History of ReikiThe history of reiki I'm about to share with you has been passed down to me by my Reiki Master/Teacher. It is extremly unique and has many different versions. When Reiki began all stories came from Japan from the Masters telling the story passed down from Mrs. Takata. This gives us nothing to look up that really came from before World War II. The lack of documented evidence is discussed in a couple books which are:
I also heard that Dave King of Edmonton Alberta who, traveled to Japan made a discovery. While there he found history of reiki reports of a lineage of Reiki practitioners, all were taught by Dr. Usui but did not have any history of reiki with Dr Hayashi or Mrs Takata. So you can see the history of reiki takes many paths. 
History tells us Mikao Usui was the originator of what we today call Reiki. History also says Reiki is a system for channeling that energy to someone for the purpose of healing. Dr. Usui was born on August 15th 1865 in the village of 'Taniai-mura' in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture Kyoto. He was a dean at a Christian school in Japan. As a child he studied in a Tendai Buddhist monastery school entering at an early age. He was also a student of different martial arts. His memorial states that he was a talented hard working student, he liked to read and his knowledge of medicine, psychology, fortune telling and theology of religions around the world, including the Kyoten (Buddhist Bible) was vast. He married and his wife's name was Sadako, they had a son and daughter. The Question That Started It All.Dr. Usui was a Christian minister, and the head of a Christian Boys School in Japan. One day some of the students asked him if he believed in the miracles of Jesus healing sick. Being a Christian minister he had to answerThey asked if he knew how Jesus had done this, he re-plied "No?" With this doubt he decided that he had to have an answer, even if it killed him. This begins the history of reiki So he set out on a journey that would last for years. He first started by studying at Christian schools throughout the US. thinking what better place to learn about Jesus, but he came up empty. His next step was suggested to study Buddhist writings since the Buddha had also healed. Again this took even more years studying at a monastery in the Orient. He then toured many temples in Japan asking for knowledge of how the Buddha had healed. At each temple the priests would tell him that they were more concerned with spiritual than physical well being. In one small monastery he found some ancient Sanskrit writings from Tibet. After a few more years of study, he decided that to go any further he would have to go into deep meditation. The Last StandThis meditation was going to be his last stand, so he told the monks of his plan to fast and meditate for 21 days at the top of the nearby mountain. Letting them know that if he did not come back they should come and get his body.He climbed the mountain and found 21 stones, each would represent a day on the mountain. Every day he would throw away a stone meaning that day was gone. On the 20th day he still had nothing to show for his efforts, so he threw is last stone away saying "Well, this is it, either I get the answer tonight or I die". That night in the distance he could see a ball of light coming straight at him. His first thought was to get out of the way, but then he realized this might just be what he was waiting for, so he braced himself and allowed the light to hit him right in the forehead. As it struck him he was taken on a journey and shown bubbles of all the colors of the rainbow in which were the symbols of Reiki, the very same symbols in the Tibetan writings he was studying but had been unable to understand. Now as he looked at them again, there was total understanding, beginning the history of reiki. Excited and determined to share his experience he started down the mountain. During his dissent down the mountain he fell and broke his toe. Placing his hand on the toe the pain, left and the color returned to normal. Then he went to eat not having food for 21 days he went to a restaurant and began eating so he would not starve. But not knowing that eating to much to soon after that long of a fast would kill a person, he again performed healing and ate with no harm coming to him. He then ran into a man with a really bad tooth ack curing that he came to the Abbot who was extremely sick and almost bed ridden, again he used his healing technique and healed the Abbot. These are known as the first four miracles. A major part of the history of reiki was that he wanted to use these abilities to help others, so he spent the next seven years in the beggars section of Tokyo healing the poor and sick people there, sending them to a priest to help them find jobs, to get them out of poverty. After the seven years he noticed the same people coming back, wondering why after being healed and given a new life they still returned. In asking them, they complained that life outside this city was way too hard and that it was much simpler to beg for a living. They had thrown away the gift of health, as if it had no value. Returning to the supposed comfort of the life they knew.Showing through the history of reiki that giving things away will not change anything! This threw Dr. Usui into a quandary and he returned to the monastery. From this he realized he hadn't taught gratitude along with the healing. That he'd focused on the physical ailments without dealing with the spiritual matters. The people did not understand the value of the gift he gave them. So Dr. Usui returned to the monastery for more reflection and planning. After some time in the monastery he developed a plan. In this new plan he decided to travel around the country going from village to village. In each village he stood in a public place during the day holding a lit torch. When people told him he didn't need a torch in daylight, his answer was... "I am looking for the few who are interested in improving themselves." In this way he traveled around teaching and healing, working both with the spiritual healing as well as physical healing, bringing a new history of reiki wherever he went. 
