Hawayo Takata Sensei (1900-1980)
Hawayo Takata Sensei
Hawayo Takata was a Japanese-American born in Hawaii. Hawayo Takata was the first Reiki Master outside Japan and so is called the founder of the Western Reiki system.
In 1935, her doctor told her that she did not have many months to live due to illness and tumours in her stomach, lungs, heart, and gallbladder. The diagnosis made her visit Japan so she could focus on her treatment. She also thought that her parents could take care of her small children if she did not survive. She came back to Japan in 1935 and received Reiki Ryoho from Hayashi Sensei every day, and her condition got so much better. Her symptoms disappeared in about three months, and she was completely cured in eight months.
She was so delighted and impressed that she began learning Reiki at Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai. She completed Okuden in a year and went back to Hawaii to open her Reiki Clinic.
When Hayashi Sensei visited her in Hawaii in 1938, certified Takata Sensei as a Shihan and had hermastership officially registered, so she obtained a notable status. Hayashi Sensei saw that Takata Sensei was highly talented, so she was entrusted with the work to pass Reiki to future generations.
She continued providing Reiki treatments and she began training Reiki masters when she was 75 years old. Takata Sensei trained 22 Shinpiden in her later years. These 22 masters spread Reiki to the world and as a result, over five million people have learned and practice Reiki. Takata Sensei passed away in December 1980.
Seventeen of her master trainees met in Hawaii and spent one week together the following year. In 1981, masters including Phyllis Furumoto, a granddaughter of Takata Sensei, established the Reiki Alliance to follow Takata Sensei’s work. Twenty-one masters joined the organisation. Barbara Ray, a cultural anthropologist, did not join the Reiki Alliance, but established her own group called the American International Reiki Association (currently called the Radiance Technique) in 1982.
Reiki was brought back to Japan from around 1980. Currently, Western Reiki with many different Reiki styles has been accepted and practiced. There are more than 200,000 Western Reiki practitioners in Japan as of 2011.
Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai still does exist to this day and has inherited pure energy through Usui Sensei. However, currently, the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai does not offer any training or treatment, except for its members and their families.
Takata Sensei trained the following 22 Reiki Masters:
- George Araki
- Dorothy Baba
- Ursula Baylow
- Rick Bockner
- Patricia B. Ewing
- Barbara Brown
- Fran Brown
- Phyllis L. Furumoto
- Beth Gray,
- John H. Gray
- Iris Ishikuro
- Harry M. Kuboi
- Ethel Lombardi
- Barbara L. McCullough
- Mary A. McFadyen
- Paul Mitchell
- Bethal Phaigh
- Shinobu Saito
- Virginia W. Samdahl
- Wanja Twan
- Kay Yamashita
- Barbara W. Ray
Source: Gendai Reiki Healing Association
How Hawayo Takata Practiced and Taught Reiki (article)
Takata’s Handouts
Guide to the Hawayo Takata papers ARC Mss 86
Hawayo Takata – dharmapedia.net
The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing
Image by ogamiichiro3 from Pixabay
