In Western Reiki there is essentially one technique: laying on hands. Different positions, different intentions — but at the core, always the same. In the Japanese tradition it looks different. There is a whole arsenal of techniques that Mikao Usui and his successors practised. Techniques that in the West were forgotten, ignored, or simply never passed on.
These techniques did not arise out of nothing. Many have roots in Shingon Buddhism, in Shintō, in Daoism, or in the Shugendō practice of the mountain ascetics. Usui did not invent them — he gathered them and integrated them into a coherent system. In Shingon Reiki these methods are preserved and practised in their original depth.
Kenyoku Hō — Dry-bathing of the energetic body 乾浴法
Ken 乾 — dry. Yoku 浴 — to bathe. Hō 法 — method. Literally: "the method of dry bathing." What sounds odd at first glance has a precise meaning: you cleanse your energetic body — without water.
The practice is simple and powerful. With the flat hand you stroke diagonally across the body — from the shoulder to the opposite hip, then down the arms beyond the fingertips. Three strokes across the upper body, three down the arms. Each stroke releases adhering energy that does not belong to you — moods of other people, impressions from crowded rooms, emotional residue.
Kenyoku has a direct parallel in Shintō: the purification rituals Misogi and Harae, in which the body is freed of Kegare 穢れ — spiritual impurity. In Shintō this happens beneath a waterfall or through ritual prayer. In the Reiki tradition it happens through the hands.
In Japan, Kenyoku is practised before and after every Reiki session. Before the session, to clear one's own energetic body. After the session, so as not to carry the other's energy with you. In the West this practice has almost entirely disappeared — which explains why many Reiki practitioners report feeling tired or emotionally burdened after sessions.
Byōsen — Sensing energetic density 病腺
Byō 病 — imbalance, disharmony. Sen 腺 — gland, line. Byōsen describes the capacity to perceive, with the hands, energetic densities in another person's body. It is not a diagnosis in the medical sense — it is a form of energetic perception refined through practice.
The sensations vary: tingling, warmth, coolness, pulsing, a magnetic pull, sometimes a fine prick. In the Japanese Reiki tradition there are five stages of Byōsen perception — from gentle warmth (On Netsu) to intense pulsing (Hibiki). The more intense the perception, the deeper the energetic density.
What makes Byōsen so distinctive: it doesn't work through thinking. You don't lay on hands and consider what you sense. The hands move — almost on their own — to where the density lies. It is a perception that operates beneath the conscious mind. Some compare it to the moment when you know without looking that someone is standing behind you.
In Western Reiki the hand positions were standardised — a fixed scheme applied identically to every person. In the Japanese tradition the scheme is a starting point, not the goal. The goal is Byōsen: the capacity to bring the hands where they are needed. Not by plan — by perception.
Reiji Hō — Intuitive hand-guidance 靈示法
Rei 靈 — spirit, spiritual force. Ji 示 — to show, to point out. Hō 法 — method. Literally: "the method by which the spirit shows the way." Reiji Hō is the practice of letting your own hands be guided by the Reiki energy itself — without conscious steering, without scheme, without plan.
The practice begins in Gasshō. You ask that the Reiki energy guide your hands where they are needed. Then you release the hands from the Gasshō position and let them move. You don't move the hands — the energy moves them. The difference sounds philosophical, but in practice it is immediately tangible.
Reiji Hō presupposes Byōsen. Without the capacity to sense energetic densities, the hands don't know where to move. That is why Reiji Hō, in the Japanese tradition, is not practised at the very beginning, but only when Byōsen perception has become reliable.
In Shingon Buddhism there is a related concept: Kaji 加持 — the transmission of spiritual force. Kaji does not happen through the will of the practitioner, but through the resonance between the cosmic Buddha Dainichi Nyorai and the open consciousness of the human being. Reiji Hō follows the same principle: you don't act — you open yourself, and the force acts through you.
