02/22/2026
This post offers valuable historical background to the teaching of reiki and the use of the term ‘reiki master’
On this date in 1938, shortly before returning to Japan, Hayashi Chūjirō went to a notary public in Honolulu with the following typewritten certificate certifying his student, Hawayo Takata, "as a practitioner and Master of Dr. Usui's Reiki system of healing, at this time the only person in the United States authorized to confer similar powers on others and one of the thirteen fully qualified as a Master of the profession."
This text, likely composed by Takata herself in consultation with Hayashi, appears to be the earliest extant source of the English-language term Reiki Master. There has been some discussion recently about the appropriateness of this term, with many feeling more comfortable with terms like "Reiki teacher" for various reasons, including a feeling that "mastering" Reiki is a lifelong journey, and being uncomfortable with the term's historic association with slavery. While I sympathize with these arguments, I thought I could also provide some historical context for why Takata may have chosen to use the term herself.
Contemporaneous documents indicate Takata saw Buddhism, particularly Zen, as the philosophical foundation of Reiki, and "master" was a very common English expression to describe Zen teachers. In an interview recorded in a July 1938 article in the Japanese-language Hawaii Hochi newspaper, Takata recounted how she had declined to teach Reiki to a group in Chicago because they were too rooted in a Christian mentality and needed to understand Japanese Buddhist thought, so she gave them an English book about Zen (see Alternate Currents, 111-112). It is unclear what this book was, but D.T. Suzuki had published several books in the early 1930s, with his 1934 Introduction to Zen Buddhism being especially popular. In this book, the term "master" appears ten times more frequently than the term "teacher."
The prevalence of the term in this context had to do with the pedagogical relationship between "masters" (shishō 師匠) and disciples (deshi 弟子), terms used in traditional Japanese arts. Takata very much had a relationship like this with Hayashi during her training in Tokyo, practicing daily in his clinic, reporting to him about house calls she made, and even living with the Hayashi family as an "inner disciple" (uchideshi 内弟子). I believe that by using the term "Master" to describe herself, she was trying to translate something of that training (and the respect it deserves) to American audiences. The reference to "[imparting] to others the secret knowledge" on this notarized certificate is another reference to the shishō-deshi relationship: the training one receives from a shishō cannot be taught in books but is passed directly from master to disciple.
As I see it, some of the trouble with the term "Master" came in successive generations, as individual Reiki Masters chose to make Third Degree (or Master) training more accessible, decreasing the time of apprenticeship, training fees, and other barriers. Shishō generally use discretion choosing their deshi and put them through long periods of training and numerous trials before authorizing them to teach themselves. Once a shishō recognizes their disciple as ready to start teaching themselves, there may be another period of apprenticeship before they are ready to set up their own branch of the school.
Takata's training followed this pattern closely. Hayashi first refused to teach her, but relented due to her persistence, a personal reference letter from a distinguished surgeon, and a sizable fee (for which Takata said she had to sell her home in Kauai, see Alternate Currents, p. 80). The Japanese-language Shinpiden certificate Takata received in 1936 (which I believe may have only authorized her to teach the lower levels) refers to her five months of training as a short period of time to achieve this level, but because she proved herself "under [his] direct guidance" (chokusetsu yo shidō no sh*ta), he "recognized her as most suitable" and chose to give her the "secret transmission reiju method" (shinpiden reijuhō). The 1938 English-language certificate, given after another period of apprenticeship, where Hayashi and Takata taught 14 classes together over a period of nearly five months, says that she "has passed all the tests and proved worthy and capable of administering the treatment and of conferring the power of Reiki on others." It is only then that she became a "Master," and head of the Hawaii branch of Hayashi's organization.
I am often asked for my opinion as a historian of the practice to weigh in on "best practices" in the field, but I generally try to avoid being prescriptive. As I do not initiate students into Reiki myself, I feel that those who do (and especially those who have done so for decades) have a much better perspective on these things. However, I hope that some of this context is helpful for those contemplating the utility of the term "Master."
Incidentally, I am participating in a fundraiser webinar in a couple of weeks for Reiki Home, on the republication of the famous "Grey Book" through which this certificate appeared and became known to the Reiki world. All registrants will receive their own copy of the reprinted Grey Book (which masterfully resembles the 1982 original, edited and published by Takata's daughter Alice). I will put a link to the registration information, as well as a link to the Grey Book website, which offers a variety of resources in twelve languages, in the comments below. Hope to see some of you there :)
