Written by: Veronique Frede, Reiki Teacher, Japanese Culture Center, Chicago
Usui Mikao (1865–1926), the founder of Usui Reiki Ryohō, lived through one of the most dynamic and transformative periods in Japanese history. His life bridges two distinct worlds: the Meiji era (1868–1912), marked by rapid modernization and the strong influx of Western ideas, and the Taishō era (1912–1926), a time of cultural synthesis, spiritual reawakening, and renewed introspection.
The system of Reiki did not emerge in isolation. It emerged within a Japan undergoing profound change, where traditional values were being questioned, redefined, and woven together with new ways of thinking. Amid social upheaval and rapid change, a profound collective longing for inner meaning, balance, and spiritual stability emerged.
Understanding Usui Mikao’s journey within its historical context reveals that the system of Reiki was born not only from a personal moment of spiritual insight following a 21-day ascetic practice on Mount Kurama but also as a response to the profound transformations of his time. To grasp Usui Mikao’s deeper purpose, we may need to look beyond his solitary mountain awakening and into the cultural and spiritual currents of the Meiji and Taishō periods that shaped both his worldview and the living practice of Reiki.
So, rather than simply wondering which techniques Usui Sensei developed, a more revealing question might be: What human need was Reiki responding to at that moment in history?
Healing a Fragmented World
The Meiji period radically reshaped Japan. Western science, medicine, and education were rapidly adopted, bringing undeniable progress, but also deep disruption. In the rapidly modernizing cities, traditional spiritual practices were often marginalized, and people increasingly experienced life in divided terms: mind separated from body, science from spirit, humans from nature.
Usui Mikao lived directly within this shift. His life suggests a purpose not to reject modernization, but to restore integration, helping the human experience remain whole amid rapid change. The system of Reiki can be seen as a response to this cultural rupture: a practice that reconnects body, mind, and spirit through direct experience, cultivating an inner steadiness, compassion, and care that naturally radiates outward, beyond ideology.
Spiritual Cultivation for Everyday Life
Unlike monastic paths that required withdrawal from society, Usui Mikao developed a healing method accessible to ordinary people. It did not demand religious vows, ascetic discipline, or philosophical belief. Instead, it emphasized presence, simplicity, compassion, and lived experience.
This approach aligns closely with the spirit of the Taishō period, which placed renewed value on the inner life of the individual.
Usui Mikao appears to have offered a path of self-cultivation that could be lived within modern life, one that supported family, work, and society, fostering care, dedication, and awareness for oneself and others, rather than retreating.
Inner Transformation as the Ground of Healing
Early Reiki practice emphasized self-cultivation through meditation, ethical living, and the refinement of the heart-mind. Physical healing was important, but it was not the sole, or even primary, focus.
This suggests that Usui Mikao sought to support transformation from within, trusting that when the human system returns to equilibrium, healing naturally occurs. The system of Reiki, then, functions less as a technique and more as a Way (Dō), a lifelong practice of aligning with what is natural and essential.
Integration Rather Than Opposition
Usui Mikao’s wide-ranging interests in Western psychology and education, Eastern spiritual traditions, Chinese classics, and cross-cultural travel reveal a mind oriented toward understanding through synthesis, rather than separation.
The system of Reiki reflects this integrative vision. It neither stands in opposition to science nor relies on abstract metaphysics. Rather than focusing solely on the alleviation of symptoms, Usui Reiki Ryōhō emphasizes self-realization: a return to one’s original nature. It offers a way of attuning to the natural flow of life, cultivating balance and harmony so that inner realization is lived and embodied in everyday experience. In this sense, Usui Reiki Ryōhō expresses the Taishō movement’s shift away from simple imitation of the West toward a creative synthesis, emerging as a living practice that nourishes both mind and heart.
Responding to Collective Suffering
The Taishō era was marked by social instability and trauma, including the devastating Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. Usui Mikao shared Reiki publicly during this period, offering something profoundly simple and stabilizing in the midst of uncertainty.
Seen through this lens, Reiki may also be understood as a form of social healing, a way to restore calm, resilience, connection, and care in times of collective distress.
A Quiet but Radical Intention
Usui Mikao left very few explicit statements of intent. Yet his life and the form Usui Reiki Ryohō took speak clearly. His aim was not to create doctrine, but to help modern human beings remember their natural state of wholeness, and cultivate care for one another, without turning away from the modern world itself.
Reiki does not seek to escape progress. It seeks to humanize it through ongoing alignment with what is essential, cultivating awareness, presence, compassion, and harmony as a foundation for life.
Why This Still Matters Today
In a world once again shaped by rapid change, technological acceleration, division, and disconnection, Usui Mikao’s purpose feels strikingly relevant today. Reiki reminds us that lasting transformation requires both innovation and a return to the inner ground. By nurturing clarity, steadiness, and alignment within, we support both personal well-being and the health of the communities we inhabit, a lesson as vital now as it was in early twentieth-century Japan.
References:
Reiki Sourcebook, Bronwen Logan and Frans Stiene: https://a.co/d/i9W2QN6
Usui Mikao resume shared by Min Wang, Reiki history researcher: https://www.reiki.com.tw/news/278/
Justin B. Stein (PhD, Study of Religion, University of Toronto) Facebook page – April 12, 2025 “Breaking Reiki history news”: https://www.facebook.com/JBSReikiResearch
