who re-discovered it in Japan in the early 1900s after years of concerted effort. Dr. Mikao Usui (or Usui Sensei as he is called by his students in Japan) was born on August 15, 1865 in a village called Yago of Yamagata district of Japan. It is thought that he entered a Tendai Buddhist school on or near Mount Kurama at the age of four years. He was a talented and hard working student. He also studied kiko, the Japanese version of qigong, which is a health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life energy. The young Usui found that these healing methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy when giving treatment. He wondered if it were possible to do healing work without depleting one's own energy.

As he grew up, he traveled to various countries for further education. Was very fond of reading. His curriculum included medicine, psychology, and religion as well as fortune telling. He was a man of great spirits and eventually became a spiritual teacher. Dr. Usui was a very warm, simple and humble person. He was physically healthy and well proportioned, never showed off and always had a smile on his face. He was very courageous in the face of adversity but at the same time, he was also a very cautious man.

Dr. Mikao Usui was not a medical doctor but was called a doctor out of respect. According to the history given by Mrs. Hawayo Takata, Dr. Usui had been the President of a Christian School in Japan had taught in the University of Chicago and held an appointment in Doshisha University in Kyoto. During the past few years (1998 onwards), research has been carried out by various Reiki Masters, which shows that what Mrs. Takata said about different appointment of Dr. Usui was not true.

As a sensitive spiritualist, Usui Sensei had spent much time meditating on Mount Kurama. One day somewhere around 1914, Dr. Usui decided to travel to this holy mountain to fast and meditate in solitude for 21 days. At the end of this period, he was enlightened and suddenly felt the great Reiki energy at the top of his head. This is how he received this great gift of Reiki.

He first used Reiki on himself and then tried it on his family. Since it worked very well for various ailments, he decided to share it with the public at large and spread his knowledge. He used his new healing ability to help others, and for the next seven years he worked with the poor people of Kyoto. In April 1922, he moved to Tokyo and started a healing society, which he named Usui Shiki Reiki Rhoyo, which means “The Usui System of Reiki Healing.” He also opened a Reiki clinic in Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo. There he not only gave treatment to countless people, but he also taught classes. His clinic soon became too small to handle the number of patients, especially after the earthquake of 1923 in Tokyo. So in February 1925, he built a new one outside Tokyo in Nakano.

After he built his new clinic in Nakano, Tokyo in 1925, his reputation as a healer spread all over Japan. He began to travel so he could teach and treat more people. During his travels across Japan, he directly taught more than 2,000 students and initiated sixteen teachers. The Japanese government issued him a Kun San To award for doing honorable work to help others.

On March 9, 1926 while teaching in Fukuyama, he suffered a stroke and died. His grave is at Saihoji Temple, in Suginami, Tokyo, although some believe that his ashes are located elsewhere. After Usui Sensei died, his students erected a memorial next to his gravestone.

According to one version, Dr. Usui is now buried in the Kyoto temple, with the story of his life written on the gravestone. It is said that the Emperor of Japan honored his grave.

Dr. Hayashi was one of the sixteen teachers training by Usui Sensei. He was a retired naval officer and a medical doctor, still on reserve status. Dr. Hayashi received his Reiki Master's training in 1925 and became Dr. Mikao Usui's successor, the second Reiki Grand Master in the line of tradition. He ran a Reiki clinic in Tokyo until 1940, where unusually severe cases could be treated with Reiki being applied “round the clock”. A patient would frequently receive Reiki from several practitioners at a time. Reiki healers also went to the homes of the people who could not come to the clinic. It was to this clinic that Mrs. Hawayo Takata was directed in 1935. It is said that Dr. Chujiro Hayashi was the last Master trained by Dr. Usui.

The effects of the Second World War and the death of Dr. Hayashi on May 10, 1941, put an end to his work. Mrs. Hawayo Takata became Dr. Hayashi's successor. (According to Hiroshi Doi's book, "Modern Reiki Method for Healing", page 185, the correct year of death of Dr. Chujiro is 1940).

Mrs. Hawayo Takata was born on December 24, 1900, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Her parents were Japanese immigrants, having citizenship of United States. She got married with Saichi Takata but became a widow at the age of 34 with two small children. At this time she was suffering from a number of severe illnesses, which were diagnosed as tumor, gallstone, appendicitis and asthma. She was told to prepare for operation but it is said that a voice told her to go to Japan and seek healing there. She asked her doctor about other methods of treatment and he advised her to go to Dr. Hayashi's Reiki Clinic. Thus she went to Dr. Hayashi's clinic in 1935 and began receiving treatments. Two Reiki practitioners would treat her every day. The heat from their hands was so strong that she thought they were secretly using some kind of equipment. She thought so because she was not familiar with Reiki. Seeing the large sleeves of the Japanese kimono worn by one, she thought she had found the secret place of concealment. Grabbing his sleeves one day she startled the practitioner, but of course, found nothing. When she explained what she was doing, he began to laugh and then told her about Reiki and how it worked.

Mrs. Takata improved progressively and in four months, she won back her health completely. Now she wanted to learn Reiki for herself. In the spring of 1936, she received First Degree Reiki from Dr. Hayashi. She then worked with him for a year and received Second Degree Reiki. She returned to Hawaii in 1937, followed shortly thereafter by Dr. Hayashi who went to help establish Reiki there. In February 1938, Dr. Hayashi initiated Hawayo Takata as a Reiki Master. He officially announced and acknowledged this in Hawaii on February 21, 1938 and also stated that she was one of the thirteen Reiki Masters trained by him.

Mrs. Hawayo Takata practiced Reiki in Hawaii, establishing several clinics, one of which was located in Hilo on the big Island. She gave treatments and initiated students up to Reiki II. She became a well-known healer and traveled to the U.S. mainland and other parts of the world teaching Reiki and giving attunements. She was a powerful healer, and attributed her success to the fact she did so much Reiki on each client. She would often do multiple treatments, each sometime lasting hours, and she often initiated members of the client's family so they could give Reiki to the client as well.

Mrs. Takata lived and healed in Hawaii for several years and then began to train Reiki Masters herself in 1970. On December 11, 1980, Hawayo Takata passed away leaving 22 Reiki Masters. These twenty-two Masters in turn taught Reiki to others, and this is how Reiki finally reached us.