Reiki traces back to 1920s Tokyo, where a Japanese man named Mikao Usui systematized a set of spiritual healing practices after a period of fasting and meditation on Mount Kurama in Kyoto. But the full story is more layered than the simple founding narrative suggests. The word “reiki” and even the concept of reiki therapy existed in Japan before Usui, and the practice changed dramatically as it passed through just two more people before reaching the Western world.
What “Reiki” Actually Means
The word reiki (霊気) is a Japanese compound of two kanji: “rei,” meaning universal or mysterious, and “ki,” meaning vital energy. Together, the term translates roughly to “mysterious atmosphere” or “numinous vital energy.” The characters themselves are the Japanese reading of the Chinese língqì (靈氣), a term that has been used for centuries in Chinese cosmology to describe sacred vitality or spiritual breath. Early Chinese Christian texts from the Tang dynasty even used língqì to describe the Holy Spirit, illustrating how deeply embedded this concept of invisible life force was across East Asian spiritual traditions long before Usui was born.
Energy Healing Before Usui
One common misconception is that Mikao Usui invented reiki from scratch. Recent historical research has complicated that picture significantly. Newspaper advertisements from 1919 to 1921 show that “reiki ryōhō” (reiki therapy) was already being publicly advertised and practiced in Japan before Usui’s conventionally accepted 1922 starting point. A practitioner named Kawakami Mataji ran an institution called the Nihon Shinshō Gakkai that offered reiki treatments, published a book on the method’s effects, and even provided distant treatments. These sources make no mention of Usui, describe no single founding event, and suggest that reiki therapy existed as a recognized category within the broader landscape of healing practices during Japan’s Taishō era (1912–1926).
This doesn’t diminish Usui’s role, but it reframes it. Rather than discovering an entirely new phenomenon, Usui appears to have drawn from an existing therapeutic environment and shaped it into a distinct, structured system with its own philosophy and training methods.
Mikao Usui and Mount Kurama
The most widely told origin story centers on Usui’s spiritual retreat on Mount Kurama, a sacred mountain near Kyoto. He undertook 21 days of fasting and meditation there, and the experience is traditionally described as a moment of profound spiritual awakening that gave him the ability to heal through touch. Some scholars have challenged the idea of a single founding moment in 1922, suggesting instead a more gradual development. What is clear is that by the mid-1920s, Usui had formalized his approach into a teachable system he called Usui Reiki Ryōhō.
He also established an organization, the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, reportedly around 1922. That organization still exists in Japan today, though it has remained largely private and difficult for outsiders to access. Usui trained a number of students before his death in 1926, and the lineage he started would branch in directions he likely never anticipated.
The Five Precepts: Usui’s Spiritual Core
At the heart of Usui’s system were not hand positions or healing techniques but a set of ethical principles called the Gokai, or Five Precepts. He described them as “the secret of inviting happiness through many blessings, the spiritual medicine for all illness.” Practitioners were instructed to hold their hands together in a gesture of gratitude each morning and evening and recite the precepts. One common translation reads:
- Just for today, do not anger
- Just for today, do not worry
- Be humble
- Be honest in your work
- Be compassionate to yourself and others
The emphasis on “just for today” reflects a Buddhist-influenced focus on present-moment awareness. For Usui, the practice was primarily spiritual and personal. The hands-on healing component was part of a larger framework of self-cultivation, not the centerpiece it would later become.
Hayashi Turns It Into a Clinical Practice
The shift from spiritual discipline to structured healing method came largely through Chujiro Hayashi, one of Usui’s students and a medical doctor. After Usui’s death, Hayashi consulted with Usui’s teachings and began simplifying the methodology for broader, more practical application. Drawing on his medical background, he established a clinic in Tokyo and developed the system of specific hand positions that most people now associate with Reiki.
This was a meaningful transformation. Under Usui, the practice had been what one historian described as “purely spiritual technology.” Hayashi reoriented it toward physical application, creating a more standardized and teachable format. His clinical approach made Reiki something that could be practiced on patients in a treatment setting, not just used for personal spiritual development. The hand positions he codified gave practitioners a clear, repeatable protocol, which made the practice far easier to transmit to new students.
Hawayo Takata Brings Reiki West
The person most responsible for Reiki’s global spread was Hawayo Takata, a Japanese-American woman born in Hawaii. Takata traveled to Japan for health treatment and encountered Hayashi’s clinic. She trained under him and in 1937 was initiated as a Reiki Master, meaning she could attune and teach others. That same year she returned to Hawaii, and Hayashi followed. For about a year, the two traveled together giving lectures, treatments, and teachings.
Takata then spent decades practicing and teaching Reiki across Hawaii and the mainland United States. She became a well-known healer and is credited with training the 22 Reiki Masters who would go on to spread the practice worldwide. But she also altered the history. Because Reiki is a Japanese healing technique that was reaching Western audiences during and after World War II, Takata adjusted the origin story to make it more palatable. She reportedly added details and embellishments, including stories linking Usui to Christian theology, that don’t appear in the Japanese historical record. Many of the origin myths that circulated in Western Reiki communities for decades trace back to these modifications.
How the Practice Looks Today
Modern Reiki has branched into dozens of styles and schools, but the core format remains recognizable. A practitioner places their hands lightly on or just above a person’s body, with the intention of directing energy to support the body’s own healing response. Sessions are typically quiet, gentle, and last 30 to 90 minutes. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health classifies Reiki as a complementary health approach based on an Eastern belief in an energy that supports natural healing abilities.
The scientific picture is modest. Reiki has been studied for conditions including pain, anxiety, and depression, but most research has not been of high quality, and results have been inconsistent. There is no scientific evidence supporting the existence of the energy field thought to play a role in the practice. That said, many hospitals and cancer centers in the U.S. offer Reiki as a complementary service, typically alongside conventional treatment rather than as a replacement for it. People who use Reiki most commonly report benefits related to relaxation and stress reduction.
The journey from Usui’s mountain meditation to hospital integrative medicine programs took about a century and passed through remarkably few hands. Each person in that chain, from Usui to Hayashi to Takata, reshaped the practice to fit their own context and audience. The Reiki practiced in a wellness studio in Los Angeles today would be only partly recognizable to Usui, whose original vision was less about healing others and more about cultivating yourself.