Tomita Reiki Book
As Reiki Masters, we dedicate our lives to this Japanese art, yet we know so little about Mikao Usui, who developed the practice almost 100 years ago. There is virtually nothing available to the general public (outside of the secretive Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai) that documents how and what Usui taught and practiced. Until now…
In 1933, Kaiji Tomita wrote a book of more than 300 pages called Reiki To Jinjutsu – Tomita Ryu Teate Ryoho – Reiki and the Caring Art of Healing: The Tomita Method of Hands-On Healing. Tomita studied Mikao Usui’s Reiki methods. He lived, practiced and taught in Japan in the years following Usui’s nationwide teachings. And, after Usui’s death, Tomita taught many students himself and founded a Reiki society called the Tomita Hand-Healing Association.
This book by Tomita is among the most important texts documenting the early practice of Reiki, providing insight into Mikao Usui’s teachings. We have embarked on an English translation project to make it available to those interested in how Reiki was used closer to the time Usui practiced in the 1920s. Tomita’s book is written in an old form of Japanese, inaccessible even to most modern Japanese readers. So, this isn’t a job for Google Translate, but we’ve got a great team in place and are mid-way through the English translation. Requests are now coming in for additional translations to Russian, German, Spanish, and more.
- To support our our efforts and join us in this exploration of Reiki’s roots, please consider donating to our commissioned English translation of the text.
- Please share this page with your friends, students, and colleagues and help make this translation project a reality.
- Subscribe using the box on the right side of the page to get updates as this project progresses.
Translator: Dylan Luers Toda
Dylan Luers Toda is a Japanese to English academic translator, specializing in the fields of Japanese religion, history, and philosophy. He earned a M.A. (Buddhist Studies) from Otani University in Kyoto, Japan and a B.A (East Asian Studies; Religious Studies minor) from Oberlin College. His Japanese to English translations can be found in many respected academic publications, including International Inoue Enryo Research, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, The Eastern Buddhist, Journal of International Philosophy, Journal of Religion in Japan, and Japanese Studies. His website is https://www.dylanluerstoda.com.
Project Advisor: Justin B. Stein, PhD
Justin B. Stein, PhD (University of Toronto, Study of Religion, 2017), is an historian of spiritual practices at sites of connection between Japan, Hawaii, and North America. His work on Reiki, including original translations of historical Japanese-language materials, has been published in peer-reviewed journals (including Asian Medicine and Japanese Religions) and has been translated into German, Japanese, and Romanian. Stein completed a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science International Research Fellowship under Ōtani Eiichi at Bukkyō University in Kyoto, Japan (2017–2019) and currently serves as Instructor in the Asian Studies Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. You can read some of his scholarship at https://justinstein.