Category Archives: Aikido History

Nidai Doshu writes, in A Life in Aikido, “There is a scroll I treasure recording a shufutsu conducted by O’Sensei, with Koun Nakanishi 1)  leading the ceremony and Yuiun Akiyama assisting, on December 14th, 1940.  Shufutsu is one of the most important Shinto ceremonies, in which those participating conductmisogi… in order to enter into communication with guardian deities.

“This shufutsu lists the forty-three guardian deities of Aikido:  Sarutakiko Omikami; Kunitsu Ryuo; Kuzuryu Daigongen; Tachikara no Mikoto; Ameno-murakumo-kuki-samuhara-ryuo-no-omikami and others; various names of Ryuo; Daigongen; Daitengu; and Daibosatsu….they are connected with the chronology of O’Sensei’s training and  development…  This ceremony commemorated those moments when  his human mind rose above its limits to touch something greater and  more enlightened.”  2)

We know from O’Sensei’s accounts that the shufutsu involved an hour of late night misogi, started around two in the morning…  which rather suggests that late night misogi was part of O’Sensei’s regular routine: along with late night training.

The ceremony marked a new beginning for O’Sensei, but it was also a  response to a personal crisis.  At a time when he was at the height of his powers, when sword moves and empty-handed moves felt to him as if he was channeling the divine, he was nevertheless aware that not only was the promise of the Omoto-kyo years – of his Omoto-kyo years – largely unfulfilled,  but far, far worse: the entire nation – including his many friends and sponsors in leadership positions – was being dragged into war on all fronts by the most bellicose factions of the Army. O’Sensei undoubtedly could see that his long-time Navy sponsors, and the civilian government which he advised 3) were time and again being out- manoeuvred in the complex politics arising from the constitutional independence of Army and Navy.

So in performing the shufutsu, O’Sensei was requesting divine advice, and support going forward.  He got both. The Dragon King

AME-NO-MURAKUMO-KUKI-SAMUHARA-RYU-O

– installed in O’Sensei’s hara by a Shingon priest before he went off to fight in the Russo-Japanese War – and whom he regarded as an avatar of

SUSANOO-NO-MIKOTO

– affirmed to him the Omoto-kyo world-view, and instructed him to get back to work, purifying the world and setting everything aright.

Then going forward from that time, the head of the Earthly kami

SARUTAHIKO-NO-O-KAMI

– whose avatar, the Tengu king

SOJOBO

trains on Mount Kumara ascetic warriors going back to Minamoto no Yoshitsune – the reputed founder of Daito-Ryu – started coming to help O’Sensei in his daily training – especially, one might imagine, his late-night training, including his misogi practice.

And in the course of all this, O’Sensei tells us, he had one – or more (no singular/plural in Japanese) – enlightenment experience(s).

And he continued adding to the land he had purchased in the auspiciously named and located Iwama.

All of this, O’Sensei narrates in one of the talks he gave to the Byakko-kai in the late 1950’s, collected and published as Takemusu Aiki  4).  It is difficult language to translate, in part because Japanese makes no distinction between perfect and plu-perfect tense – so that the listener – and the translator – often has to deduce the chronology of events from context, phraseology and intonation.

But we can assume that – in his late night misogi practice – he marked the anniversary of the shufutsu of December 1940:  particularly as the first anniversary would have been right after Pearl Harbor (following on from the resignation of the Prime Minister O’Sensei was working for), and the second anniversary would have been shortly after his sudden – as Nidai Doshu recalls it – relocation to Iwama.  Indeed, Shufutsu – to the very same forty-three kami – is still part of the annual ireisai for O’Sensei held at the Aiki Jinja he built in Iwama. 5)

It is in this context that we should understand the account of his evolving training practice,  and of events after the move to Iwama, which O’Sensei presented to an Aiki-no-Tsudoi audience in the late 1950’s…

1) An important kotodama scholar, and friend of O’Sensei’s.  The concept of ‘takemusu aiki‘ derives from Koun Nakanishi’s thinking.

