In the grounds of Saihōji Temple in Tokyo stands a stone. It is not large — and yet it contains everything we know about Mikao Usui from a first-hand source. The inscription was composed in 1927, one year after Usui's death, by his closest companions. It is written in the language of a Buddhist sūtra — dense with technical terms, cultural-historical keywords and hidden layers of meaning. It is the only contemporary written source on Usui's life and practice.
Here is the full translation. Japanese original, romanisation and commentary — passage by passage.
The Title 碑文
Even the title is revealing. Reihō 靈法 — spiritual method. Chōso 肇祖 — first founder of the lineage. Kudoku 功徳 — merit in the Buddhist sense. The choice of words places Usui in the company of the great spiritual masters.
What Makes a True Master 徳
The text does not begin with Usui's biography. It begins with a fundamental statement about what mastery means. That is no accident — it is the lens of the inscription: Usui is presented as someone who embodied this definition of a true master.
Usui's Origin and Character 人物
The inscription describes Usui's character with a clarity that echoes Buddhist portraits of the great masters: humble, gentle, with a heart that smiled. He cared little for his outer appearance, yet his physique was striking. Whenever something required his attention, he showed inner strength, patience and careful preparation.
His knowledge was extraordinarily wide-ranging: medical literature, Buddhist sūtras, psychology, the methods of Daoist masters with supernatural powers, banishing and invocation rituals with mantras, divination with oracle sticks and the art of face reading. The inscription puts it plainly: "There was nothing he was not familiar with."
Failure and Endurance 不屈
This is one of the most moving lines in the whole inscription. Before Reiki, Usui was a man who fought his way through setbacks. The inscription does not hide this — on the contrary, it highlights it. Because it was precisely this perseverance — the samurai spirit that refuses to give up — that made him the person who could receive what he received on Mount Kurama.
The Experience on the Mountain 鞍馬
Katsuzen — "as if out of a clear sky," "all at once." The inscription does not describe a gradual awakening. It describes a sudden breakthrough. Something opened. And from that moment on, Usui was a different person.
What Usui Actually Intended 本意
This sentence is the key to understanding Reiki. First, the unfolding of the supernatural abilities. Then spiritual development. Then keeping the body healthy. And only then — as a side-effect — support for complaints. Usui defined his method not as a wellness tool, but as a spiritual master path.
The kanji reinō 靈能 — supernatural abilities — is central here. It describes capacities beyond the five physical senses. They are latent in every human being and can be awakened through spiritual practice. The kanji tenbu 天賦 — natural endowment — contains the character for heaven and for deva: a gift received from heaven, given to you on your path.
The Great Earthquake 震災
The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 — magnitude 7.9, around 140,000 dead. The inscription describes Usui's response without restraint: he set out at sunrise and helped, without a thought of payment. No weighing, no hesitation. Simply going and doing what was needed.
The Transmission 伝承
The inscription states it plainly: Reiki did not end with Usui's death. The method does not belong to one person — it belongs to everyone who is ready to receive it and carry it forward. Usui's own companions wrote this charge into stone: the practice is to be spread openly, for all time.
The Authors 著者
The inscription was composed in February 1927 — a little under a year after Usui's death. The text was written by Okada Masayuki, a high-ranking scholar (Order of Merit of the 3rd rank, Doctor of Literature). The calligraphy was done by Ushida Juzaburō, a rear admiral of the Japanese Navy (4th rank, 3rd grade of merit).
These are not minor figures. That a literary scholar of this standing composed the text, and a highly decorated naval officer brushed the calligraphy, shows the regard Usui held in the Japanese society of his time. The memorial stone is not a private grave — it is a public document in which the Japanese elite of the day bear witness to Usui's legacy.
A hundred years later, we read these words. And the resonance they hoped for is still there.
Discover Shingon Reiki
The spiritual method that Usui received on Mount Kurama lives on — in Shingon Reiki. Initiation, meditation, practice. The way Usui intended it.
Who Was Mikao Usui? The Five Life Principles