teacher
Mikao Usui
Japanese spiritual teacher regarded as the founder of Reiki, the hands-on healing system from which the principal Reiki symbols descend.
Mikao Usui (often called Usui Sensei) is honoured as the founder of Reiki. Born in 1865 in the village of Taniai, Yamagata district, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, he developed his healing method following a noted period of fasting and meditation on Mount Kurama in the early 1920s.
Lineage. In 1922 he established the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Tokyo to teach and transmit the practice. His memorial stone records that he taught Reiki to over 2,000 people before his death in 1926, and his teachings became the root of nearly every Reiki tradition practised today.
Known for. The Usui system he founded is the source of the core Reiki symbols, including Cho Ku Rei, Sei He Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. The master symbol Dai Ko Myo is associated with this lineage, though it is widely held to have been added or formalised by later teachers rather than by Usui himself. Verified personal detail about him is limited, as many records were lost over time.
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