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TAKATA-SENSEI'S REIKI CLINIC SIGN
Copyright © 2010 James Deacon 

During the 1940's Takata-sensei owned a property at 2070 Kilauea Avenue, Waiakea Homesteads, South Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii. This house served as both her home and her Clinic.

It is obvious that the sign had been repainted (and importantly, reworded) on at least one occasion.

I wanted to attempt to clean up the sign in its final form, and also attempt to produce a restored version of the original wording.

Here is my attempt at restoring the later, re-worded, version.

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However, work on the “original wording” version was proving to be far too time-consuming, so I opted for what is most definitely an “artists impression” of the original, based on close scrutiny of the sign, and a little informed guesswork concerning a couple of the kanji characters which are faintly visible at the bottom of the sign.

With the lower portion of the sign currently being in such a distressed state, it is not easy to see the kanji; however, the first kanji is almost certainly  (taka) the second is  (ta), the third and fourth are  (reiki) the fifth is  (chi), sixth most probably  (ryo), and the seventh is  (in).

Takata Reiki Chiryo In

  - “chiryo” is (medical) treatment, – “in” refers to an 'academy' or 'school'.

So the entire group of seven kanji could possibly be read as:

"Takata Reiki-Treatment Academy"

or alternatively, as:

"Takata Reiki Clinic"
(the three kanji: ,  and combined can be read as 'clinic').

The five characters written in a vertical row to the lower right of the sign appear to be:

- that is:  “Hawayo Takata”.

 (Taka Ta)   (Ha Wa Yo)

It is interesting to note that while, in newspaper ads from the time, Takata-sensei uses the term "Reiki Treatments" and, as mentioned, the kanji characters     on the sign can also be read as "Reiki Treatment", the English wording on the sign speaks of "REIKI MASSAGE".

[Beneath the words “Steam Baths” and “Swedish Massage” which appear on the later version of the sign,  there are two further lines of text from the original which are only very faintly visible.  I have, as yet, been unable to clearly decipher these; though the second line might possibly read: "........  Massage"]

Does the sign perhaps predate the Kilauea Avenue Clinic?

Takata-sensei purchased the Kilauea Avenue property in 1939, however, prior to that she had run a small Reiki Treatment practice out of an address in Kapaa in the Kawaihau district on Kauai Island, where, it seems, probably the greater majority of her early clients (and students) were of Japanese descent. 

Did the sign perhaps make the journey from Kauai to Big Island with Takata-sensei? 

Could it be that the version of the sign with both English and Japanese wording dates from this time in Kapaa?

It has been suggested on more than one occasion that the reason for the changes to the sign, especially the removing of the Japanese kanji and katakana characters, might have been to do with post-Pearl Harbor feelings concerning all things Japanese.

It is also possible the change of wording was simply down to a change in focus. We know from Takata-sensei herself that in the early years, her 'Reiki-interactions' were primarily with Japanese, Kanaka 'Oiwi  (Native Hawaiian), Filipino and Puerto Rican clients, but in time she began to attract a growing "Anglo-American" clientele.  

Could it  simply be that the sign was updated to reflect this fact?

“Nerve-Gland-Shortwave Treatments”

Several people have commented on the absence of any mention of Reiki Treatment on the later incarnation of the sign, and likewise, several people (myself included) have wondered if perhaps the: “Nerve-Gland-Shortwave Treatments” advertised were simply Reiki Treatments under a different name.

However, as Ezri Graham has pointed out:

It is also possible that Takata's "Nerve-Gland-Shortwave Treatments" were something other than Reiki.

Erwin Schliephake was experimenting with Shortwave Treatments in 1929 and wrote a book Shortwave Therapy in 1932. Short wave therapy is also known as Short wave Diathermy, and there is a suggestion it gained some popularity in Japan in the 1930's

"In 1934 the Japanese Kenji ITO (the former president of ITO physio-therapy & rehabilitation) made the short wave therapy unit. However, researches and supply of devices soon stopped because of the long continued war. Later on, in Japan particular evolution of diathermy resulting to its popularization has been gained, and now the domestic therapy unit of SWD has been utilized widely. "
source: http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mrshiida/Manual.htm