Jakikiri Joka Hō — Cleansing of objects 邪気切り浄化法
Jaki 邪気 — negative energy, harmful influence. Kiri 切り — to cut. Joka 浄化 — purification, cleansing. Hō — method. This practice serves to cleanse objects, rooms, or places of negative energy. You cut through the negative energy with a short, sharp hand movement — and afterwards fill the object with Reiki.
The movement recalls a sword stroke. That is no coincidence. In the Japanese tradition — especially in Shintō and Shugendō — the sword is understood as a spiritual instrument of purification. Fudō Myōō, the Immovable, carries his flame sword not as a weapon, but as a tool of transformation. Jakikiri Joka Hō transfers this principle into hand practice.
In practice, Jakikiri Joka Hō is used when you enter a room that feels heavy. When you receive an object that carries a story you do not wish to take on. When you want to cleanse a place before meditating or giving a Reiki session there. It is one of the most pragmatic techniques — and one of the oldest.
Nentatsu Hō — Energy and intention 念達法
Nen 念 — thought, intention, inner alignment. Tatsu 達 — to reach, to transmit. Hō — method. Nentatsu Hō works with the link between Reiki energy and conscious intention. One hand rests on the forehead, the other at the back of the head. Between the hands an energetic field arises into which a clear intention is embedded.
In Shingon Buddhism the power of intention is not an esoteric concept but a ritual principle: the third of the three secrets — I-Mitsu 意密, the secret of mind. When body (mudra), speech (mantra), and mind (visualisation) act together, the full force unfolds. Nentatsu Hō works precisely with this third dimension.
Gyōshi Hō and Kōki Hō — with eyes and breath 凝視法 · 呼気法
Two further techniques that show how multi-layered the Japanese Reiki tradition is: Gyōshi Hō 凝視法 — the method of concentrated gazing — and Kōki Hō 呼気法 — the method of exhaling.
With Gyōshi Hō, Reiki is sent not through the hands but through the eyes. The gaze rests softly and concentratedly on a particular area of the body. In Shingon Buddhism there is a direct precedent: the meditation practice of Gachirinkan 月輪観, in which the practitioner visualises a luminous full moon and transmits this light to other beings through concentrated gazing.
With Kōki Hō, the transmission happens through the breath. You exhale Reiki energy — directed, calm, with the intention to send it where it is needed. This practice has roots in Daoism, where the breath is understood as the carrier of Qi 気. In the Shingon tradition, the breath is part of Ku-Mitsu 口密 — the secret of speech.
Reiki is not a one-tool system in the Japanese tradition. It uses every channel of the body: hands, eyes, breath, mind. The three secrets of Shingon — body, speech, and mind — are mirrored directly in the techniques. Laying on hands is Shin-Mitsu (body secret). Breath and mantra are Ku-Mitsu (speech secret). Intention and visualisation are I-Mitsu (mind secret). Together they form Sanmitsu — and Sanmitsu is the foundation of Shingon Reiki.
Hatsurei Hō — the complete practice 発靈法
Hatsu 発 — to call forth, trigger, unfold. Rei 靈 — spirit, spiritual force. Hatsurei Hō is not a single technique — it is a sequence that links several of the methods described: Kenyoku for cleansing, Jōshin Kokyū Hō for breath guidance, Gasshō meditation for alignment. Together they form the daily Reiki practice that in Japan is regarded as the foundation.
The name reveals the essence: spiritual force is not produced — it is called forth. It is already there. The practice removes what blocks it and opens the channels through which it can flow. This corresponds to the basic idea of Shingon philosophy: Buddhahood is not something you attain. It is something you uncover.
In Shingon Reiki, Hatsurei Hō is the recommended morning practice. Fifteen to twenty minutes — Kenyoku, breath meditation, Gasshō, the Reiki life principles. Every morning. Not as an obligation, but as a way. The Japanese masters formulated it like this: The practice is the way. And the way is the practice.
Experience the Japanese techniques
In Shingon Reiki these methods are not merely described — they are practised, transmitted, and experienced in their full depth.
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