O-sensei’s Spiritual and Religious Foundation of Aikido
Makoto Ohtsu (7th Dan)
Aikido Showa Dojo
Nagoya Japan
November, 2025
Contents
Introduction
1. Shinto (the Way of “Kami”)
2. Oomotokyo (Religion of Great Origin) and Post-WWⅡ Changes
3. O-sensei’s Search for the Spiritual Foundation of Aikido
4. Takemsu Aiki: O-sensei’s Shinto-based Aikido
5. Afterthoughts
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Introduction
Aikido is a unique modern Japanese martial art. It is unique in that it is not a mere physical fighting system, rather it is based on a solid spiritual foundation which consists of harmony, love and peace. Thus, its objective is not to attack and defeat the opponent(s), but to defend oneself when attacked, and to “neutralize” the attacker without harming him or her. It can be called a physical art of “harmonious persuasion” that believes violence is wrong and futile.
The founder of Aikido is Master Morihei Ueshiba. He is often affectionately called “O-sensei,” meaning the big teacher. I will use this name throughout this essay. Also, in reviewing the spiritual and religious foundation of O-sensei’s Aikido, I have referred to the materials provided in the Appendix.
Central to O-sensei’s ideas on Aikido is his strong belief in Shinto, a 2000-year-old Japanese folk religion, as interpreted by “Oomotokyo”, a new Shinto-based religion, and its post war spinoff, “Byakko Shinko Kai”. In fact, he makes frequent and random references to Shinto mythology and terminology in his speeches as dictated and quoted by various authors. Therefore, before addressing O-sensei’s spiritual foundation of Aikido, a review of Shinto and Oomotokyo is in order.
1. Shinto (the Way of “Kami”)
Shinto is the indigenous folk religion of Japan reflecting animistic and shamanistic views of life that had long existed in Japan. It is generally believed that ancient Shinto of god worship, close enough to current Shinto, started around 300 BC. Unlike Christianity and Islam, Shinto does not have a founder, nor does it have sacred scriptures like the Bible and Koran. It consists of indigenous religious beliefs, practices and a variety of myths created much later. Shinto has not directly been documented in its original form, because there was no indigenous writing system in Japan before the introduction of Chinese writing system in the 5th century.
In ancient Japan, supernatural entities or spirits were believed to inhabit all things important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers, fertility and humans after they die, especially ancestors. Not only the creatures of nature but also words have a spirit. These spirits were venerated for their magical powers beyond human control. Later, these spirits came to be called “kami,” The term kami lacks a direct English translation, which may be translated as spirit, deity, or god. Throughout this essay I will use god.
The words of the gods needed to be conveyed to people at large. Possession by spirits was widespread in ancient Japan. Certain female called “miko” would go into trances and do divination and communicate with the gods. Thus, miko is really a female shaman. Throughout history, not only women but also men would play the same role, if less formally. O-sensei himself had experience of going into trances or near trances several times in his lifetime, and learned the wills of the gods.
The basic nature of ancient Shinto is that it is polytheistic; there are many gods in Shinto. In fact, there is an expression of “Yaoyorozu-no Kami (eight million kami).” Each god was considered to perform a specific function. The most important of all functions is called “musubi,” roughly meaning the process of creation, fostering and completion by joining. In fact, many gods in Japanese mythologies are associated with this function.
In the process of musubi, various elements have to be combined and to be placed in harmony. All the things in the universe are thus created and developed by the gods. They are divine and beautiful. Therefore, harming any part of nature disrupts harmony and is considered bad. This way, Shinto seeks to cultivate and ensure a harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world. Harmony is a key concept in O-sensei’s Aikido. Other key features of Shinto are as follows.
First, Shinto is an optimistic faith, as humanity is regarded as fundamentally divine in nature. The concept of original sin does not exist in Shinto. In actuality, however, this sacred nature is not always revealed in humans, because their mind is often polluted by evil spirits, which condition is called “kegare”. One can remove kegare by purification rituals, called “kiyome”, “misogi” and “harai”. While the first two are conducted by oneself, the last one is performed by a priest, called “kannushi” on behalf of the individual(s) or object(s) to be purified. For O-sensei, Aikido was a form of misogi.
