Q. Was Mikao Usui Sensei the originator of Reiki as a healing method?
A. While we honor Usui Sensei as the originator of Usui Reiki Ryoho, he was not the original person to begin using Reiki in this way. And in fact, during the time he developed his healing method, there were already at least four other Reiki healing methods in use in Japan. One of them was called Reiki Ryoho and was developed by Mataji Kawakami in 1914, eight years before Usui Sensei developed his healing method. Furthermore, in 1919, Mataji Kawakami wrote a book titled Reiki Healing and Its Effects, and it is possible that Usui Sensei read this book as it is interesting that he referred to his healing method using the same two words except to add his name to it. This information comes to us from Hiroshi Doi Sensei and Toshitaka Mochitzuki Sensei.