Reiki History

Introduction by Rika Tanaka:

Kotoku-no-Hi ( 功徳の碑）

This memorial stone was erected to acknowledge the founder of Reiki healing, Mikao Usui’s, achievements
(Ko-seki ＝ 功績) and virtue(Jin-Toku＝人徳 ).

The stone stands next to his tombstone in a pure land Buddhist temple in Tokyo. It is engraved with information about the life of Mikao Usui and it is probably one of the most accurate historical resources on his life and Reiki healing. This short biography is written in old-style Japanese which is quite different from modern Japanese. To translate this into English requires two phases of translation; from old-style Japanese, which is not commonly learned today, to modern Japanese and then from modern Japanese into English.