Jikiden Reiki is a Japanese lineage of Reiki rooted in the teachings and practices of Mikao Usui in the 1920s. Today, there are many different Reiki lineages and approaches, each with its own traditions and practices. Finding a practitioner and approach that feels right for you is an important part of the experience.
I spent several years searching for the lineage and teacher that felt right for me. I was drawn to Jikiden Reiki for its simplicity, depth, and the extraordinary care taken to preserve and pass on the culture, history, and practice of Reiki. It is an honor to now share this practice with you.
History of Jikiden Reiki
Mikao Usui discovered Reiki in 1922 while he embarked on a 21-day period of fasting, meditation, and prayer on Mt Kurama, a beautiful mountain just outside Kyoto, Japan. He was near the end of his pilgrimage when he had an experience of sudden enlightenment and the received the gift of healing. He understood that this was not an ability only he had, but that it was something that had been awakened within him and could be shared with others.
Upon his return from Mt. Karuma and through the sharing of this gift he went on to develop his treatment method to help his communities. He developed a way to open the energetic channel within others so that the energy of Reiki could flow easily and healing could be administered to wider range of people.
Mikao Usui continued teaching and he initiated 20 teachers before he died in 1926. One of these teachers, a man named Chujiro Hayashi was a medical doctor and naval captain. Hayashi opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo where he and his students gave Reiki treatments to members of the public with great success.
Mount Karuma in Kyoto, Japan
Jikiden Reiki
In the time following WWII, Chiyoko and her family were unaware that Reiki had been brought to the West until the 1990s, when Western style teachers discovered her and asked her to offer official training seminars.
Chiyoko Yamaguchi realized that the ways of Reiki she had originally learned had been changed, added to or omitted in the West. She and her youngest son, Tadao, decided to begin teaching official seminars replicating those she and her family had attended in the 1930s. She simply wanted to provide people with the same teachings that she had learned all those years ago that had proved so invaluable throuhgout her life.
They called the seminars, Jikiden Reiki, meaning, 'directly passed down" Reiki' and this is the history of what I now have learned and channel in my practice today.
Taiyuin Temple, built it 1963 - From my 2026 travels
A traditional Japanese home in Nikko, Japan
- from my 2026 travels
Chujiro Hayashi travelled Japan teaching in various places, as his teacher Usui had. After Usui's death he founded the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai (Institute) and one of the places he frequented was Ishikawa, the hometown of Chiyoko Yamaguchi.
Chiyoko Yamaguchi, who co-founded Jikiden Reiki with her son, Tadao Yamaguchi, learned Reiki from Chujiro Hayashi in 1938 when she was just 17 years old. The majority of her family practiced Reiki and the Yamaguchi family continued treating people and teaching them Reiki throughout their lives, even during WWII when it was outlawed. After Japan lost WWII, all traditional medicine, including Reiki, was outlawed and practitioners stopped sharing their gifts publically.
Lineage of Teaching
Mikao Usui
1865-1926
Chujiro Hayashi
1879-1940
Chiyoko Yamaguchi
1921-2003
Tadao Yamaguchi
1952-Present
Jamison Watson
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud...
...was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
— Anaïs Nin