2) p. 268

3)  The second administration of Prime-minister Fujimaro Konoe. Born into the ancient and prestigious Fujiwara clan, Prince Fujimaro Konoe studied Marxist economics at Kyoto Imperial University, and in 1925 was instrumental in passing the bill for Universal Male Suffrage in Japan. Twice prime-minister, he was consistently out-manoeuvred by the
army – which was an independent branch of government under the Meiji constitution.  Shortly after failing to achieve peace with China, he was replaced by Hideki Tojo. Two months later, the navy – also an  independent branch of government – bombed Pearl Harbor, and Japan was at war “higashi ni, nishi ni“: to the East and to the West. Fujimaro is also remembered for refashioning wartime Japan as a one-party state – but this, too, can be seen as an – unsuccessful – attempt to curb the political power of the Army.

4) Partially translated in A Life In Aikido, pp. 40-43,  and by Peter Goldsbury here . A  complete French translation is in Takemusu Aiki vol. III,  pp.83-92.

5)  “On April 29th at 11 a.m. the “Aiki Shrine Festival” and the “Founder / Kisshomaru II Doshu Memorial Service”, were held at the Aiki Shrine in Kasama city (former Iwama town),Ibaraki Prefecture. Around one thousand four hundred people gathered for this event.

“The Aiki Shrine Festival began with Shufutsu (purification rite), follow by a festival Norito (festival chant). The Ueshiba family and various circles representatives offered Tamagushihouten (reverentially offering to God branch of sacred tree) in honor of the Founder / Kisshomaru II Doshu Memorial Service.

“After the festival chant dedicated for the ancestral spirits of the Founder / Kisshomaru II Doshu Memorial Service, the Ueshiba family, visitors related to Kisshomaru II Doshu and visitors representatives, offered Tamagushihoutei (reverentially offering to people branch of sacred tree). At the end, all participants recited the Amatsu Norito  (heavenly festival chant).”
– – – from the website of the Aikikai’s Ibaraki Branch Dojo,
retrieved January 23, 2016

“….On August 7, after consultations with the appropriate judges, [Judge Takano] released [Onasiburo, Sumiko and Isao] on bail, and they appeared in the outside world for the first time in six years and eight months….

“My cousin Yasuaki Deguchi…writes in ‘Founder of a New Religion’….’To the followers who came to see him, he would say with emphasis, “There will be no divine help in this war,” “This war is a war between devils, so do not get involved”….’

“….even now he did not hold back from his outspoken remarks. ‘On the day I left prison, Japan’s defeat in the war began,’ he said.

“On August 7, 1942, the day Onisaburo was released, American forces landed on Guadalcanal, and the first naval battle of the Solomon Islands began….

“He would say, ‘They did all this to Omoto and don’t even come to apologize. So Japan will be attacked by the foreign enemy and will be beaten.’….’God dislikes killing. Omoto will not cooperate in the war.’

“….Telling soldiers leaving for service overseas, ‘Fire your guns into the air,’ he would give them advice according to their respective destinations….To troops leaving for the front, Onisaburo issued special amulets on which were written the words, ‘Victory to the Enemy’….

– – – – from The Great Onisaburo Deguchi,  Kyotaro Deguchi,  tr. Charles Rowe, publ. Aiki News, pp. 285-9

“It may be that, at the time, we [this young people’s class in Iwama] were the only existing Aikido class in Japan – perhaps even in the world.”
– – – Kazuaki Tanahashi,   Aikiweb interview

“In 1946 when I was admitted into Aikido, the site of the Iwama Dojo with an area of more than 20,000 tsubo was just a forest of Japanese oak trees, dotted with the Aiki Shrine,  Dojo,  and a farm. The location of the Dojo almost eluded detection. The local neighbors had not the foggiest idea of what was going on inside the Dojo and would not dare approach it.”
– – – Morihiro Saito Shihan,  Traditional Aikido,  vol.5,  p.20

“For seven years, Ueshiba O’Sensei hid away in the mountains, and said not a word: he was silent. But by his silence he was teaching, making something very great, by saying nothing.”
– – – André Nocquet Shihan, Maître Morihei Ueshiba: présence et message  p.97

Traditional Japanese culture – and learning – is not standardised… …and this, in itself, is a delight and an education to those of us raised in a heritage marked by a hundred years or more of Industrial Revolution and mass-production. One particular dynamic at play in this endless variety is the typical ‘ryu’ attitude of “well, you think you know what N means, but our version of N is different and better and we will teach it to you…over the course of several years…” Mu-to (‘no-sword’) is like this: Tsukuhara Bokuden had one version of mu-to; Yagyu Munetoshi had another; and Tesshu had a third. And, being a product of the intellectual opening and intellectual ferment post Meiji Revolution, O’Sensei knew and referred to all three of those meanings.

