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, evolved a system of healing he called Reiki. He spent the rest of his life up until his death in 1926 practicing and teaching this method of natural healing which involves the laying on of hands and distant treatment. Mikao Usui authored the principles or precepts of Reiki which he is believed to have derived from the Waka poetry of the Japanese Emperor Meiji.

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, an American who was born in Hawaii of Japanese descent, consulted with Dr. Hayashi in Japan in 1935 about life-threatening medical problems she was having. Mrs. Takata studied Reiki under Dr. Hayashi, and in 1938 was very honored to be designated one of Hiyashi's small group of Reiki masters. Mrs. Takata brought Reiki to Hawaii and to the mainland of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Mrs. Takata's granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto, is recognized as the present Reiki Grand Master and Lineage Bearer of the Reiki Alliance,  Usui Shiki Ryoho,  a worldwide organization founded in 1982 by 21 out of the 22 Reiki masters initiated by Hawayo Takata before her death in 1980. The Reiki Alliance's mission is to promote traditional Usui Reiki and to support of Reiki Masters or Teachers. Phyllis Furumoto has taught and has encouraged the  teaching of Reiki worldwide.

Jikiden Usui Reiki History

In 1938 two years after Hawayo Takata completed her Usui Reiki studies with Chujiro Hayashi, a Japanese student of Dr. Hayashi, Chiyoko Yamaguchi, first learned Reiki at the age of 17. Her uncle Mr. Sugano had brought Dr. Hayashi to teach Usui Reiki to himself and his entire extended family which included Chiyoko . Chiyoko studied Shoden and Okuden, the student levels of Reiki directly fromDr. Hayashi. She learned the Shihan or Teacher levels of Reiki from and was attuned in them by her uncle Wasaburo Sugano who was one of Dr. Hayashi's Shihans or Reiki Teachers.

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 young age. In the late 1990s, Tadao Yamaguchi and his mother started teaching a form of Usui Reiki they called Jikiden (meaning "directly handed-down"). This Reiki was based on the Usuii Reiki Mrs. Yamaguchi learned from Chujiro Hayashi and her uncle Wasaburo Sugano and that her son Tadao Yamaguchi learned from his mother. 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,  his Reiki Institute in Kyoto, Japan. All Jikiden Reiki Shoden and Okuden Students as well as all Jikiden Reiki Shihan and Shihan kaku are registered with the Jikiden Reiki Institute.