Reiki History - Reiki Since Mrs. Takata

Mrs. Takata began initiating Reiki Masters in 1970. She charged a fee of $10,000 for Mastership even though the training took only one weekend. This high fee was not part of the Usui system, and she may have charged this fee as her way of creating a feeling of respect for Reiki. She said that one should never do treatments or provide training for free, but should always charge a fee or get something in return. She also said that one must study with just one Reiki teacher and stay with that teacher for the rest of one’s life. In addition, she did not allow her students to take notes or to tape record the classes, as they were not allowed to make any written copies of the Reiki symbols. Everything had to be memorized. It is not certain why she said this or why she taught Reiki this way.

It is said that Mrs. Takata had made each one of the 22 Masters she trained take a sacred oath to teach Reiki exactly as she had taught it. This made it difficult for most of them to change even though some of her rules seemed to go against the nature of Reiki and made it more difficult to learn. However, things have gradually changed thereafter.

Reiki energy is very flexible and creative, treating each unique situation with a unique response and working freely with all other forms of healing. The Reiki energy itself provides a wonderful model to practice. It began to be acknowledged gradually after Mrs. Takata passed away. In the mid-1980’s, Iris Ishikuro, one of Takata’s Masters began charging a more reasonable fee for the Master Level training. The Masters trained by Ishikuro at this lower fee began training many other Masters in turn. Out of this group, many were open to change and began allowing the wisdom of the Reiki to guide them in a way they should practice and teach Reiki. Because of this, restrictive rules began to fall away. Reiki classes became more open and more supportive of the learning process. Workbooks were created, notes and tape recordings were allowed, reasonable fees were charged and many began studying with more than one teacher. All this generated greater respect for Reiki. It also increased peoples’ understanding of Reiki and improved their healing skills. With low fees, the practice of Reiki began to grow quickly and spread all over the world. There are at least 200,000 Reiki Masters in the world today with well over 1,000,000 practitioners, and the number continues to grow with every passing day.

When I received my training, I received written material from my teachers including copies of the symbols. Following the footsteps, I teach the symbols from second degree onwards, provide detailed notes to my students for all the Reiki degrees, and openly answer their questions even after the course. I encourage them to understand the value of intuition and advise them to follow it. This leaves them more confident.