01/17/2026
According to the caption of this remarkable photo, it was was taken 100 years today, on January 16, 1926. Read from right to left, it says that it contains all of the Shinshin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryōhō "reiju-sha" (people who could give reiju, the precursor to Reiki initiations) at that time. Less than two months later, Usui-sensei would make his transition.
I first* encountered this photo in Frank Arjava Petter's groundbreaking 2012 book This Is Reiki (I believe there was an earlier 2009 German edition), and I would like to express my gratitude to Arjava, as well as to Olaf Böhm and Mochizuki Tosh*taka, for sharing their research.
Arjava's caption in This Is Reiki identifies six of the twenty-one men in the photo (please note, I am just numbering them in order that they are in the photo).
1. Back row, far left, Captain Wanami Hōichi (1883–1975, would become Rear Admiral in 1931), fifth Gakkai president (c. 1960–1975)
2. Back row, third from left, Rear Admiral Taketomi Kan'ichi (1878–1960), third Gakkai president (1935–1945, c. 1947–1960)
3. Second row, third from left, Usui Mikao (1865–1926), founder and first Gakkai president
4. Second row, fourth from left, Rear Admiral Ushida Jūzaburō (1865–1935), second Gakkai president (1926–1935)
5. Front row, far left, Captain Hayashi Chūjirō (c. 1880–1940), founder of Hayashi Reiki Kenkyūkai
6. Inset, far right, Tomabechi Gizō (1880–1959)
I don't know exactly who the other fifteen men are, but judging from a 1928 Gakkai list of dai-shihan and shihan, they likely include most of the following:
7. Rear Admiral Eguchi Kaname (1877–1942)
8. Captain Tsunematsu Kenzō (d. 1945)
9. Rear Admiral Imaizumi Tetsutarō (1877–1945)
10. Captain-Engineer Sadanaga Jigorō (d. 1944)
11. Mine Umetarō (1865–1934)
12. Rear Admiral Harada Shōsaku (1874–1961)
13. Rear Admiral Mikami Yosh*tada (1880–1947)
14. Senju Takejirō (1870–1957)
15. Haraguchi Saburō
16. Ōtsuka Kaoru
17. Naval Engineer Yoshizaki Tokuichirō
18. Ueda Matajirō
19. Miyagawa Yoshisaburō
20. Sumida Akira
21. Captain Isobe Ken (b. 1873)
100 years later, the number of people authorized to give reiju / initiations has grown dramatically, from these 21 Japanese men to likely tens of thousands worldwide. Our research into these early Reiki Masters continues, but for now I would like to raise my hands in gratitude to these pioneers of our practice, as well as to all of my fellow historical researchers for our collective efforts to better understand the roots of our practice.
*Edit: It has been pointed out to me that I likely first encountered this photo in Tadao Yamaguchi's Light on the Origins of Reiki, which was translated into English and published in 2007, and I think that is likely correct. Apparently the original photo comes from a relative of Tadao's mother, Chiyoko Yamaguchi. Apologies for the mix-up and thank you to Mari Okazaki for providing some more information about the origin of the image.
