FUMIO OGAWA'S REIKI BOOK
Copyright © 2003/5 James Deacon
[Last update: Sept, 2015]

Fumio Ogawa

Fumio Ogawa (1906-1998? ), who lived in Shizuoka, learned Reiki from his (adoptive?) father: Keizo (or: Kyozou) Ogawa, who in turn had learnt Reiki from one of Usui-Sensei's students: Kanichi Taketomi (- who would later become the 3rd president of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai).

Ogawa said that he completed his Reiki Master level training on November 18, 1943.

In early 2003, I discovered - via a Reiki Master living in France - that, back in 1986, Fumio apparently wrote and privately published a book entitled: "Everyone can do Reiki". [or, "Everyone can Radiate (/ Emanate?) Reiki" ("reiki wa darenimo deru") ]

My French contact told me that he had been shown a copy of the book while visiting some Reiki friends in Japan. He was told that the book was based on two Gakkai documents: one being the Reiki Treatment Guide, and the other, a book written by one of Usui-Sensei's students referred to as Wanami Sensei [??possibly Hoichi Wanami - onetime Chairman/President of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai??]; but, not being able to read more than a handful of kanji characters, he had had to 'take it on trust' that the book was indeed what it was claimed to be.

The book apparently also contained Mr.Ogawa's own Reiki experiences, a copy of the Usui Memorial inscription, a copy of the 1986 'Twilight Zone' Reiki article; and also 'traditional' techniques to power up Reiki energy.

Needless to say, I was intrigued by the possibility of gaining access to actual material written by someone trained as a Reiki Master some 60-odd years ago, so, almost immediately following our conversation, I placed a request on this site asking for anyone who was in possession of a copy of the book, or could provide precise publishing details, to please contact me.

Eventually, this summer, I was contacted by Ninoslav Safaric (a Reiki Master from Croatia) stating that he had Ogawa's book, and was willing to provide me with a copy.

Nino, who tells me he originally got his copy of "Everyone can do Reiki" from Frank Petter in 1998, had translated it into Croatian and has been using it as part of his Reiki teaching and practice for several years.

As only a small number of copies of the book were ever produced, it is quite likely that during this time, Nino was the only Reiki teacher outside of Japan to make use of it.

According to what my French contact had been told, the full contents list for "Everyone Can Do Reiki" was as follows:

Preface
The Usui Memorial Inscription
The Five Principles
Poems of the Meiji Emperor
Daily Practice
1986 Reiki Article
My Experience
Reiki Questions & Answers
The Traditional Method for Generating Reiki Energy
The Psychic: The Meiji Emperor
Waka poetry of the Meiji Emperor
Practical Explanations
Explanation of The Five Principles
Usui's Teaching
Spontaneous cure
The Workings of Reiki
The Rules for Reiki Treatment
The Features of Reiki
Reiki Treatment Guide and Explanation
Advance Techniques
APPENDIX: Treatment Points (with illustrations by Fumio Ogawa)

I had presumed this list was a list of chapters and was therefore expecting a quite substantial book. However, on inspection of the English translation provided by Nino, the 'book' actually turned out to be more of a 'booklet' - the contents list, it transpired, referred to what in some instances were little more than paragraphs.

In fact, "Everyone Can Do Reiki" was more properly a brief manual - apparently created for Ogawa's own students and as such had not been publicly distributed.

I had also hoped there might be a considerable amount of original material in it, however the majority of it seems to have been 'cobbled together' from other documents.

And with regards to what 'original' content there is in the 'book', I must say I am suspicious about some of this material - which, with constant references to Western authors and researchers - sounds to me as if it may actually have been written by a Westerner and not by someone brought up with a Japanese perspective on life. (These particular sections certainly do not seem as if they were written for Japanese students, but rather for Western ones.)

Of course, this is just my opinion.

The English-language version of "Everyone Can Do Reiki" provided by Nino was translated by a third party and is rather 'basic' in places. It is also not 100% complete - the Waka poetry is missing; and while photocopies of the 1986 'Twilight Zone' Reiki article is included, no attempt to translate it has been made.

Even so, it is still an interesting document.

A .pdf file of the English translation of "Everyone Can Do Reiki"  can be found here


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