Mikao Usui

Mikao Usui (1865-1926) was a Japanese spiritual teacher and the developer of Reiki, a hands-on healing practice intended to channel a universal life energy for physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Born in Taniai in Gifu Prefecture, he taught his method to more than 2,000 students during his lifetime, according to the inscription on his memorial stone, and in 1922 opened a teaching center in Tokyo's Harajuku district to formally instruct others in the practice. His teaching combined hands-on technique with a set of five guiding principles meant to shape a student's personal conduct alongside the healing method itself. Usui died in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 1926. His students, including Chujiro Hayashi, carried his teachings forward, and Hayashi's own students later transmitted Reiki practice to the West, where it is now widely regarded by mainstream medicine as a pseudoscientific alternative therapy.