Iris Ishikuro / Arthur Robertson

Iris Ishikuro was one of Takata Sensei’s 22 Master students. After Mrs. Takata passed away in 1980, Iris decided that she would follow her own inner guidance and teach Reiki to students for a more reasonable fee. As far as it is known, at that time Iris was the only one of Tataka Sensei’s 22 Masters who did this. The others continued to charge the high price of $10,000.00 for the Reiki Master level.

Iris trained only two Masters. One was Arthur Robertson and the other was her daughter, Ruby. She asked them to always charge a reasonable fee. Ruby decided not to teach Reiki; however, Arthur Robertson did begin teaching in the mid-1980’s. The reasonable fee allowed many more students to become Reiki Masters.  

Because Iris Ishikuro ignored the price restriction that Mrs. Takata had placed on Reiki, she became the pathway through which Reiki would spread more quickly and eventually be passed on to people all over the world. In light of this, it is likely that the majority of Reiki people in the world have their lineage going back through Iris Ishikuro including but not limited to William Lee Rand. Many Reiki Masters now consider a lower fee structure which makes it possible for anyone who feels guided to do so to become a Reiki Master.

Arthur Robertson had also been a teacher of Tibetan shamanism and had learned a healing method that made use of several symbols and an attunement-like technique called an empowerment. This method had similarities to Usui Reiki. After becoming a Reiki Master, he developed an alternative method of Reiki that was a combination of the Tibetan style of healing and Usui Reiki. The parts from Tibetan shamanism were the use of two Tibetan symbols – with one being used as a Master symbol – and the technique of Violet Breath. It also incorporated the use of the three symbols from the Okuden level of Usui Reiki. He called this system Raku Kei. Robertson taught both the Takata-style Usui system and Raki Kei, teaching them separately as different classes.