Second, unlike Christianity or Buddhism, there is no dichotomy of the heaven and the hell in Shinto. Instead, the universe is divided into three parts. They are “Takaamahara”, located in the heaven where the gods live, “Ashihara Nakatsukuni” located on earth where humans live and “Yomonokuni” located underground where polluted spirits of the dead reside. After proper purification ceremonies, these spirits join the family guardian god(s) or clan guardian god(s), called “ujigami”. These ancestral gods protect their descendants as long as they continue to perform proper ceremonies.
Finally, Shinto gods are closely related to Japan’s creation mythology. According to Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), the first official document on the history of Japan published in 712, the universe started with “ame-tsuchi,” the separation of ame (heaven) from tsuchi (earth). Three gods then appeared in Takaamahara, “Ame-no Minakanushi-no Kami (God Ruling the Center of Heaven)” being the first. “Amaterasu Oomikami (goddess of the sun)”, a descendant of this first god, is the mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line that has continued to date. In the following I will quickly review the development of Shinto through the end of the 19th century.
With the introduction of the Chinese writing system in the 5th century, various foreign ideologies and religions, namely Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, were introduced to Japan by the 6th century. Of particular importance was Buddhism. Due partly to the polytheistic nature of Shinto, that is very lenient with other religions, the two religions were able to co-exist and even complement each other.
Gradually, religious co-existence of Shinto and Buddhism shifted to religious blending where the Shinto gods came to be viewed as part of Buddhist cosmology. As a result, Shinto became functionally inseparable from Buddhism, a process called “shinbutsu-shugo”. Soon shinbutsu-shugo was adopted by the Imperial Household, which tradition continued over 1,000 years, up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. I will skip any reference to the development of the blended Shinto during this long period.
Toward the end of the 17th century during the Edo era, Kokugaku (National Studies) School was started by Norinaga Motoori and followed by Atsutane Hirata. The Kokugaku scholars advocated that the norms of Shinto should not be sought in Buddhist or Confucian interpretations but in the beliefs and life-attitudes of their ancestors by studying the Japanese classics such as Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) published in 712. In fact, the term “Shinto”, as we use today, was re-discovered by them. Prior to that, it was called by various names including “kannagara-no michi”.
An important point Kokugaku School emphasized was the respect for the Imperial line, as it is the descendants of Amaterasu Oomikami (goddess of the sun). The nationalistic flavor of their view of Shinto was instrumental in stimulating a political movement against the Tokugawa Shogunate rule in the mid 19 century, which resulted in the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
Under the Meiji Government, efforts were made to separate and emancipate Shinto from Buddhism. Shinto was made Japan's defacto state religion, called “Kokka Shinto”, or State Shinto, although other religions were allowed to exist. In State Shinto a list of certain officially recognized gods related to the Imperial line, with the sun goddess Amaterasu at its top, were allowed to be enshrined. Those shrines were placed under the control of the Ministry of the Interior and received governmental funding. Shinto priests of those shrines became state officials, and citizens were encouraged to worship the Emperor as a living god as a descendant of Amaterasu.
Another development during the latter part of the 19th century was the emergence of new religious movements out of the social confusion and unrest among the people around the Meiji Restoration. New religious movements were based mostly on individual religious experiences of the founders and aimed at healing diseases or spiritual salvation. Aspects of Shinto were incorporated into these new religious movements. Many of those new Shinto groups believed in different gods, different from Amaterasu, the main god of State Shino. They were separated from State Shinto by a government decree in 1882 and were denied public support.
While Shinto was politicized by the government, there were two important developments at the intellectual level. One was Kototama Studies that had started in late Edo era and were synthesized by Masumi Oishigori. Based upon pre-Kojiki information obtained through ancient documents and practices called “futomani”, Kototama scholars tried to establish the relationship between kototama (the spirit of words) and the creation of the universe. While in Ancient Shinto spirits were supposed to exist in words, Kototama scholars claimed that spirits exist in phones (sounds) and letters.
