The Roots of Reiki
By Jennifer Thibodeau
April 2007
April 2007
Mt. Kurama in Kyoto is a popular destination for tourists and hikers. It is famous for the nearby Kurama Onsen and boasts a good selection of temples and shrines. Unknown to most Kansai residents, however, is that Mt. Kurama was the location of the beginnings of Reiki Ryoho, a form of Japanese healing and stress-reduction.
In 1922, a man named Mikao Usui journeyed to Mt. Kurama. His goal was to sit on the top of the mountain, fasting and meditating, until he reached enlightenment. After 21 days, according to his memorial stone in Saihoji Temple in Tokyo, he was given the gift of Reiki healing, and discovered it could be used to heal both himself and others. Usui-sensei used Reiki to heal people who were injured in the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, and in his lifetime he taught over 2000 people how to use this form of energy healing. As his reputation as a healer spread, he was invited to travel and lecture throughout Japan, and it was the stress of this travel that eventually lead to his death while travelling to Fukuyama in 1926. His successor was Hayashi-sensei, and he continued the work that Usui-sensei had begun.Reiki Ryoho is a form of healing that allows energy from the universal source to relax and heal the body, and elevate the mind spiritually. It can be self-administered, or it can be passed through the practitioner and onto the recipient. Although Reiki is a Japanese word, created from combining the Kanji for Rei (霊) and Ki (気), in Japan it is commonly referred to using Katakana
レイキ, due to negative associations many Japanese have with the Kanji Rei (霊) (associated with ghosts or dead people).
After the Second World War, Reiki declined in popularity in Japan. With the deaths of the founder Usui-sensei and his successor Hayashi-sensei, followed by the war effort, Reiki lost the momentum that accompanied its introduction. However, during this period of decline in Japan, Reiki was spreading in Western countries.
Hayashi-sensei had taught a Japanese-American woman named Mrs. Hawayo Takata. She practiced Reiki in Hawaii, and before her death in 1980 she had taught 22 people to become Reiki teachers, known as Reiki Masters in the west. These people went on to teach Reiki healing around the globe, and it is through them that an estimated one million people worldwide are now Reiki teachers, and countless others have received Reiki training.Reiki healing returned to Japan in the1980s when some western Reiki practitioners reintroduced Reiki to Japan. Since then, interest in Japan has increased, and there are currently several Japanese Reiki associations, including the Japanese Reiki Association and the Japan Holistic Reiki Association.
Directions: To visit Mt. Kurama, travel to Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan Line, then take the Eizan Railway and get off at the terminus, Kurama Station.
This article was originally submitted to the April 2007 issue of Kansai Time Out.