Mikao
Usui was born on August 15, 1865 in the Gifu district of Japan. He created a system of
natural healing that had its roots in Taoism, five element theory and traditional Chinese
medicine but with some elements of Tendai Buddhism.
After spending many years
in his search he meditated at Kurama Yama in the region of an energy "hotspot".
He is said to have sat there for 21 days after which he was given the information that he
sought to complete his system.
He then spent seven years
in the poor district of Kyoto and then opened a school in Tokyo, where he passed on the
information to sixteen students before dying on March 9, 1926 in Fukuyama. He was not a
doctor as some have claimed; his title was Sensei (teacher).The names of some of
these students are known. There were three naval offices: Taketomi, Hayashi and Ushida
(Giuda). His principal student was Eguchi who studied in 1923.
Chujiro Hayashi was born in
1878 and took the training in 1925. He used the knowledge to open a healing clinic in
Tokyo. Hayashi developed a set of hand positions suitable for clinical use of the system;
his clinic employed a method of healing that required several practitioners work on one
client at the same time to maximize the flow of energy.
As well as training his
practitioners, Hayashi trained several people to teach the system. One of these was a
Japanese American from Hawaii named Hawayo Takata. She had turned up at his clinic with a
terminal illness, which was later cured. She was made a teacher/master (one of thirteen)
on February 21, 1938. Her teacher/master certificate is notarized in Honolulu and does not
confer the title of Grand Master.
Hayashi also trained a man
named Tatsumi who died on October 2, 1996 at an age of over 90 years. Tatsumi had kept
notes of his training and allowed tracings to be made of his symbols and sketches.
Takata’s successors
spread the system throughout the West. However, over time the teachings have become
modified and have lost much of their original focus. In Japan a group of dedicated
teachers have revived the original teachings, which are now being taught in the U.S. by
the Traditional Japanese Reiki Association. Traditional Japanese Reiki is a close
reconstruction of Usui’s original system and is based on material provided by
Tatsumi-sensei.*
My Reiki classes will
provide attunements in the method of Reiki brought to America by Ms. Takata. This
Westernized style is commonly referred to as the "Usui Shiki Ryoho method of
Reiki". The two systems are compatible and can be effectively blended together.
The training in my classes will
incorporate information from both systems.
* My
thanks to the Traditional Japanese Reiki Association for providing the preceding
historical information |