It is important – and surprising – to understand that this is a process of adding meaning – and not of denying meaning. And the awareness that there is always more to learn, by meeting a different wise person, from a different ryu, from another place, adds to the mystery and depth of what we already know.

And often this involves homonyms. In practice: asserting a different spelling –  adopting some different Chinese characters – for the same spoken word.

So this is what is going on when O’Sensei adopts terminology from the shugendo of the mountains above Tanabe, associated with the shrines of Kumano so important to his family and forebears – and with the ridge-trails over to the Yamato Basin, and the ancient city of Nara.

So Myou-Hou (‘miraculous method’ – but also ‘miraculous Dharma’) is actually the name of the mountain above Nachi Falls.

And Myou-Ken (‘miraculous sword’) is one of the three mountains of the celebrated Dewa Sanzan centre of Haguro Shugendo.

Doshu is the rank in Haguro Shugendo that is attained by participating in two ascetic ‘pilgrimages’ into the mountains.

More interestingly:  san-gaku 1) is the triangle in – and it is the three-fold  Buddhist study of kai (precepts), jo (meditation), and e (wisdom), or any ‘three studies’ – but it is also ‘mountain-knowledge’:  and the thing you gain from stepping under a freezing cold waterfall, from sleeping little and climbing far, from being dangled over a cliff-face by your ankles and ropes, is surely more integral to a good irimi than a ki-shape that is triangular.

And even ‘bu’ is an echo of ‘Bu-chu’  (to be up on the mountain peak, taking part in one of the four seasonal, ascetic Shugendo festivals) and ‘Nyu-bu’ (entering the mountain, ascending to the mountain ridge, to take part in one of these festivals). ‘Bu’ is the Chinese  reading of mine– (‘peak’ or ‘ridge’) which by metonymy refers to the entire ascetic retreat/pilgrimage experience: for instance, in the names of the four major festivals: haru-no-mine (‘spring-peak’), natsu-no-mine (‘summer-peak’),  aki-no-mine (‘fall-peak’), fuyu-no-mine (‘winter-peak’).

So that O’Sensei’s use of the word ‘bu’ always implies that enlightened martial practice is a way of accessing traditional Shugendo wisdom.

1) or ‘san-kaku’

Perhaps the most multi-faceted homonymic syllable in O’Sensei’s regular usage is “shin-“.  It can mean “upright”, “true”, “divine”, “body”, “mind”, “heart”, “ancestral”, “paternal”, “new”, “bright” – with a variety of distinct spellings (kanji, ideograms) – all of which Deguchi was happy to play with, coining a cornucopia of read-only neologisms. ‘Aiki Shinzui’ – the published collection of O’Sensei’s talks – is a perfect example of this: the dictionary spelling of “shinzui” (essence) is “true-marrow”, but in the title of the Aikikai book it is spelled  “divine-marrow”.

And of course, when you hear “shin”, with no reference to a particular ideogram, it can mean or any or all of these meanings at once.

This is the key to the puzzle of “uniting ki and true-ki”…  There are two conventional, Taoist spellings of “shin-ki”. Spelled “essence-ki” (“Jing-qi” in Chinese), it is the “refined essence that is the yang energetic aspect of the jing [the spirit], …referring to the substance associated with the kidneys, that represents the traditional matrix of the body’s vital energies.” 1) Spelled “divine-ki” (“Shen-qi” in Chinese), it is a collective term for the “three treasures” (“shin-ki-shin”, “essence”, “ki” and “divine spirit”) 2) … another word for which is “jing-shen”, spelled the same as the Japanese “sei-shin” – “vitality, spirit, mind” – a common term that O’Sensei frequently uses.

These two spellings of “shin-ki” are both Taoist technical terms, and one (or both) are what O’Sensei is referring to,   And it’s possible, of course, that he instructed his deshi in Tokyo to write it with the spelling meaning “upright/correct”, because that’s how he felt the folks in Tokyo could best understand it…

1) Tom Bisio, Ba Gua Nei Gong Twelve Posture Standing, p. 77

2) Tom Bisio, Ba Gua Nei Gong Twelve Posture Standing, p. 83