Category Archives: Kotodama

by Shido Yamaguchi,  MIZUHO-NO-TSUTAE,  Hi no Maki  fascicle II…

Our normal human voice goes no further than the human ear: beyond that it dies to nothing and is extinguished.  But the breath – iki – that is bright with the light of the kami, being the breath of the universe, does not die out and is not extinguished.  People of the four seas and the ten thousand nations,  although their utterances are many and varied, when [utterance is made with] this breath,  bright with the light of the kami, [and it] is heard,  they become – because it comes from heaven – one people, all as one  in justice and equality.   And so the dharani of India, the eki divination-traditions of China,  the [fire-kokyu and water-kokyu] iki-traditions of Japan,  each of these varied utterances, because they transform [the normal human voice] into the spirit of the universe,  become a way to obtain the heart of heaven.

– – – from the   Kototama Hissho,  by Shido Yamaguchi,  p.29

Heaven and Earth are here-and-now ceaselessly creating and beginning again and again.  The beginning of Heaven and Earth that is laid out in the Kojiki is not the origin of physical matter that is discussed in astronomy, physics or history. And this is not because the Kojiki’s chapters on the Age of the Gods naturally deal with things that happened, spontaneously,  a long, long time ago – but nevertheless after that point in time. Now and – for that reason – here  – which is to say “in the here-and-now” – is the place where all the time Heaven and Earth are beginning. That is to say:  Heaven and Earth in reality are ceaselessly – both here and now – continuously being formed and are continuously creating. This “now” is called “the eternal present”.

– – – Koji Ogasawara,   Kototama Hyakushin,  p. 17

So, amongst the vowels, A I U are the most used and the most important, because they correspond to the three fundamental energies of Shiva: the energy of transcendent consciousness ‘A’,  that of will-power ‘I’  and that of awakening ‘U’.  To attain salvation the yogi retraces the cosmic process in reverse direction – with the aim of being reabsorbed.

– – –  Métamorphose de la violence par l’Aikido de Sumikiri,  J.-D Cauhépé and A. Kuang,   p. 297

“Kotodama is different from simple utterance. What is called kotodama is when the red blood is seething in your belly”

That is what Ueshiba Sensei taught me. Goi Sensei explained to me that kotodama is the resonance that precedes the thought and which leads to the character and the sound….

– – – Takahashi Hideo, Takemusu Aiki  French translation vol. 2, p. 119

cf:  “Kotodama is not sounds. It is the echo of ki which precedes the emergence of sounds…”  – – – Rinjiro Shirata Shihan in Aikido Pioneers, p. 126