Yamaguchi currently
teaches the Jikiden Reiki in Japan and worldwide and is committed to
preserving and spreading the Jikiden form of Usui Reiki through the Jikiden Reiki Kenkyu
Kai or Jikiden Reiki Institute which is located in Kyoto, Japan. All Jikiden Reiki Shoden and
Okuden students as well as all Jikiden Reiki Shihan and Shihan Kaku
(Apprentice Teachers) are
registered centrally with the Jikiden Reiki Institute.
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