One of the stories told by Hawayo Takata and propagated by her students was that Dr. Usui was educated by Christian missionaries and that he actually converted to Christianity himself. I’d like to take a closer look at these claims here.

The story (by my understanding) goes that Dr. Usui was not only a Christian, but that he was himself a Christian Minister, Missionary and Preacher as well as the Principal of Doshisha University, a Christian university located in Kyoto, Japan. The short version of the story is that one day at Chapel service several of Dr. Usui’s senior students asked him if he had the ability to duplicate Jesus’s healing miracles through the laying on of hands, to which Dr. Usui replied that he could not, and then subsequently resigned his position at the university in order to learn this healing ability at a university in Chicago. This in turn led to his discovery of Reiki.

First off, lets get a few little facts straight.

Dr. Usui was not educated by missionaries. He was not a Christian Minister, Missionary or Preacher. He was in no way related to Doshisha University in any capacity. He never studied at any university in Chicago, and finally he was not Christian.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, lets take a look at where this story potentially came from, its implications and its possible origins.

Gassho

In Reiki, even Mrs. Takata’s version , there is quite a lot of gassho usage. Rather than explaining the Buddhist and mudra aspects of this, it would have been much easier (and no doubt much more effective) to describe and explain it as the hand position used in Christian prayers. This would have made it much less of a heathen Japanese thing and much more acceptable in Mrs. Takata’s day and age. In order to explain how this Christian symbol made it into Reiki, I’m sure some explanation would have been needed, et voila… the Usui Doshisha link was established (and further embelishments came naturally, as they do in all forms of mythology).

Jodo Shu

We’ve already established that Dr. Usui was in no way, shape or form Christian. He was also not a member of the Tendai or Shingon Sects of Japanese Buddhism as has also been maintained by some rather dubious sources. The fact remains that he was a member of the Jodo Sect of Japanese Buddhism as is witnessed by his burial at Saihoji Memorial Park in the Saihoji Temple compound, which is strictly reserved for members of the Jodo Shu sect. Jodo Shu is one of the most popular forms of Buddhism found in Japan and in fact has been likened as the branch of Japanese Buddhism closest to Christianity on a number of levels. The short version of their belief is that you believe in God and say a prayer to him once in a while and you will automatically go to heaven. Some sources actually call the Jodo Branch a form of “Buddhist Christianity” as they are so similar, so again, Mrs. Takata’s reference to Dr. Usui as being Christian is not that far off the mark as his beliefs would have been markedly similar.

Anti-Japanese Sentiment

One final area in need of mention is the anti-Japanese sentiment of the time… especially in Hawaii. Proliferation of any Japanese ideas would have been extremely difficult at best and an option was certainly needed. Making Dr. Usui less Japanese, lo even a Christian at heart, would have taken some of the sting out of it and were this not done, as I’ve mentioned on several occasions, Reiki would in all likelihood have never reached its current degree of international popularity… especially with the Gakkai bending over backwards to keep it secret and restricted to a few rapidly aging individuals (no, there is no love lost between me and the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai).

I would once again like to applaud the choices Mrs. Takata made in order to preserve and spread Reiki… without which I would not be talking to you right now and would probably be writing a post on yoga…

For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!