Reiki is the word Dr Mikao Usui used to designate the gift of healing energy and the method to pass it on to others that he received in April, 1921. He was born on August 15, 1865 in the village of 'Taniai-mura' in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture Kyoto and was described as intelligent, shy, spiritual and concerned with humanity. At some point in his life and on several occasions he took a form of meditation lasting 21 days.
At the end of his retreat on Mount Kurama, he had a vision and felt a huge force of energy filling his head. When he placed his hands upon himself, he could feel this Reiki energy going through his hands into his body. It made him feel better.

He used it on his family and found that it cured many ailments. Then he offered it to the public. It is very likely that he incorporated ideas and knowledge about healing from other system, both spiritual and physical, like Chinese Medicine, other Eastern healing systems like Chi Gong, the Japanese equivalent Kiko, acupuncture and others.

In 1923 on the 1st of September an earthquake shook Tokyo and Yokohama, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was 50 miles from Tokyo. Over 140,000 deaths were reported. The majority were killed in the fires started by the earthquake. It was the greatest natural disaster in Japanese history. Mikao Usui and his students started to give healing in the area and the demand and need for Reiki was enormous and as a result of his work he became even more famous. He passed away on March 9, 1926 at the age of 62 and was buried in Saihoji Temple in Suginami-Ku, Tokyo. It was reported that he had taught his system of healing to well over 2000 people.