Takata Reiki - Usui Shiki Ryoho
Mrs. Takata’s Reiki style is perhaps the most well-known and wide spread system of Reiki in the world today. Being a student of Hayashi, Mrs. Takata brought her adapted system of Reiki to America in the beginning of the 1970’s and during a 10 year period, taught 22 western students to the teacher level of her system.

The 22 teachers taught by Takata include: Dorothy Baba, Ursula Baylow, Rick Bockner, Patricia Bowling Ewing, Barbara Brown, Fran Brown, Phyllis Furumoto, Beth Gray, John Gray, Iris Ishikuro, Harry Kuboi, Ethel Lombardi, Barbara McCullough, Mary McFadyen, Paul Mitchell, Shinobu Saito, Bethel Phaigh, Virginia Samdahl, Wanja Twan, Barbara Weber Ray, Kay Yamashita, and George Araki.

Many of these students went on to prolifically teach Reiki, notably, Phyllis Furumoto (The Reiki Alliance), Barbara Weber Ray (The Radiance Technique) as well as many others. As a result of these teachers and the others that followed, Reiki spread globally within a few short years. Today there are literally millions of Reiki practitioners world-wide and their teachings are largely based on what was passed on from Mrs. Takata.

The following is a brief account of the life of Mrs. Takata.

Hawayo Kawamura* (*her maiden name), was born on December 25th 1900 in Hanamaula, Kauai, Hawaii. In 1917 she married her husband, Saichi Takata. They had two daughters, one named Alice Takata-Furumoto, who later had a daughter named Phyllis Furumoto.

Following the death of her husband in 1930 and then her sister in 1935, Hawayo Takata decided to go to Japan to visit her parents. During these years she worked many long hours to cover her grief and to provide for her family and as a result, her health began to suffer.

Whilst in Japan she began treatment for her health problems and it was subsequently determined that she would require an operation. Just before her operation she heard the voice of her dead husband, saying that the operation was not necessary and that there was another way. This prompted her to speak with her doctor of alternative treatments and he referred her on to Hayashi’s Reiki Clinic. Hawayo Takata received daily treatments at this clinic for a period of four months and during this time her symptoms completely abated.

Hawayo Takata then took Reiki training (Shoden) with Hayashi on December 10th, 1935. She trained with Hayashi for a little over one year. In 1937, Mrs Takata received the second level in Hayashi’s system (Okuden). Shortly after this, she returned to Hawaii. A few weeks later, Hayashi visited Mrs. Takata with his daughter and stayed until February 1938. During this time Hayashi Sensei officially made Mrs. Takata a Reiki teacher and bestowed the Shinpiden level upon her.

One should note, that the title ‘Reiki Master’ was not issued by Hayashi or by Dr. Usui. Nor was Mrs. Takata announced as Hayashi’s only successor. On May 1940, Chujiro Hayashi died. Mrs. Takata was Hayashi’s 13th attuned teacher of Reiki and it is understood that Hayashi taught over 14 students to the teacher level. It is important to note that both Dr. Usui and Dr. Hayashi both issued Reiki manuals and allowed their students to take notes to record their classes for prosperity's sake. This differs from the modern view held by many teachers of the Takata tradition that Reiki was an oral tradition.

Between 1940 and 1970, Mrs. Takata ran several Reiki clinics and taught many classes in Hawaii. She later retired from teaching until the early 1970’s where she began teaching Reiki in the United States. In 1976 she trained her first four students as Reiki teachers, these were: Virginia Samdahl, John Gray, Ethel Lombardi, and Barbara McCullough.

In December of 1979, Mrs. Takata made her transition. She had trained 22 teachers in what she termed as the Usui System of Natural Healing or Usui Shiki Ryoho. At this time Takata’s teachers were of the understanding that Mrs. Takata was the only living successor of the Reiki tradition and that all of Usui’s and Hayashi’s students and teachers had either died prior to or during the Second World War.

It was also understood by these teachers, that what Mrs. Takata had taught them was exactly the same in practice as Hayashi and Usui’s Reiki. This was also regarded as being the same in practice as her style. Based on this understanding, the belief in this would strongly influence the way Reiki was taught in America between the late 70’s until approximately 1993. Until this time, knowledge of a Japanese style or other separate lineages of Reiki was largely unknown to Western Reiki practitioners.

Although Mrs. Takata’s system of Reiki has since been discovered to be significantly different to her predecessors, much gratitude and acknowledgement is recognized. For the merit shared as a result of Takata’s actions has had far reaching benefits to humanity and perhaps without her intervention, the system of Reiki may have to this day remained unknown, bar a select few in Japan’s sacred Islands.