The other was spiritual studies, that had originated from Hirata mentioned above, and were systematized by Chikaatsu Honda under the name of Honda Spiritual Studies. Honda developed methods of contacting with gods, called “chinkon kishin”, to be discussed later.
He also created a unique Shinto cosmology on the creation process of the universe in an attempt to fill the void in Kojiki. His cosmology is summarized by the phrase “Ichirei Shikon Sangen Hachiriki”, or “One Spirit, Four Souls, Three Origins and Eight Powers”. It means that Ame-no Minakanushi, the first god, created the spirit of the universe consisting of the four souls, and then the god presiding over the earth, called “Kuni-no Tokotachi-no Kami”, created three substances and eight sources of energy.
These two groups of studies came to be integrated into Oomotokyo by Onisaburo Deguchi, which I will describe below. Among various new religious groups that arose during the Meiji era, I chose to introduce only Oomotokyo, because it had a profound influence on O-sensei in his search for the spiritual foundation of Aikido.
2. Oomotokyo (Religion of Great Origin) and Post-WWⅡChanges
Oomotokyo was started in 1892 by Nao Deguchi, then 56 year old widow of a poor carpenter with many children in Ayabe, north of Kyoto. On one night in February that year she became possessed by a god who identified himself as “Ushitora-no Konjin”. Ushitora-no Konjin declared that he returned to purify and reconstruct the world that had been polluted by evil gods while he had been forced to retire from the world for 3,000 years.
He also told Nao to start “Oomoto” religious movement to help him reconstruct the world and build a society of justice and brotherhood. Nao believed in these words and decided to follow his directions. The possessions and divine revelations came almost daily, and she transcribed his declarations, prophecies and instructions through automatic writing, called “ofudesaki”, although she was illiterate. The miracle of her writing impressed those around her so much that they began to take the strange manifestations (prophecies) more seriously, and they slowly began to rally around the cause.
In 1898, as predicted by Ushitora-no Konjin, Nao was visited by Kisaburo Ueda who had been trained in Ko-Shinto (or ancient Shinto) theories and practices such as “chinkon (spirit possession)” and “kishin (oracle interpretation)” of Honda Spiritual Studies. Shortly thereafter, he married Nao’s youngest daughter and changed his name to Onisaburo Deguchi. Thus, Onisaburo organized the Oomotokyo doctrine by interpreting Nao’s prophecies and instructions following mostly Shinto’s theology as recorded in Kojiki. For example, he identified Ushitora-no Konjin as “Kuni-no Tokotachi-no Kami” in Kojiki.
Onisaburo, however, did not fully accept the narrative in Kojiki. Therefore, he wrote an 81 volume “Reikai Monogatari (Tales of the Spiritual World)” where he attempted to correct and supplement Kojiki. In it he wrote in great detail the origin of the universe, covered very briefly in Kojiki, following the theories of Kototama Studies of Oishigori and the “One Spirit Four Souls Three Origins and Eight Powers” theory of Honda.
According to Reikai Monogatari, in the very beginning there was great chaos or void. Then, in this void a small dot (・) emerged and started to emit air. This dot was in fact the god Onisaburo called “Ookuni Tokotachi-no Kami” (the Supreme God of the Universe, or originally called “Ame-no Minakanushi-no Kami” in Kojiki), and the air started to move around this dot to form a whirlpool.
Then, the whirlpool started to emit kototama or sound with spirit. The first kototama sound was “su”. With the expansion of the “su” kototama, “u” kototama was born. Out of “u” kototama, both “a” and “o” kototamas were born. From the former “rei (spirit)” was created, while from the latter “tai (substance)” was created. With the interaction of these two, “riki (force or energy) was born. With spirit, substance and energy the spiritual world of the universe was completed. From “su” and “u” a total of 75 sounds or kototamas emerged. It is apparent that his view of the composition of the universe as well as anything within it follows the One Spirit Four Souls Three Origins and Eight Powers theory developed by Honda mentioned before.
