Jikiden Reiki

Jikiden Reiki is a lineage of Reiki, the Japanese hands-on practice of relaxation, that is taught by the Yamaguchi family and the Jikiden Reiki Institute in Kyoto. "Jikiden" means directly transmitted, and the institute describes its teaching as the Reiki that Chiyoko Yamaguchi learned in the 1930s from Chujiro Hayashi, a student of Reiki founder Mikao Usui. A session is quiet and unhurried. The practitioner rests their hands lightly on or near the body while the receiver stays fully clothed.

Practitioners of Jikiden Reiki describe it as a plain, traditional form of Reiki. They say it was passed on without the later additions common in some Western styles, such as chakra work, crystals, or angels. That is the lineage's own account, and other Reiki historians dispute how unchanged any teaching can be after nearly a century. What can be said with confidence is that the Yamaguchi family has taught in Japan for decades and that the institute now offers seminars in Japan and abroad, with teacher grades called shihan-kaku and shihan.

No studies of Jikiden Reiki itself were found. Research on Reiki in general is limited and mixed. Small trials suggest some people feel calmer or less anxious, but a Cochrane review found too little evidence to say whether Reiki helps anxiety or depression, and many studies carry a high risk of bias. Jikiden Reiki is best understood as a gentle relaxation and self-care practice. It is generally low risk, and it should never replace medical or mental health care.

Reiki began in Japan in the early twentieth century with Mikao Usui. One of his students, Chujiro Hayashi (1880 to 1940), was a former naval officer who became a senior teacher in Usui's society in the mid 1920s and later led his own group, the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai, in Tokyo. By 1935 it was registered as an institute in the Yotsuya district, and Hayashi taught seminars across Japan. One organizer was Wasaburo Sugano, whose niece, Chiyoko Yamaguchi (born 1921), took her first training with Hayashi in 1938. Hayashi also taught in Hawaii in 1937 and 1938, where his students included Hawayo Takata, whose students carried Reiki to the West.

Jikiden means directly transmitted. Chiyoko Yamaguchi practiced Reiki for more than sixty years, and in 1999 she and her son, Tadao Yamaguchi, founded the Jikiden Reiki Institute, headquartered in Kyoto, to teach what the family says it received from Hayashi. She is reported to have died in 2003. Hayashi died in 1940, and his institute closed in the 1950s. The institute now offers seminars in Japan and internationally, with teacher levels called shihan-kaku and shihan. The claim that Jikiden preserves Hayashi's teaching unchanged comes from the institute and the family, and some Reiki historians dispute parts of it, so it is best read as the lineage's account.