Reijutsu, Hand-Healing, 'New Religions' & Reiki in early 20thC Japan
Copyright © 2002 James Deacon
[Updated: July 25, 2005]

A number of people seem to be under the misapprehension that Usui Sensei was somehow responsible for what has been referred to as a 'revival' of Healing-hand practices in early 20th century Japan.

However, such healing practices had been quite common in Japan for many centuries and there is no reason to believe they had fallen into decline during the Meiji era.

In fact, it is known that many and varied forms of hand-healing practices existed during Usui Sensei's lifetime.

'Teate' (hand/palm healing) systems had long existed (and continue to exist today) with in the martial disciplines, for example: the various schools of Ninpo (Ninjitsu) and traditional Bujutsu schools such as Katori Shinto Ryu, and I believe, Yagyu Ryu - the Jujutsu/Kenjutsu discipline believed to have been studied by Usui Sensei himself.

And, outside of martial arts circles, there also existed several teate practices utilising a form of vital life-force energy referred to as:'seiki'.

seiki

Various forms of seiki healing practice [not to be confused with the modern 'Seiki Soho' healing] had been around since at least the Edo period and some practitioners were certainly active around the time Usui Sensei was teaching Reiki.

For example, we know of one Seiki therapy group: the seiki ryoho kenkyu jo (Seiki Treatment Institute / Research Establishment) which was definitely active in the late 1920's.

Also, Traditional Japanese Medicine (essentially Traditional Chinese Medicine with a name-change) included 'Ki-jutsu' techniques (which would later also be referred to as 'ki-ko' techniques) - originally believed to have been derived from Qi Gung Hand Healing.

It has been said that Usui-sensei was a member of a 'group' called Reijutsu Kai, which were met near Mount Kurama.
However, during the early part of the 20th century, Reijutsu wasn't just a 'group' - rather, it was quite a large, flourishing 'movement'. It would seem that what Usui-sensei belonged to was a local Association (Kai) of which there were apparently a great many in the Reijutsu movement. A Shinto-related phenomenon, amongst Reijutsu's aims was the improvement of health of the nation. Reijutsu made use of a variety of healing methods including Reiki-like 'laying-on-of-hands' and healing through religious rituals.
The Reijutsu movement became quite prominent, and practitioners even travelled to Mongolia and gave lectures on their techniques to Chinese. (As a result, it is said, elements of Reijutsu found their way into Chinese Qi Gung practices.)

Then, there were (even in Usui's day) countless 'folk practitioners' - including members of the supposedly suppressed Shugendo cults, who utilised hand-healing (admittedly in conjunction with exorcism, prayer and other esoteric practices).

And a great many of the spiritual groups, often referred to as: 'new religions' (shinko shukyo) or 'new religious groups', which existed in Usui's time, were essentially 'healing sects', several of which had materialised around a charismatic 'founder' who had developed or 'received' healing powers.

This last fact brings us to an interesting point:

Hawayo Takata taught the system known as Usui Shiki Ryoho - or as it is more commonly called: 'Reiki'.

Until relatively recently, it was understood that Usui Shiki Ryoho was identical to the system conceived, developed, practiced and taught by Usui Sensei in the 1920's.

However, if we are to accept the validity of the newly emerging information concerning the origins of Reiki, it seems that many of us will have to revise our understanding as to what exactly Usui Sensei's system was.

It is currently being implied that (- rather than being a purely therapeutic modality,) what Usui Sensei originally founded and developed was essentially a spiritual-philosophical system involving elements of Buddhist and Shintoist belief - a system 'for the improvement of body and soul' - that is, a system primarily focussing on self-development, but one which also incorporated a self-healing element.

If this is in fact the case, then in effect, what Usui Sensei created was a spiritual or philosophical 'way' - which to a certain extent - could be said to fall within the above-mentioned category of 'Spiritual Groups/New Religious Groups'.

According to some, Usui Sensei did not actually give his system a name; yet others say it was known as Usui-do (the 'do' part of the name implying a philosophical/spiritual path), or as 'Usui-teate' (Usui Hand/Palm Healing' - from which we can assume that, albeit primarily a spiritual system, it did indeed include a 'therapeutic modality' component).

[ The Reiki Precepts / Principles, however, speak of the system as: 'Usui Reiki Ryoho'.]

It is of course possible that the names 'Usui-do' and 'Usui-teate' were given to the system by Usui Sensei's students, who, it seems, did not know or use the name 'Reiki'.
(One source seemed to have a vague recollection about how the term Reiki had been used by Usui Sensei in the context of some form of respect for his ancestors)**

After Usui Sensei's death in 1926, 'Usui-do' / 'Usui-teate' - i.e. Usui Sensei's original spiritual system - seems to have gradually been ousted from the newly evolving and expanding 'Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai' - who moved the emphasis more towards personal healing through Reiki.
However, a number of his most senior students saw to it that Usui-do / 'Usui-teate' continued.

And, alongside Usui-do / -teate' and the 'Gakkai system, other new expressions of the system also evolved, the primary ones being - so we are told:
- a hand/palm healing modality: 'Eguchi te-no-hira Ryoji' (developed by Toshihiro Eguchi - a friend and student of Usui Sensei, and incorporating elements of Usui-do )
and the version developed by Hayashi Sensei in 1931 as: Hayashi Reiki Ryoho

It is from Hayashi Reiki Ryoho that Takata Sensei's ' Usui Shiki Ryoho' evolved.

**
[Many of the 'new religious'/spiritual groups' (- which generally tended to incorporate elements from Shinto and Buddhist teachings -) came into being as a result of their founders undergoing either mystical visionary experiences of, or indeed actual possession by, Kami (numinous beings), or sometimes, by Ancestral Spirits.
Now, while many people may view Usui Sensei's 'Reiki Experience' on Mount Kurama in terms of mystical connection with an abstract 'Spiritual Universal Energy' , it may be of interest to note that the term 'Reiki' is sometimes translated as: Ancestral Spirit.]