Reiki go international

There was a woman named Hawayo Takata (1900 – 1980) who had recovered from sickness miraculously by Reiki Ryoho at Hayashi sensei’s clinic.

She was a second generatain American of Japanese descent born in Hawaii and in 1935 she came back to Japan as a widow with her two little daughters after she was diagnosed that her days were numbered with an incurable disease. She went to Hayashi-sensei’s clinic through her doctor to receive the treatment and she gained health after two months and completely recovered after eight months. She was deeply impressed with it and worked at the clinic for a year afterwards as Hayashi-sensei’s pupil before she went back to Hawaii with her daughters.

She received Shinpi-den when Hayashi-sensesi visited Hawaii in 1938 and started her Reiki clinic. She concentrated mostly on treatment until few years before her death at the age of eighty , whe she started attunement. For those few years she trained 22 teachers. These 22 masters(teachers) trained by Takata-sensei spread Reiki all over the world and over 3 million people received attunements in little over a decade, and the number continues to grow.

Takata-sensei passed away in December 1980. One year later, several Reiki Masters taught by Takata-sensei met for a week in Hawaii. In that year (1981), Phyllis Furumoto (Takata’s granddaughter)establish the Reiki Alliance to succeed the role of grandmaster Takata-sensei. However, Barbara Ray who had a different idea about Reiki, established The American International Reiki Association(renamed The Radiance Technique later). Takata’s Reiki was now divided into two major streams. In addition to the two groups, the United States now has some small to mid size groups of Reiki.

Outside of the United States, it spread to Canada, Britain, Australia, Germany, Singapore, India and so on. In India, a group of Osho(Bagwan Shri Rageneesh) adopted it from Ms. Furumoto’s group and spread it as Osho Reiki. There are indications of spreading in Taiwan and Korea through Japan.

In late 1980s, Reiki was imported back in Japan as well and is spreading.

Anyhow, Reiki became as it is now internationally owing to the three masters, -Mikao Usui, Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata. I believe I have included enough stories of them for your knowledge though there are numerous episodes and legends of each written around the life of Usui sensei’s awakening at Mt. Kurama.