Kurama & Kibune — Where Reiki Was Born

In March 1922, a man named Usui Mikao (臼井甕男, 1865-1926) climbed Mt. Kurama to undertake a 21-day fasting meditation. Usui was a seeker — he had studied Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, and various healing traditions, searching for the universal principle of healing that he believed must exist beyond any single religion. On the twenty-first day, he experienced what he described as a profound satori (enlightenment). A powerful energy entered through the crown of his head, and he understood that he had received the ability to heal through the laying on of hands.

He named this practice Reiki (霊気) — literally 'spiritual energy' or 'universal life force' — and founded the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (臼井霊気療法学会) in Tokyo the same year. By the time of his death in 1926, he had trained over 2,000 students and initiated 21 Reiki masters. His memorial stone at the Saihoji temple in Tokyo reads: 'Not for self, but for the sake of others.'

From Kurama, Reiki spread first across Japan, then to Hawaii through Hawayo Takata in the 1930s, and from there to the entire world. Today Reiki is practiced in over 120 countries. It is offered in hospitals, hospices, and wellness centers globally. The global Reiki industry is estimated at $2.3 billion. The World Health Organization recognizes it as a complementary therapy. More people practice Reiki worldwide than practice most organized religions.

For SBNR seekers, Reiki embodies the ideal: a spiritual healing practice that requires no religious belief, no institutional membership, no doctrine beyond the intention to heal. It works (its practitioners believe) regardless of the practitioner's religion or lack thereof. Usui himself drew from Buddhist, Shinto, and Taoist traditions without pledging allegiance to any single one. Reiki is perhaps the world's purest example of spiritual practice freed from organized religion — and it was born on this mountain.

Just over the ridge from Kurama, the Kibune valley descends along a crystalline river to one of Kyoto's most ancient and atmospheric shrines. Kibune Shrine (貴船神社) enshrines Takaokami-no-kami (高龗神), the water deity — specifically the deity of rain. For over 1,600 years, the imperial court, farmers, and ordinary people have come here to pray for rain in drought and for rain to cease in flood. Water is life, and Kibune is where you negotiate with the source.

The name 'Kibune' itself is written with characters meaning 'precious' (貴) and 'boat' (船) — a reference to the myth that the mother of Emperor Jinmu sailed up the Kamo River in a yellow boat to find the source of Kyoto's water, and where the boat stopped, she established this shrine. The Kamo River — Kyoto's lifeline for over a millennium — begins here. Kibune is literally the headwaters of Kyoto's civilization.

The hike between Kurama and Kibune (approximately 90 minutes, 2.5 km) is one of the great spiritual walks in Japan. The path climbs through dense ancient cedar forest, passes over the mountain ridge, and descends to the other valley. Along the way, the trail passes through the famous 'root path' (木の根道, ki no ne michi) — a stretch where massive cedar roots have broken through the hard, rocky ground and woven themselves across the path like frozen serpents. The roots are exposed because the soil is too thin over the underlying rock for them to grow downward. They have nowhere to go but up and out.

Energy sensitives and spiritual practitioners consistently report powerful sensations along this path — particularly near the Okunoin Mao-den (奥の院魔王殿), the inner sanctuary where Mao-son is said to have descended from Venus. The small wooden structure sits in near-total silence, surrounded by towering cedars, often visited by no one. Here, the temple's most esoteric deity awaits those who walk the full path. Most tourists turn back. Those who continue find something they cannot easily describe.

The trail can be walked in either direction — Kurama to Kibune or Kibune to Kurama — and practitioners report that each direction has a different quality. Kurama to Kibune (mountain to water) is descending energy, a release. Kibune to Kurama (water to mountain) is ascending energy, a climb toward illumination. Many SBNR pilgrims walk the route in both directions on the same day, treating it as a complete energetic circuit — a loop that mirrors the dual nature of all spiritual practice: ascent and descent, fire and water, effort and surrender.