Although there are many types of complementary healing techniques in Japan and the world, this is the only one identified with Mikao Usui.

 A Japanese man, Mikao Usui began a quest into reasoning, logic and actual practice of healing done via the hands and the mind. This was probably done because of a crisis in his own life, and after much research he rediscovered a tradition that was used in that time period for Buddhist monks awakening to their spirituality. (Miako Usui was born August 15, 1865 - 1926)

Legends goes that Usui Sensei went to 鞍馬山  Mount Kurama (鞍馬山 Kurama-yama which is a mountain to the north-west of the city of Kyoto. (Only in mine—-Which  is also said to be the home of Sōjōbō, King of the Tengu. Tengu (天狗, "heavenly dog") are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion and are also considered a type of Shinto god (kami) or yōkai (supernatural beings). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is widely considered the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination.)

Shrine at Kurama Temple

Main Gate of Kurama Temple (From Wiki)

"Upon arriving at the mountain he followed a traditional Buddhist exercise of meditating for 21 days, sometimes under a waterfall on the temple grounds. During the meditation he saw a flash of light and became aware of the Reiki symbols and teachings." As told in Reiki lore.

Usui Sensei practiced and taught Reiki throughout Japan for the remainder of his life. He formed Reiki Clinics and taught as well as continuing treating patients. After sometime a more formal organization was started and upon his death, a president and a successor in Japan was appointed. There have been six presidents in total. In Japanese Reiki there is no Grandmaster or Lineage Bearers. (See Reiki, Who is In Charge? by Frank Petter for more info.)  You will learn more about this when we discuss the History of Reiki in the following section.

Usui trained many students and elevated between 15 and 20 to the level of master before his death in 1926. Among them, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a naval officer and talented healer, established a healing center in Tokyo. Hayashi had kept detailed records of the teachings and treatments he received and adapted Usui's teachings to include the three degrees and the attunement process. Over time, Dr. Hayashi continued to modify his style of training and began to focus more on the physical healing nature of Reiki rather than emphasize the original spiritual aspects of Usui's system. As Dr. Hayashi taught Usui's original system and his own modified approach, other master students of Usui such as Toshihiro Eguchi did the same. 

Reiki was brought to the West in 1937 by Mrs. Hwayo Takata, a Japanese emigrant. Takata grew up on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, but returned to Japan to inform her parents of her sister's death and to seek treatment for a tumor, gallstones, and appendicitis. Rather than agree to surgery for her condition Takata went to Dr. Hayashi's Reiki clinic to receive daily Reiki treatment. In 4 months she was healed completely and convinced Hayashi to teach her Reiki. He did and followed her to Hawaii the next year, where he initiated her as a Reiki master. Before her death in 1980, Takata initiated 22 Reiki masters, who in turn have initiated Reiki masters throughout North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.

Until 1983 it cost $10,000 to learn Reiki
Takata Sensei required all the Masters she trained to charge a fee of $10,000 for the Master level. She taught that this was a required fee, and if you did not charge this fee, then you would not be teaching Usui Reiki. The fee wasn’t based on the length or quality of training she provided, as no apprenticeship was included. The actual length of her Master training has not been documented by any of her Masters, except for Bethel Phaigh, who reported receiving both Level II and Master within a few days. However, conversations with a few of her Masters indicate in at least some cases her Master training lasted only a few days. According to Phagh, the high fee was to instill respect for the Master level. However, the high fee, along with the tendency of Takata Sensei’s Masters not to teach many other Masters, was causing Reiki to spread very slowly.

Iris Ishikuro was one of Takata Sensei’s Master students and Iris also had other training as a healer. She was involved with the Johrei Fellowship, a religious fellowship that includes healing with energy projected from the hands. She had also learned another kind of healing from her sister, who worked in a Tibetan temple in Hawaii. After Takata Sensei passed in 1980, Iris decided that she would follow her own inner guidance and teach for a more reasonable fee. As far as its known, she was the only one of Takata Sensei’s twenty-two Masters who did this. The others continued to charge the high fee for Mastership.

Then everything shifted. The Reiki Master's came together and decided the world needed Reiki and dropped the price.