I don't know, and nobody does. He would probably be flummoxed by some of what is taught in the West, and possibly by some of what is taught in Japan a hundred years and eight or nine presidents later. Things keep changing. All we can do is trace the teaching back as carefully as we can and try to keep some of that original experience in what we teach.

No, I would not call it lying. Hawayo Takata was a great storyteller, and for years her account of the history of the system of Reiki was treated as exaggeration. As more Japanese sources have come to light, a surprising amount of what she said has turned out to have truth in it.

The memorial stone beside Mikao Usui's grave in Tokyo tells the story of his life and of the system of Reiki: his difficulties, his experience on Mount Kurama, his work after the Great Kanto Earthquake, and that he taught about 2,000 students before he died. It was written by his students in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, many of them naval officers.