If you visit Mikao Usui's memorial stone at his grave in Tokyo, you'll come across a sentence that surprises many Reiki practitioners, namely that one should follow the instructions of the Meiji Tennō. An emperor, in a spiritual practice? What does the emperor have to do with Reiki?
The answer leads deep into Japanese history, and it shows how easily Reiki can be misunderstood when it's taken out of its cultural context.
The emperor in Meiji Japan 天皇
The Meiji Tennō 明治天皇 reigned from 1867 until his death in 1912. During this time Japan changed from a feudal society into a modern industrial nation. In the years after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the samurai lost their privileges as a class, old structures collapsed and new ones arose. At the center stood an emperor whom the state presented as being of divine descent.
This view shaped Japanese society until the end of the Second World War. The Tennō wasn't only seen as a ruler, but as a mediator between the world of the kami and the human world. Following his instructions therefore had a moral and spiritual dimension as well. For someone like Mikao Usui, who came from a samurai family, loyalty to the Tennō was simply part of his identity.
What the memorial stone says 碑文
Space on a memorial stone is limited, so the inscription uses key terms behind which much more stands than you see at first glance. In the Japanese text, the reference to the instructions of the Meiji Tennō comes before the description of the daily practice with gasshō and the five life principles. In other words, before Usui's daily practice is described, the imperial instructions are named as its ethical frame. That's a deliberate placement.
This passage has sometimes given the impression that the life principles were written by the Meiji Tennō himself. That isn't the case. The connection between the two texts is real, though, and more revealing than one might think.
The Imperial Rescript of 1890 勅語
On 30 October 1890 the Meiji Tennō issued the Imperial Rescript on Education, Kyōiku ni kansuru chokugo 教育ニ関スル勅語, often simply called chokugo. It names twelve points of virtuous conduct, and for decades it was read aloud at schools throughout Japan.
After the emperor's death in 1912, the phrase Meiji Tennō no ikun 明治天皇の遺訓, "the instructions left by the late Meiji Tennō," became a fixed expression. Every educated Japanese of that time knew immediately that it referred to the rescript of 1890. Since Usui grew up with this text, it's not surprising that it appears on his memorial stone.
The rescript contains twelve concrete points, but none of Mikao Usui's five life principles as they appear on the memorial stone and in the calligraphy. The gokai are Usui's own. There are clear overlaps in the basic attitude, though.
Here are the twelve points of the rescript in my translation:
The rescript in modern Japanese 原文
The original rescript is written in classical Japanese, which many Japanese readers today find hard to follow. That's why it's often read in a modern Japanese rendering. Here is the full text in modern Japanese:
このような道は、代々にわたる私の先祖達の残した教訓であって、子孫である全国民が遵守すべき事柄で、これを昔から今まで守り続けても誤りが無く、国内同様国外で行っても道理に外れるものではないので、私（天皇）はあなたがた国民と一緒に、これを忘れないように心に刻み、完成された人格を共有したいと切に願っている。
Mixing up the texts 混乱
The first point of the rescript, "Love and honor your parents," appears in some translations of Usui's life principles, together with the sentence "Earn your living honestly." Neither can be found in this form in the five principles on the memorial stone or in Usui's calligraphy.
With "Earn your living honestly," something else happened. It goes back to Usui's own fourth principle, 業を励め. If the character 業 is read in the modern way, gyō, it means work or occupation. In the life principles, however, it's read gō, the Buddhist reading, and then it means karma. So the principle isn't about working hard, but about working on your karma.
The sentence about honoring one's parents, on the other hand, seems to have been taken from the rescript at some point and mixed into the life principles. One could speculate that there are other, still unknown sources. As long as these haven't been found in the Japanese original, though, that remains speculation. What we know with certainty is that the five principles on the memorial stone and the twelve points of the rescript are two different texts with a common basic attitude.
That's why I think it's worthwhile, if you want to practice the gokai in their original form, to go back to the Japanese text rather than to translations of translations.
The emperor's poems 御製
The Meiji Tennō wrote around 100,000 short poems (waka), called gyosei 御製, "imperial compositions." They express personal feelings, observations of nature and reflections. In some Reiki traditions in Japan, these poems are recited as part of the practice. Others regard them as purely personal expressions with no connection to Reiki. Both views have their justification. What's certain is that the Meiji Tennō himself had nothing to do with Reiki. His significance for Reiki lies in the fact that Usui took the rescript to heart as the ethical foundation of his life.
What this means for practice 実践
The mention of the Meiji Tennō on Usui's memorial stone isn't a call to political loyalty. It points to the ethical frame in which Usui lived. The rescript asks for self-cultivation, benevolence and service to the community, values that fit well with Usui's five principles.
If you want to understand Reiki in depth, it helps to know this background. Not in order to follow the Meiji Tennō, but to understand the ground the practice grew from. Reiki didn't arise in a vacuum, but in a culture that saw self-discipline, devotion and spiritual development as belonging together. Did you know that version of the life principles with "Earn your living honestly"?
Discover the Gokai
In Shingon Reiki the life principles are contemplated and practiced every day. If you like, read more about Mikao Usui.
Who was Mikao Usui? What is Shingon Reiki?