Usui Mikao, the founder, did not call his teachings by this name. 'Reiki' appeared written in conjunction with his teachings but this was merely to point out that the teachings worked with spiritual or sacred energy.

Generally, his teachings were called Usui do meaning 'the way of Usui', and his healings were known as Usui teate translated to mean 'hands on healing'.

'Reiki' the word can be found in the branches of schools that developed from Usui's teachings. Both the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (Society of the Usui Spiritual Energy Healing method) and Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu kai (Hayashi's Spiritual Energy Research Society) use the word 'Reiki' to signify 'spiritual energy' but neither actually called the system - Reiki.

Hawayo Takata was the first student of these teachings in the West. Hayashi Chujiro, her teacher, came with her to Hawaii to help her set up her practice. At his farewell dinner he presented her with a westernized certificate. This official gesture ensured that she was seen as a legal teacher and practitioner in the Japanese system. The certificate states that she was a 'Master of the Usui Reiki System of Drugless Healing'. Once again the term 'Reiki' is used to mean spiritual energy rather than any complete system. Included in the certificate though are other statements that appear to refer to 'Reiki' as a form of energy as well as a system. This was 1938 and was the first time that there was any inconsistency in the use of the term 'Reiki'. This was due likely to the difficulty of translating Japanese into English. From that point on the word 'Reiki' jointly represented the system based on Mikao Usui's teachings as well as 'Universal Life Force Energy'.

The downside of using 'Reiki' to mean a system is that people are unsure as to what particular practices fall under that name. All the systems named Reiki today claim to use spiritual energy in their practice. There appears to be no other definition to the system than that. This leaves the door wide open for individual discrepancies.

Many traditional Japanese teachers call the system 'Ryoho' which means 'healing method' or 'Reiki Ryoho' which means 'spiritual energy healing method'.

Today, people even talk about 'Reikiing' something. This particular use of the word is a new addition to its many interpretations.