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Phyllis Furumoto, granddaughter of Hawayo Takata and oldest daughter of Alice Takata Furumoto and Dr. Kiyoshi Furumoto, grew up in Keosaqua, Iowa, the only Japanese family in their community. Phyllis was initiated into Reiki as a child by her grandmother and tasked with treating her grandmother whenever she visited.

Phyllis was a strong-willed and rebellious child who struggled with the tension of living in two cultures: the dominant American culture and her family’s Japanese values and traditions. In her teenage years, she spent a year living with her grandmother. Takata hoped to interest Phyllis in her work. At that time, Phyllis had no interest in the practice or in understanding who her grandmother was.

At the age of 30, Phyllis began questioning what she wanted to do with her life. In that time of inner searching, she agreed to travel with and care for her grandmother on a teaching trip to Puerto Rico. Before this trip, Phyllis received the master initiation, but no explanation. All Takata shared was that Phyllis would now be able to help her in Puerto Rico.

On this trip, Phyllis learned for the first time the scope of her grandmother’s influence and work. She attended Takata’s Reiki presentations throughout Puerto Rico. Together they did numerous treatments and taught classes. Phyllis began her apprenticeship with her grandmother, now her teacher.

Over the next year, Phyllis gave herself the time and space to discern whether Reiki was her life’s vocation. At the end of this period, she committed herself to Reiki and shared the decision with her grandmother. Takata was delighted. What followed was an intense time of traveling together, teaching and practicing, as her grandmother prepared her to be her successor. The mantle passed to Phyllis in December 1980 at Hawayo Takata’s death.

Throughout her life, wherever Phyllis travelled, she created connection and built community.

In 1982 Phyllis invited the masters she had trained and Takata Sensei’s masters to gather in Hawaii. This historic meeting of masters planted the seed for the founding of The Reiki Alliance the following year in Lumby, British Columbia, Canada.

From the early 1980s through the 1990s, the teaching of Reiki exploded around the world. What also exploded was a metamorphosis of the core practice taught by Hawayo Takata. In light of the confusion generated by these changes, The Reiki Alliance community asked Phyllis in 1992 to define the practice she had received from her grandmother.

Phyllis and Paul Mitchell, one of Takata’s masters, formed a working partnership as the Office of the Grandmaster. Having identified the essential elements of the system of healing they were entrusted, they worked together with groups of masters around the world to deepen our understanding of the gifts this practice offered.

Phyllis traveled the world extensively, meeting with Reiki students of all levels and experience, sharing her wisdom and encouragement. She often sat in circles of masters, exploring the seen and unseen dimensions of Reiki practice that call us to greater commitment, growth, and healing.

At her home, witnessed by a circle of masters, Phyllis recognized and acknowledged Johannes Reindl as her successor, Grandmaster and Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho in the lineage of Usui, Hayashi, Takata, and Furumoto a few weeks before her death.

Hawayo Takata was born in Hawaii of Japanese immigrant parents in 1900. Growing up in a small village of Japanese plantation workers, she was exposed to the cultural melting pot of early 20th century Hawaii.

As a slight child required to work in the sugarcane fields during school holidays, she was determined to better herself and find work more fitting to her small size and determined personality. She was hired by the sugar plantation’s manager as a maid, and rapidly rose into more responsible positions. There she met her husband, Saichi Takata, and they started a family.

At a young age Saichi became ill. He and Hawayo traveled to Japan for medical treatment, but sadly he did not survive. Left with two small children, and becoming ill herself, she too traveled to Japan for medical care.

This is the journey that led her to become a patient at Chujiro Hayashi’s clinic where, through Reiki, she regained her health and became Hayashi’s student.

Hawayo Takata was a gifted Reiki practitioner and was invited to live with the Hayashi family for some months to deepen her experience under her teacher’s direction and guidance. Returning to Hawaii in 1936, she began her own practice, introducing Reiki to the Japanese community.

In 1937-38, Chujiro Hayashi traveled to Hawaii for five months. Together, he and Hawayo Takata treated and taught in Japanese communities on Kaua’i and O’ahu. Before leaving Hawaii, he completed her master training and publicly acknowledged her, giving her the mandate to continue the practice and teaching of the Usui Method of Reiki Healing.

Just prior to the beginning of World War II, Hawayo Takata returned to Japan to be with her teacher. Prior to his passing which she was present for, he asked her to be his successor.

Takata’s commitment to the practice she received was total: Reiki was her life. Through her dedicated practice and expanding reputation, Reiki became known beyond the Japanese community of Hawaii. This expansion required that she translate what she had received – held in the culture of traditional Japan – for a world culture. She distilled its essence into a simple and powerful practice that nourishes and supports the human journey into wholeness and healing. Transcending what divides us, the practice connects us to an ongoing conscious relationship with the essence of life. We are guided and supported in our innate drive to wholeness.

At her passing, we know of 22 masters Hawayo Takata acknowledged to carry the practice of Reiki into the world. She chose her granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, to be her successor as Grandmaster and Lineage Bearer.

Chujiro Hayashi, a dedicated student of Mikao Usui, developed a clinic and research center for the Usui Method of Reiki. Out of his clinical practice, he compiled a treatment manual that highlighted specific hand positions for many specific illnesses. His research center opened branches around Japan in the 1930’s and trained students, likely numbering in the thousands.

Chujiro Hayashi was a retired naval officer who dedicated the remainder of his life to the Reiki healing art. Being pressured to contribute to the war effort in Japan at the time, he chose to leave his body rather than participate in the devastation of war.

In 1935, five years before Hayashi’s transition, the respected Tokyo surgeon, Dr. Tomosuke Maeda, referred a young woman from Hawaii to Hayashi’s clinic. No one expected at that time that she would become Hayashi’s chief disciple and, in 1936, begin the process of bringing Reiki to the West.

Mikao Usui, the founder of the practice we know as Reiki, lived in Japan at a time of great cultural expansion and change. He was a hard-working and determined child. As he came to adulthood, he strove to find his true path.

In the story that Hawayo Takata told, Usui Sensei was captured by the question: How did Jesus heal? This question compelled him to travel and study diverse texts that eventually led him to climb the sacred mountain outside of Kyoto, Mt. Kurama, where he fasted and meditated for 21 days. At the end of this time of preparation, he was awakened to the Reiki method.

After testing this method on himself, family, and friends, he began to share his discovery with others. In time, his fame spread: he attracted many students and healed many people. In 1926 while traveling to teach, he became ill and died. His master students carried on his work, bringing the practice of Reiki into the world.