Mikao Usui's Birthday (Aug 15) Celebration at Shinto Shrine Near Seattle
A Shinto Shrine near Seattle is celebrating Mikao Usui's birthday on August 15th (2010). This would be Mikao Usui's 145th birthday. Mikao Usui is the founder of Reiki. He is the man who meditated on top of Kurama mountain in the early 1900s and received the energy of Reiki, and began teaching it in the early 1920s.
I found out about the celebration when I got a phone call from Marianne Streich, who had done a review of my book.. She told me about the celebration, and asked if I would sign and donate a copy of my book Reiki's Birthplace, a site guide to Kurama mountain to the shrine's library . Apparently the people of the shrine have been to Kurama and consider it to be a very sacred place, thus, they were happy to do a ceremony for Mikao Usui at their shrine. This is the first of what is hoped to be an annual event.
The Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America's lists the celebration on its current events page, http://www.tsubakishrine.org/ The text from the website states:
August 15 - Reiki Oharae and Birthday Memorial for Mitama of Usui Mikao Sensei at 2:00 PM/registration at 1:30
all Reiki practitioners are warmly invited. Tsubaki America Shrine in cooperation with various Reiki groups in the Seattle area will conduct the Oharae and Jotatsu Kigan for Reiki people and commemorate the anniversary of the birth of the Reiki founder. please contact kannushi@tsubakishrine.org the shrine for details....According to Marianne Streich's information, the Shinto ceremony will include a powerful blessing (Jotatsu Kigan) and purification (Oharae) for all attendees as well as a soul blessing for Usui Sensei (Mitama). A $15 donation is suggested. Virtually all Japanese in Mikao Usui's day would have practiced both Shinto and Buddhism, and many also practiced Christianity. Shinto central tenets are living in harmony with nature, and strengthening and purifying one's ki (Life force energy)
Please forward this article to any practitioners in the Greater Seattle area. If it wasn't a weekend i am teaching, i would fly to Seattle to attend.
I thought it would be lovely to see Mikao Usui's birthday celebrated at other shrines in the US, but there are very few of them, and none in California. Shinto is the native religion of Japan, and has relatively few adherents outside Japan. According to wikipedia, there are shrines in Colorado, Hawaii, New York, Washington. If you are fortunate enough to have one near you, it would be an amazing cultural experience to stop by. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shinto_shrines_in_the_United_States.