~ The Origins of Reiki ~

Usui Sensei (Usui Mikao 臼井甕男 1865 - 1926)

Mikao Usui was the originator of what we today call Reiki. He was born on August 15th 1865 in the village of 'Taniai-mura' in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture Kyoto.

Mikao Usui most probably came from a wealthy family as at that time only children from wealthy families could afford to receive an education.
As a child he studied in a Tendai Buddhist monastery school entering at an early age. He was also a student of different martial arts. His memorial states that he was a talented hard working student, he liked to read and his knowledge of medicine, psychology, fortune telling and theology of religions around the world, including the Kyoten (Buddhist Bible) was vast. He was married and his wife's name was Sadako, they had a son and daughter.

Usui sensei studied and traveled to western countries and several times, this was encouraged during the Meiji Era and later, to learn and study western ways.


During his lifetime Mikao Usui held many different professions such as public servant, office worker, industrialist, reporter, politician's secretary, missionary, supervisor of convicts.

At some point in his life he became a Tendai Buddhist Monk/Priest (a lay priest). On several occasions he took a form of meditation lasting 21 days. On his memorial it says that at one time this took place on Mount Kurama. This is where he is supposed to have been given the inspiration for his system of healing now known as Reiki. It is very likely that he incorporated ideas and knowledge about healing from other system, both spiritual and physical, like Chinese Medicine, other Eastern healing systems like qi gong (chi gong), acupuncture and others.