Spiral Heart Reiki

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Mikao Usui was born on the 15th of August 1865 in the village of Taniai (now called Miyama cho) in the Yamagata county of the Gifu Prefecture in Japan.

Japan was just opening up in 1865 after a self-imposed exile which had left it culturally prosperous though far behind the Western world technologically and militarily. Kyoto was the capital of Japan and remained so until 1868 when the advent of the Meiji Restoration moved it Tokyo.

Today in Miyamo cho, Mikao Usui's name can be found carved on a large torii gate at the Amataka shrine close to where his home once stood. The three Usui brothers donated the stone torii in April 1923. Mikao Usui's brothers, Sanya and Kuniji, grew up to become a doctor and a policeman respectively. He also had an older sister called Tsuru. Mikao Usui's father's name was Uzaemon and his mother was from the Kawai family.

Mikao Usui was born into a society based on a class system. There was the privileged class to which he belonged and then there were the common people. Common people were not even permitted the luxury of surnames until 1870. Mikao Usui's family was hatamoto samurai - a high level within the ranks of samurai. The hatamoto were the shogun's personal guard. Due to the major changes that were happening in Japan from the 1860s onwards, the samurai class were no longer required.