These are wonderful times
for those who are Reiki


REIKI Just The Facts (part six)
by Don Brennan

 

We continue our examination of the actual history of Reiki with a look at Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, an important link for all westerners. Although Hayashi was an actual M.D., he became involved in Usui’s association, not because he was a doctor, but because he had been an officer in the navy. He first heard of Usui and Reiki from his former commander, Admiral Taketome, who later became the third president of the Reiki association.

As other healing groups were being prosecuted for healing without medical licenses, Usui became concerned about the future of Reiki. After training Hayashi to be a master teacher, Usui asked him to set up his own clinic and explore Reiki and its integration with mainstream medicine. Certainly, he realized that Dr. Hayashi had medical credentials and therefore could not be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. In this way, he hoped that Reiki would have more protection from the law.

Perhaps his motivation was even deeper than that. Could Usui have foreseen that Hayashi would one day teach an American woman, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who would eventually teach Reiki to westerners and initiate the process for Reiki to be shared with the rest of the world? Only Mikao Usui can answer such questions.

A great deal of information on Dr. Hayashi comes to us by way of Chiyoko Yamaguchi and her son Tadao Yamaguchi, whose family began learning Reiki from him in 1928. Her uncle, Wasaburo Sugano, was instrumental in bringing Reiki to the family. After losing one child soon after birth, and the other one at the age of 15 to tuberculosis, he heard Dr. Hayashi speak and became very interested in Reiki. Once he began practicing Reiki, he actively promoted it amongst his coworkers and extended family. His wife contracted tuberculosis, and through many intensive Reiki treatments, she was able to make a complete recovery.

Having recovered from TB, she became even more enthusiastic about Reiki than her husband and went on to become a Reiki master teacher like her husband. After Dr. Hayashi’s death in 1940, Mrs. Sugano helped his wife, Chie Hayashi, teach classes in the Ishikawa prefecture.

Because the Suganos had no more surviving children and Chiyoko Yamaguchi’s family had seven, she was invited to live with that part of the family. But at the age of 10 she moved from Osaka to Ishikawa to live with other relatives, the Ushio family.

The Ushios were very wealthy. The Suganos, who lived in Osaka would stay with them for a month in the summer. Travelling to Osaka to take Reiki classes was too expensive for many people in Ishikawa. So Mr. Sugano suggested that Hayashi come to Daishoji, Ishikawa to teach Reiki. They treated him royally with lodging at an elegant resort and a taxi to bring him back and forth each day.

Hayashi’s first seminar in Daishoji took place in 1935. He then came twice a year, in the spring and fall, to teach the first two levels of Reiki over the course of 5 days. Whenever he was in the village, everyone who practiced Reiki would attend along with the new students. When it was time for attunements, everyone in attendance would receive attunements, not only from Hayashi, but also from other Reiki masters. So students received several attunements, each day, over the course of 5 days.

By this time, Reiki was well established in the area. Everybody did Reiki. However, Chiyoko Yamaguchi’s uncle insisted that she finish her high school education before learning Reiki. In 1938, at the age of 17, she was finally allowed to take the training with Dr. Hayashi. In 1940, with Dr. Hayashi’s permission, she learned the master training from her uncle, Mr. Sugano.

At the beginning of World War II, Chiyoko Yamaguchi moved to Manchuria, unaware of the horrible difficulties that would come to Manchuria as the war progressed. People were starving. There was much illness and no doctors or medicine. Fortunately, she had Reiki to help her family and neighbors.

Somehow, she managed to board a ship returning to Japan. The voyage home was worse than the experience in Manchuria. Again, Reiki was a blessing for her family and other children who got food poisoning from old rice which was all there was to eat.

It was during this trip that she lost many of her possessions, including her Reiki documents and personal notes. Some skeptics initially tried to discredit Jikiden Reiki because she had no proof of having been taught by Hayashi. But a wealth of information, documentation and photos has come forth from the rest of the family. There’s even a group photo of her first seminar showing her and her sister in the front row and Dr. Hayashi in the back row.

Hayashi travelled extensively in Japan to teach classes in Tokyo, Osaka, Ishikawa, Aomori, Mie, Wakayama and other villages. As students became masters, they developed branches in each location. They then organized monthly attunement sessions so students could receive attunements each month from local masters, even if Hayashi wasn’t there.

With the creation of so many branches and so many students, it’s possible that there are other groups or individuals, yet unknown, who are practicing Reiki as Hayashi taught it. Who knows what wisdom from Usui Sensei and Hayashi Sensei is still waiting to be shared?

© 2013 Donald Brennan

Next issue: Reiki’s Passage To The West

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from
Metaphysical Times
Volume VIII Number 3
Fall 2013