For human beings, one spirit consists of four souls of courage, relation, love, and wisdom. The substance (body or flesh) consists of three origins, namely, hard, soft and flowing substances. The eight forces consist of four pairs of opposing forces: movement-stillness, melting-congealing, pulling-loosening, and combining-splitting.
The basic teaching of the Reikai Monogatari, and therefore Oomotokyo, is that men must first purify their own hearts, and then reconstruct the world. The method to achieve this is to follow the principle of “reishu taiju”, literally meaning "the flesh subordinated to the spirit", that is to make a turn-about from materialistic views to spiritual ones. Then, earthly desire changes into divine love. Selfishness gives way to the spirit of sacrifice. Ultimately, we may enter the “Miroku no Yo”, the new age of brotherhood and love.
It is pointed out that Onisaburo’s cosmology is influenced by Christianity where the God is viewed as the creator of the universe, while in Shinto the first god simply existed in the very beginning of the universe. Also, in explaining the God’s act, he uses the term “ai”, or love, a term that does not exist in Shinto. Apparently, he borrowed the term from Christianity. In fact, there is a record that he studied Christianity at a local church in Ayabe for several years. Reikai Monogatari also reveals the influence of Chinese Yin Yang theory that advocates the principle of opposite polarity and duality. Further, Buddhist influence is apparent. For example, Miroku is a deity of Buddhism.
Oomotokyo is regarded as “inclusive monotheism” in that there is one Supreme God and that different gods worshiped in different religions including Christianity, Islam and Buddhism come from this single source. The objective of this Supreme God is to purify and reconstruct the evil world. Since humans are the agent of the God, it is the mission of all humans to help the God so that all humans and all of nature will exist peacefully on earth. For that purpose, Deguchi promoted internationalism: he was very active in the interfaith movement and the Esperanto movement.
Oomotokyo came to be under increasing attack by the government for two reasons. First, while in State Shinto, Amaterasu, from whom the Emperor of Japan claimed descent, is naturally the most important god to be enshrined, in Oomotokyo, Ookuni Tokotachi is worshipped above Amaterasu as the Supreme God of the Universe. Second, Deguchi who preaches world peace, was outspoken in opposing the increasingly militaristic policies of the Imperial Japanese Government.
As a result, in 1935 all of the Oomotokyo buildings were smashed to the ground by the authorities and about 1,000 Oomotokyo leaders, including Deguchi, were arrested and imprisoned on charges of disrespect for the Imperial Family and of causing social unrest.
With the end of World WarⅡin 1945, Japan was placed under the occupation of the US-led allied forces for 6 years. The basic policy of the occupation forces was to transform Japan into a peace-loving democratic nation. To that end, they issued the Shinto Directive in 1945 to eradicate State Shinto that they considered the spiritual basis of Japan’s militarism.
In line with the directive, Emperor Showa declared in 1946 that he was not an “Arahitogami” (a god in human form) as defined in State Shinto. Also, in 1946 the occupation forces drafted a new constitution for Japan where freedom of religion, along with other freedoms and rights, was guaranteed.
In 1947, all charges against Oomotokyo were acquitted. However, the rebuilding process was slow, partly because Onisaburo, who had been released on parole in 1942, was immersed in art by making pottery and drawing pictures and died in 1948. After a series of attempts, Oomotokyo was rebuilt under its original name in 1952.
While Oomotokyo was slow to rebuild itself, a new post-WWⅡreligious group, called Byakko Shinko Kai (True, Great Society of the White Light) emerged and had a major spiritual influence on O-sensei. It was founded by Masahisa Goi in 1951. With the influence of the leaders of Oomoto sprinter groups, he devoted himself in spiritual training for several years. At the end of the training, he attained oneness with his divine self. He received a special message from the God: ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’.
