Reiki was founded in the 1920s by a gentleman named Mikao Usui. Having looked for the meaning of life for many years he ended up developing a system for healing a person, both physically and mental / emotionally. He made a move which was uncommon in Japan, which was to teach openly for the benefit of everyone. The best part was that a student could heal themselves through hands-on​ energy and by following a simple set of principles.

Reiki was relatively unknown outside of Japan until the 1970s when a lady called Mrs. Takata started to teach what she had learnt in the 1930s, in Japan. She sought Reiki training after hearing about it in Hawaii​ because she wanted to pursue​ a different method to get better.

The way she taught was a traditional Japanese method, whereby a student was given more information about an area they excelled at, or showed interest in. This unfortunately led to her teacher students needing to pool resources, to create a full seminar to pass on to their own students. This combined with the thirty years plus which had passed before Mrs. Takata started to teach openly, led to components being added, missed out or misconstrued.

At the same time that Mrs.​ Takata had learnt, a lady called Chiyoko Yamaguchi took the seminar from the same teacher (Dr. Hayashi). She continued practicing, helping others and teaching her family for over sixty years. When approached by her son Tadao, who asked if she would teach outside the family, she refused, but once she saw for herself how things had changed or been left out she agreed, and lucky for us she did.

Some of the changes were…

• Attunements as they are known in the west or Reiju in traditional Reiki are the method for reconnecting students to the energy around us. Many people assume Reiki is energy from an unknown or mystical source, but in Japan, it is very much thought of tapping into the energy around us.
• Symbols used being lost or made too complicated without understanding the meaning behind them
• imagening something like the ​universe, heaven or light rather than letting Reiki flow
• Feedback felt mainly in the hands
• A rejuvenating massage like technique
• A mental and emotional treatment
• A technique to help people who are not physically present (remote)
• First aid techniques

Jikiden Reiki is the teachings as close as you can get, to the ones taught by Mr Usui and presented by Dr. Hayashi in Japan over 85 years ago.