| Dr. Mikao Usui was born in the village of Yago, | | | | Usui's healing skills became well known in Japan. He |
| located in the Yamagata district in Gifu prefecture, | | | | treated people of all classes for free or a small fee. |
| Japan on August 15, 1865. He studied in a Tendai | | | | Students may have paid for their training or worked |
| Buddhist monastery as a child and was known as a | | | | in exchange for the teaching. It was important to him |
| talented student. | | | | that people learn to heal themselves. This is still a |
| It is written in his memorial that he was | | | | central tenet of Reiki teachings today. |
| knowledgeable in psychology, medicine, fortune telling | | | | Because of a 7.9 earthquake near Tokyo in 1923, |
| and the theologies of religions around the world. He | | | | Usui and his healing became even more famous. He |
| married a woman named Sadako, and they had two | | | | and his students treated all who came to them. Many |
| children, a son and a daughter. | | | | had been injured and over 140,000 people were killed |
| Usui was fortunate enough to travel to China and | | | | in the earthquake and the resulting fires. |
| several western countries to study. He worked as a | | | | By 1925, Usui was so busy that he opened a larger |
| public servant, an industrialist, an office worker, a | | | | school in Nakano. He traveled extensively, healing and |
| reporter, the secretary to a politician, a missionary | | | | teaching. His senior students remained at the clinic to |
| and as a supervisor to convicts. | | | | continue their healing work. |
| He took time to become a Tendai Buddhist monk. It | | | | During his few years healing with Reiki, he trained |
| was during one of his lengthy meditations on Mount | | | | over 2000 people, but only a handful became |
| Kurama that it is said he received the inspiration for | | | | teachers themselves. Dr. Chujiro Hayashi became his |
| his Reiki system of healing. Some think that he was | | | | successor when Usui died on March 9, 1926 at the |
| also inspired by teachings he learned in China and | | | | age of 62. He was laid to rest in Tokyo. |
| Tibet as well as acupuncture and other healing | | | | At a later point, his students paid for a large |
| systems. | | | | memorial stone that told of his accomplishments. It is |
| Usui experimented with his healing system for some | | | | the translation of this memorial that has added much |
| time before opening his first school and clinic in April | | | | to what we now know of Usui's life. |
| of 1922 in Tokyo. Usui wrote a small manual outlining | | | | Today, Reiki is practiced all over the world. Mikao |
| his recommendations for the placing of the | | | | Usui's legacy lives on through the teaching lineages of |
| practitioner's hands and how the healing method | | | | his students. While many types of Reiki have been |
| should be used. | | | | developed, many still practice Usui Shiki Ryoho, as |
| It was recently translated into English under the | | | | passed from Usui to Dr. Hayashi, then to Mrs. |
| name "The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui". | | | | Hawayo Takata, who brought it to the western |
| This handbook gives today's practitioners a much | | | | world. |
| clearer picture of Usui's original concepts of Reiki. | | | | |