There are many interesting versions of the history of modern day Reiki, from it's discovery (or rediscovery as some believe) to it's current state of confusion.
Shedding a different light on the origins of Reiki is the first modern book written in Japanese, by a Japanese Reiki teacher. The book is called "Iyashi No Te" (Heal of Hand, or Healing Hands) and is authored by Toshitaka Mochizuki, and was published in October, 1995. Although Mochizuki originally learned Reiki from Western sources, he has since teamed up with several Reiki teachers in Japan whose training history is partly Japanese.
Mochizuki attributes some of his historical information to an old Japanese book whose title translates to "The Secret of How to Take Care of Your Family Members" by Takichi Tsukida. I do not know if this book is in print, and there are many things about Reiki that the Japanese would prefer to keep to themselves for the time being (I can't say as I blame them seeing how much Reiki has been altered). Some of these things I have learned and will honour for now. Others seem to be out in plain view in Japan, for all to see, anyway.
One version of the history of Reiki indicates that the founder, Mikao Usui, taught Reiki to at least 17 people. One of these was another healer at the time by the name of Toshihiro Eguchi. Eguchi studied with Usui at least 3 years before Usui's death in 1926. Through his students one form of Reiki has continued on in Japan (We now know there are other lineages). Eguchi reportedly taught thousands of students before the war, including Goro Miyazaki. Miyazaki taught a person by the name of Mieko Mitsui, who is around 60 years old today. According to "Iyashi No Te", Mitsui assisted Barbara Ray in translating her book "The Reiki Factor" into Japanese, which Mochizuki admits to reading.
One of Mitsui's current students is a Reiki teacher named Takahashi (I don't know his first name, but I now know another of her students was Mr. Hiroshi Doi.) Takahashi and the author, Mochizuki, are part of a group of 10 Japanese Reiki masters who come together to teach monthly Reiki classes. When I talk about the Japanese Reiki masters, it is this group that I am referring to . There are usually about 40 students, with a 4 to 1 master to student ratio. Taught in a classroom setting, Reiki levels one and two are presented over a weekend for a fee of about 60,000 yen. Level three and the teacher or master levels cost 90,000 yen and 150,000 yen respectively (still cheaper than $10,0000).
According to the history in the book, Usui, born in 1865, made his discovery (assumedly sometime around 1914) and then spent the next seven years working in the lower class district of Kyoto. Kyoto is a religious centre and a former capital city, and apparently in most Japanese towns and cities, people on the street are taken in and cared for, and each family looks out for it's own. So the story about Usui working with the beggars may have been stretched a bit, or just misunderstood in the West. Although Takata said Usui was a Christian monk, the Japanese claim that he was a member of a spiritualist group named "Rei Jyutsu Ka". This group had a centre at the base of the holy mountain, Kurama Yama, just west of Kyoto. They have since left this site and another group occupies it now. Yama translates to mountain, and Kurama translates to horse saddle. There are several shrines on the mountain, including one at the top and one near the bottom. One shrine at the bottom is a very large statue of the Amida Buddha with it's base placed well below ground level. Steps lead down to the base where one can sit and meditate. This may have been one of Usui's meditation sites, although there can be a lot of people visiting there. In the city of Kyoto, there is also a well know library with religious and theological works from around the world. The Japanese do not think Usui would have needed to travel far to do his research.
In 1921 Usui went to Tokyo and set up his school. The Japanese believe that when Usui taught you, you would have just lived with him till you got it all; therefore you became a teacher yourself. They feel that he may not have required a process or ritual (like an attunement) to pass on the Reiki energy. (In the "Awakening Your Light Body" process taught by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer, the student learns to work with energy centres and duplicate their vibration by listening and emulating frequencies presented by Duane's guide, DaBen. So the concept of Usui and members of his Spiritualist Group not requiring attunements to pass on Reiki may be valid.)
However, Usui did teach lay people. In 1925, a retired naval officer (and doctor) by the name of Chujiro Hayashi (at the age of 47), took the training from Usui. It may have been this act of creating teachers outside his movement that caused Usui (and Hayashi) to develop an attunement process. A Canadian Reiki teacher named Dave King spent some time with one of Hayashi's surviving masters, Tatsumi, in April, 1996. He was allowed to trace copies of the four Reiki symbols in Hayashi's handwriting, and he also learned Tatsumi's attunement process. This process is shorter than the one currently used by the Japanese group. Dave was also invited to spend time with the Japanese group of masters during his stay in Japan.
Usui taught a couple of other naval officers by the name of Juzaburo Giuda (also pronounced Ushida) and Kan'ichi Taketomi. From the original Hayashi training and the current Japanese group, it is taught that the original hand positions he taught (presumably from Chinese medicine) stopped at the midsection of the body. The additional hand positions were added by Hayashi to accommodate the two practitioners-to-a-client style that he used in his eight bed clinic. Initially, Usui may have only laid hands on wherever the person had pain. Since the Japanese had rediscovered and were using the ancient art of Chinese acupuncture (and acupressure), the hand positions seem to evolve around the body's energy channels and pressure points.
The Japanese do not name the Reiki symbols the way we do. They call them symbol number one, symbol number two, symbol number three and symbol number four. The names are actually the mantra you chant and the symbol is the yantra you draw and visualize to focus on the specific energy you are working. The 3rd symbol, known as the connection or distant symbol, is actually Kanji and if you look up the words in a Japanese dictionary you will find it's original form. Just overlay each of the parts to get it's final form. The same can be said for the number four symbol. Of course, in the Japanese language, everything seems to be context oriented; so there are many version of the word "Rei" and "Ki". You won't find the number one or number two symbols there. But the number two symbol comes from a symbol in Japanese Buddhism, and the number one may have as well.
In the summer of 1996, Melissa Riggall visited Tatsumi, and was able to learn that Usui taught five Buddhist nuns the method as well as the three naval officers and nine male associates. She also learned Usui was sent to a Tendai monastery at age 4 where he remained for several years. He apparently used to meditate in the Kurama Yama power spots regularly. He also studied qigong (called ki-ko in Japan) to a very high level while a monk and did qigong projection healings.
Tatsumi thought that he was the last of Hayashi's students that were given the complete system as sensei. He never created teachers of his own and only shared sensei information with Melissa and Dave King. Some of his grandchildren were attuned as practitioners (all 4 symbols). He had heard of Mochizuki but had never communicated with him.
Tatsumi-san showed Melissa a stack of notes that Hayashi had left with him, and that he had made as part of his learning.. These will not be taken out of Japan and were to be deposited in a shrine on Tatsumi-san's death.
On October 3/96, Melissa sent me an e-mail to inform me that Tatsumi-san had recently passed away. We are fortunate that at least 2 western Reiki Masters were able to meet with him and learn some of his knowledge of the origins of Reiki.
Since this time, Melissa has done extensive investigation into the notes and the sources they lead to. This knowledge is presumably available at some point to the students of Traditional Japanese Reiki school.
