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DON BRENNAN "Reiki - Just the Facts - Part IX"

The death of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, the Japanese Reiki teacher who taught the American woman who passed it on to the world, is one of the most difficult subjects in the history of Reiki. In the past, Reiki teachers and authors have tiptoed around this topic. It is generally believed that Hayashi took his life because he was being investigated by the Japanese military as a spy for having visited the United States.

The Japanese military had been planning its attack on Pearl Harbor for many years. And they fueled the anti-American sentiment that eventually swept over Japan. As a former captain in the navy, Hayashi must have realized that visiting Hawaii, at this critical time, was a very risky thing to do.

The circumstances leading up to his death are still unclear. Mrs. Takata said that Hayashi was a pacifist and that he didn’t want to go to war and kill people. But he took his life about a year and a half before Japan entered WWII, so this explanation seems unlikely. Tadao Yamaguchi’s uncle mentioned that Hayashi told him that the Japanese government asked him to spy for them, because he had been to Hawaii.

The concepts of duty, loyalty, obedience and devotion are deeply ingrained in Japanese consciousness. As an officer and a gentleman, Hayashi could not refuse his government. But his own consciousness would not allow him to comply with his country. And so he was caught up in this powerful dilemma and kept it very private.

If Hayashi refused his government, he could have been tried and executed for treason. This would have brought dishonor to both his family and his Reiki institute. Under normal circumstances the loss of honor results in the entire family being ostracized by one’s community. This can have far-reaching negative effects on every aspect of life, including personal safety and financial well-being.

But with the aggressive nationalism overtaking Japan, his family and school were even more vulnerable. So to protect them, Hayashi peacefully and privately took his life on May 11, 1940.
Westerners have struggled to understand and accept this. To compensate for this lack of cultural understanding, many stories have been created to romanticize Hayashi’s death. Mrs. Takata said that she and Hayashi’s other Reiki masters were with him at his home in what has been described as a sacred ceremony. Through an act of will, Hayashi supposedly ruptured 3 arteries, one at a time. At the rupture of the third artery, he died.

The truth is, he was alone. The Japanese have a different set of boundaries than westerners. In some ways, there is no sense of self, no separation from others. But there are also circumstances in life that are not meant to be shared with others. So he went into the bathroom by himself, cut his wrists with a scalpel, and peacefully bled to death in the bathtub. He told his wife, Chie Hayashi, to keep the real reasons and the way he ended his life secret.

Please understand that Hayashi’s death had nothing to do with Reiki, itself. This is simply a reflection of Japanese culture. The concept of honor in taking one’s life is incomprehensible to most westerners. But this way of thinking has been deeply rooted in Japanese culture for centuries.

When one brings disgrace to oneself, one brings that disgrace to one’s entire family and to all of one’s ancestors. Honor is restored when that person takes his life, because his sacrifice is seen as an act of devotion to his family.

Westerners associate suicide with failure, depression, guilt, and fear. The Japanese associate it with honor, duty, loyalty and devotion. The intention is very different.

The film, “The Last Samurai,” can help to understand the Japanese view of dignity and honor, in life, as well as death. The movie “Emperor” is even more illuminating, as it gives us a glimpse of the changes in Japan leading up to WWII and the struggles with dignity and honor during the US occupation.

In “Emperor,” a general tells us, “You must understand, we Japanese are a selfless people, capable of immense sacrifice because of our complete devotion to a set of ideals.” We are also told in the film, “If you understand devotion, you will understand Japan.”

It may help us, then, to see Hayashi’s death as an act of devotion. As another casualty of war, trapped by cultural history and world events, he chose the only path available to him.

Metaphysical Times Publishing