Mikao-Usui.page

                                             History of Usui Sensei and Usui Reiki Ryoho

                                              Mikao Usui was born on August 15,1865 in Taniai-mura Yamagata-gun
                                             Gifu-ken

                                              His father was Uzaemon Tsunetane and his mother was from the
                                              Kawai family. His ancestor�s name was Tsunetane Chiba (a very
                                              famous Samurai from the 8th century)

                                              At the age of 4, Usui was sent to a Tendai monastery.. During his
                                              stay he studied Qi Gong closely related to Reiki) to a high level and
                                              was able to do projection healing. He meditated regularly at Kurama Yama.

At the age of 27, Usui converted to Shingon Buddhism from the Tendai sect.
His memorial states that �he traveled abroad to China, US and Europe,
He lived a free man and most likely was never a cloistered monk. Periodically, he would visit the prisons, (perhaps as part of missionary work).

He married Sadako Suzuki and they had two children, a son Fuji (1908 - 1946), and a daughter (name unknown 1913 - 1935). At some point in time there was a split in his family, possibly because of his interest in the Christian texts, differing sects of Buddhism and/or esoteric matters.

1918/1919 - Usui began training as a Zen Buddhist, studying for 3 years.

1922 - He worked toward achieving Satori (the state of Spiritual Enlightenment) but wasn�t succeeding, so he asked his Zen Master what to do. The answer he received was �Die one time�. This motivated him to fast until he either died or became enlightened.

In March, distraught with his life, desperately seeking answers, he followed his Zen Masters advice, deciding to fast on Mt. Kurama until he became enlightened. This is a common practice called �shyu gyo� a spiritual discipline, including fasts and meditation for 21 days, a strict spiritual training. On his memorial it says that the last morning of his fast 'he felt one great Reiki over his head'. Reiki being the wisdom and knowledge of all the Universe. The word 'Reiki' during Usui sensei's time and before meant (loosely translated) 'atmosphere of the Divine'. Usui Sensei became enlightened (or achieved Satori) and acquired a healing ability which he called 'Reiki Ryoho'('spiritual energy healing method').   It was also often referred to as 'Usui Teate' or 'Usui hands-on healing'. He took this gift home and worked on himself and his family. It is said that his wife was ill and Reiki cured her. Usui decided not to just keep Reiki for his family but to make Shoden level 'freely available to all of the people' a direct quote from the �Usui Reiki Hikkei� (one of his teaching manuals).

In April 1922, Usui-San founded Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (Usui Reiki Healing Method Learning Society) and opened his first clinic in Aoyama, Tokyo where he practiced Reiki and gave workshops on the technique publicly. During his study of Shinto and Mahayana (Mikkyo) Buddhism he discovered Reiju (Empowerment method) and Hatsurei-ho (Cleansing process for body, mind and spirit).

Usui Sensei made the first level teaching ('Shoden') available to anyone who desired it. Initially it seems that he had no set hand positions, all of his work was done intuitively and over areas of imbalance (painful areas). But as he began teaching others to do Reiho, he found the need to create a set of instructions, which he called the Usui Reiki Hikkei.

1923 � Historic Point: On September 1st, shortly before noon, a great earthquake hit Tokyo and Yokohama, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. Over 100,000 deaths were reported. The epicenter was about 50 miles from Tokyo. That is reported to be the greatest natural disaster in Japanese history.
During this emergency, Usui Sensei's way of giving relief was to 'reach out his hands of love to suffering people' and he helped many of the victims. The earthquake could be the account Takata was referring to when she talked about Usui working in the beggar village.

1925 - He outgrew his center and moved it to larger quarters in Nakano, outside of Tokyo in February (today Nakano is part of Tokyo). His travels with Reiki had taken him all over Japan and many of the places he visited were naval bases.

1926 - On March 9, Usui-San died of a stroke (one of several), in a town called Fukuyama in Hiroshima-Ken. He had been on a tour bringing Reiki to the people of Kure, Hiroshima and Saga. He was 62. The night before he died it is said that he practiced Reiki.