Hawayo Takata
Reiki was brought into the west during the 1940s by Hawayo Takata. Mrs. Takata was born on December 24, 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She was the daughter of Japanese immigrants. Mrs. Takata was widowed early in her life, and forced to provide for her two daughters. After several years of hard labour, she found herself in very poor health, suffering from a variety of maladies.
Mrs. Takata travelled to Japan on family business in 1935, and whilst there sought treatment for her failing health. She visited the Reiki clinic of Chujiro Hayashi, whom Usui had initiated as a Reiki Master in 1925. Under Hayashi’s care, Mrs. Takata was treated by two Reiki practitioners each day. Her health became progressively better, and within four months she was completely healed.
Mrs. Takata was fascinated by Reiki and wanted to learn more about the techniques and their practice. She remained in Japan and studied with Hayashi for about 3 years. In 1938, Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii, accompanied by Hayashi and his family. She established several Reiki clinics in Hawaii, where she gave treatments and initiated students up to the level of Second Degree Reiki. It was not until 1970 that she began to initiate Reiki Masters.
Before Mrs. Takata passed away on December 11, 1980, she had initiated twenty-two Reiki Masters, many of whom went on to teach this healing art to others.
Since the 1980s, the practice of Reiki has continued to spread throughout the west. There are at least 200,000 Reiki Masters in the world today as well as over 1 million practitioners… and the numbers continue to grow!
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