[1]: 16 Usui was born on 15 August 1865[7] in the village of Taniai (now called Miyama cho) in the Yamagata district of the Gifu Prefecture, Japan, which is now located near present-day Nagoya.

[11][10][14] It is believed that the aim of Usui's teachings was to provide a method for students to achieve connection with the "universal life force" energy that would help them in their self-development.

What sets Usui's teachings apart from other hands-on healing methods is his use of reiju or attunement to remind students of their spiritual connection.

[15] The roles of Shugendō practitioners include offering religious services such as fortune telling, divination, channelling, prayer, ritual incantations and exorcism.

As Mount Hiei is the main Tendai complex in Japan, and is very close to Kyoto, it has been surmised that Usui would also have practiced there if he had been a lay priest.

In April of the 11th year of Taisho (1922 A.D.) he settled in Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo and set up the Gakkai to teach Reiki Ryoho and give treatments.

Sensei, feeling pity for them, went out every morning to go around the town, and he cured and saved an innumerable number of people.Usui married Sadako Suzuki, who bore children by the names of Fuji and Toshiko.

~*~ Dr. Mikao Usui Sensei died on the 9th of March in 1926 from brain damage is what is written by William Lee Rand in the Master Volume of his teachings as he is also a Master of Reiki, however from my knowledge* Mikao Usui had a horrendous situation during that time in Hawaii where he proceeded to do an honorable death by -Seppuku-, a Japanese Ritual done by plunging your own blade by your own hand up through your belly towards your heart & lungs.