Lots of stories circulate about Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki. The most important source we have on his life is the inscription on his memorial stone at Saihōji temple in Tōkyō. His companions put it up in 1927, a year after his death, and the text was written by the literary scholar Okada Masayuki. In this article I'd like to trace who Usui was and stay as close to that source as possible. Where I draw on later traditions, I'll say so.
From a warrior family 千葉
Mikao Usui was born on August 15, 1865, in the village of Taniai in what is now Gifu Prefecture. According to the memorial stone, one of his ancestors was Chiba Tsunetane (1118–1201), a well-known warlord from the time when samurai rule began in Japan. By the time Usui was born, though, the age of the samurai was coming to an end. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 the warrior class was abolished step by step, and in 1876 the samurai also lost the right to wear swords.
What martial arts Usui practiced as a young man, the sources don't tell us exactly. But I think it's very likely that the values and the attitude of that tradition lived on in his family, because a culture doesn't disappear in a single generation. More in the article on Usui as a samurai.
His Buddhist name 暁帆
Right at the start, the memorial stone says: 先生通称甕男號は暁帆, "The master's common name is Mikao, his Buddhist name is Gyōhan." The name is written Gyōhan 暁帆. The first character 暁 means dawn, the second 帆 means sail. So the name literally means "sail at dawn." I find that image fits very well for someone who keeps sailing through the dark of night until it gets light.
The name also fits what the inscription says about his life. It says that much turned out differently than he'd hoped and that he suffered setbacks and disregard again and again, but didn't give up. That's remarkably honest for a memorial stone, and that's exactly why I find this passage so moving.
Which Buddhist school Usui belonged to has been debated for a long time. Some think of Tendai, because the temple in the Kurama mountains belonged to the Tendai school at the time, others of Zen. My own take is that this question doesn't get you very far, because the sources Usui drew on are broader: the esoteric Buddhism of Shingon (Japanese: mikkyō), Shugendō, Shintō and shamanic Daoism. More in the articles on Usui and Tendai and Usui and Shugendō.
The inscription describes Usui as modest and gentle, with a great thirst for knowledge. He was at home in medical literature, Buddhist sutras, psychology, the methods of Daoist masters, rites of exorcism and incantation, divination with oracle sticks and the art of reading faces. The inscription puts it quite simply: "There was nothing he did not know about." That's very interesting, because this list alone shows how broad the roots of Reiki are.
The memorial stone tells us little about his career. Later Japanese accounts say that he was, among other things, secretary to the politician Gotō Shinpei, who became mayor of Tōkyō in 1920. That isn't proven with complete certainty, though.
The experience in the Kurama mountains 鞍馬山
The key sentence on the memorial stone says, roughly: One day he went up into the Kurama mountains, gave up food and practiced hard austerities. On the twentieth or twenty-first day he suddenly felt a great spiritual power above his head (Japanese: ichidai reiki 一大靈氣), and out of the blue he received the method. Put simply, the inscription doesn't describe a slow awakening but a sudden breakthrough. The word for "above the head," zujō 頭上, points to the area of the crown chakra.
According to the inscription, Usui first tried the power on himself and on his family. Later stories add further episodes, such as the lavish meal at the foot of the mountain that he's said to have eaten without any trouble after 21 days of fasting. Those stories aren't on the memorial stone. You'll find more on the mountain itself in the article on Kurama.
Spreading the method in Tōkyō 伝承
In April 1922 Usui moved to Aoyama in the Harajuku district of Tōkyō and opened a place there where he gave initiations and Reiki sessions. People came from near and far, and it's said that shoes piled up in front of the house. In Japan that's a sure sign there's a lot going on inside.
The great earthquake 関東大震災
On September 1, 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake struck Tōkyō and Yokohama. The quake and the fires that raged for days afterward killed an estimated more than 100,000 people. According to the memorial stone, Usui set out at daybreak, walked through the ruined city and turned to those who were suffering. The inscription says: "Rescuing people from grief under the most adverse circumstances is so great that it has no equal." After that his place became too small, and in February 1925 he moved into a new house in Nakano, then still on the edge of Tōkyō.
What Usui really intended 本意
Most people know Reiki mainly as laying on of hands for relaxation. That has its place. But if you read what the memorial stone says about the purpose of the method, you'll see a surprising emphasis. It says the method shouldn't be limited to physical complaints alone. The key point is that the heaven-given spiritual abilities (Japanese: tenbu no reinō 天賦の靈能) form the basis for perfecting the heart, keeping the body healthy and living a life of abundance.
In other words, according to this source Reiki is first of all a spiritual path of personal development, and laying hands on others comes on top of that. I've described this in detail in the article What Usui actually meant.
The life principles 五戒
Part of Usui's legacy is the five life principles (Japanese: gokai 五戒). Roughly, they say: Today, don't be angry, don't worry, be grateful, work on your karma and be kind to others. They're meant to be held in the heart and recited aloud morning and evening with the hands in gasshō. With the fourth principle it's worth taking a close look at the reading, by the way, because the character 業 is read gō here, not gyō. So in Buddhist terms karma is meant and not simply work. More in the article on Usui's life principles.
The last years 晩年
In his last years Usui traveled a lot, among other places to Kure, Hiroshima and Saga. He died in Fukuyama on March 9, 1926, at the age of 62 by Japanese reckoning. According to the memorial stone, more than 2,000 people had received initiations from him.
What remains 遺産
The inscription ends with the wish that the method should go on being spread for all time after Usui's death. One passage I find particularly beautiful describes what makes a master:
You'll find a full translation of the inscription with commentary in the article on Usui's memorial stone. In Shingon Reiki, what matters to me is connecting with exactly these sources, the ones Usui himself drew on. Which passage of the inscription speaks to you most?
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If you like, take your time and see which starting point feels right for you.
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