During his travels he met Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, an ex-naval Officer in the Japanese Navy and a Naval Doctor who graduated Navy School in December 1902. He came from a well educated and well to do family. He met Dr. Usui in the marketplace, seeing him with a lit torch announcing his lecture at a nearby temple. As history tells it he started his Reiki training with Usui Sensei in 1925, at 47 years of age. Dr. Hayashi was very impressed with the sincerity and conviction of Dr. Usui. Dr. Usui asked him to travel with him in his travels, Dr. Hayashi said yes. During that time they traveled all around teaching and healing. Dr Mikao Usui died on March 9th 1926 at the age of 62. He is buried in Shoji Temple in Suginami-Ku, Tokyo. After Dr. Usui died, history tells us Dr. Hayashi became the leader of Reiki. Dr. Hayashi opened a clinic in Tokyo near the Imperial Palace. It had eight beds all in one large room, he had two practitioners for every patient. One would treat the head and the other would be on the right treating the stomach area, then both would treat the patients back. They also went to the homes of sick people on house calls. To become a Reiki Practitioner in that time you had to be accepted by the masters in the Reiki organization, and you had to promise to use the practice of Reiki every day and volunteer for a set amount of hours to practice Reiki regularly in the clinic. Dr. Hayashi believed in a more organized approach in doing treatments. He also wanted a more organized method of hand placements which would allow for full coverage of the body and organs. Just before World War II and it was clear that Japan would enter the war. Being a Reserve Officer, Dr. Hayashi knew he would be recalled to duty and resulting in him being responsible for killing others. He could not live a life knowing he would kill so he decided to end his life instead. Chujiro Hayashi ritually ended his life by committing Seppuku' on Tuesday May 10th 1940. He also didn't want the teaching lost so he decided to pass his leadership of Reiki to Mrs. Takata. 
This is the history of reiki coming to the United States through Mrs. Hawayo Tanaka's who was born in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, Christmas Eve 1900 of Japanese descent. In the 1930's she went to Japan to visit her family there, and inform them of the death of her sister. While there she became very sick and was in the hospital. The doctors were going to operate,and as she was being prepared she kept hearing a voice saying Eventually she jumped off the table asking "Is there another way?". The doctor had a sister who had been cured of dysentery at Dr. Hayashi's clinic and suggested to Mrs. Tanaka she talk with his sister. The sister brought Mrs.Tanaka's to the clinic and her treatments there began. After Mrs. Tanaka became well she wanted to learn this for herself. However Dr. Hayashi was not willing to teach her because she was a foreigner. Through the good graces of her doctor, Mrs. Tanaka was able to persuade Dr. Hayashi to train her in Reiki. This training took a year and brought her to what we would now call Reiki Level I. After this year she returned to Hawaii. In Hawaii she also learned the lesson of having the recipient perceive value in receiving treatments. She treated a neighbor but did not charge, this neighbor did not value the treatments and did not become well. She treated another relative and this time charged, and this relative did stay well. Thus the tradition of charging for Reiki treatment was reinforced. In November 1936 Dr. Hayashi came to Hawaii for a speaking tour to promote Reiki. During this time he trained Mrs. Takata to teach Reiki, thus making her what we now would call a Reiki Master. As he left Hawaii he asked her to come to see him when he summoned her. After some more time it was nearing when World War II would start, the part in Europe already having begun. Dr. Hayashi appeared to Mrs. Takata in a dream asking her to come to Japan. She did this and found Dr. Hayashi having his Naval Uniform out of storage and fretful. With the coming war he knew it was a matter of time before the Navy would call him out of retirement and he would be asked to perform actions he was not capable of doing due to his spiritual development. At this time he passed to Mrs. Takata the leadership of Reiki. He gathered all the Reiki Masters to a gathering, announced Mrs. Takata to be the leader of Reiki, and then announced he would kill his physical body through bursting three blood vessels. And as he continued speaking and lecturing those blood vessels burst and he died. Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii and continued using and teaching Reiki. Eventually she moved to California, using and teaching Reiki there as well. She did not teach other masters until 1975, and before her own death in 1980 she made sure the history of reiki stayed alive through training 22 Reiki Masters. George Araki Dorothy Baba Ursula Baylow Rick Bockner Patricia Bowling Barbara Brown Fran Brown Phyllis Furumoto Beth Gray John Gray Iris Ishikuro Harry Kuboi Ethel Lombardi Barbara McCullough Mary McFadyen Paul Mitchell Bethel Phaigh Shinobu Saito Virginia Samdahl Wanja Twan Barbara Weber Ray Kay Yamashita History tells us that if it wasn't for Mrs. Takata who learned Reiki before the war and came over to the United States, Reiki healing techniques would have been lost forever. History would never had known about Reiki. History of Reiki come learn even more about this exciting energy healing system that could change your life!
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