The teachings of Byakko Shinko Kai may be summarized as follows. First, human beings derive from the universal god who Goi calls “Shugo Shin”, or guardian god. Those who have attained spiritual awakening of realizing the existence of this guardian god internalize “Shugo Rei”, or guardian spirits. By showing gratitude for and praying to the guardian god and the guardian spirits, one can attain peace of mind and true happiness.
Second, Byakko Shinko Kai emphasized world peace through the spiritual development of its members, who are encouraged to develop and express their divinity, harmony, and true selves by the peace prayer. It begins as follows: “May peace prevail on earth ・・・”. As will be discussed later, the idea of achieving world peace greatly affected O-sensei’s views of Aikido, which prompted the “internationalization” or exportation of Aikido to overseas.
3. O-sensei’s Search for the Spiritual Foundation of Aikido
O-sensei’s wide experiences in various martial arts including Daitoryu Jujutsu of Sokaku Takeda are well known. Although he learned various techniques from them, he did not inherit their spiritual foundation mostly built on Confucianism and/or Zen Buddhism.
In 1920, O-sensei visited Onisaburo Deguchi, the leader of Oomotokyo, at Ayabe, near Kyoto. O-sensei was 36 years old then and was training Daitoryu Jujutsu as a disciple of Sokaku Takeda. However, he was not fully satisfied with Daitoryu and was looking for the true budo (martial art) beyond Daitoryu Jujutsu.
Impressed with Deguchi and his teachings, O-sensei quickly became a disciple of Deguchi. He moved with his family to Ayabe and studied hard under Deguchi. Also, with the encouragement of Deguchi, he started “Ueshiba Juku (School)” to instruct his Daitoryu-based budo. It is generally believed that in the process, O-sensei learned from Deguchi the new meaning of “aiki” and developed his new budo with aiki as its center. Thus, O-sensei began to call his budo “Aiki Jujutsu”.
“Aiki” was the term that had been used among some martial art schools, especially Jujutsu schools. It roughly means “joining of mind to create extra-energy beyond sheer physical force”. However, its exact content was not widely known, as it was treated as “hiden (trade secret)” of each school, and not opened publicly. Apparently, Deguchi’s understanding was much deeper in that he sought its spiritual origin in ancient Shinto.
Like most other religionists such as Nao and Onisaburo Deguchi, O-sensei himself was a man of strong shamanistic ability. One day in 1925, when walking in his own yard he suddenly felt as if the whole world roared, golden air blew from the ground surrounding him, and his body became golden. Then, both his body and mind became light and at ease. He felt as if he understood the meaning of the whispering of the birds. At that moment, he was enlightened: the origin of true budo is the love of the God, or the spirit of love and protection of all living things. His belief in the Supreme God of the Universe was confirmed by this mystical experience which he later called the “Golden Experience”.
While he was fully devoted to Oomtokyo and promoted Aiki Jujutsu as a means to achieve harmony among people, O-sensei obtained a strong following among navy, army and police officers who were greatly impressed with his superb performance in Aiki Jujutsu demonstrations. With the strong patronage of a naval general, Isamu Takeshita, O-sensei moved to Tokyo in 1927 to promote Aiki Jujutsu on a nation-wide basis. In 1931, he built a new dojo which was named “Kobukan”.
O-sensei’s Aiki Jujutsu quickly became very popular. He was particularly favored within navy and army circles. Apparently, they were more interested in Aiki Jujutsu as a system of superb combat techniques than in the spiritual emphasis on peace and harmony. O-sensei escaped the mass arrest of Omoto leaders in 1935, apparently due to his close relationship with the police.
Although his association with Oomotokyo ended in 1935, O-sensei’s effort to build the Aikido spirit in the context of Shinto beliefs continued. In this process, he heavily relied on Oomotokyo, but he also adopted views of any other Shinto scholars and practitioners useful in building the spiritual foundation of Aikido.
In 1940, with the help of a couple of Shinto priests/scholars, Koun and Seiun Nakanishi, O-sensei held a ritual of “kamioroshi” or descent of the gods, where 42 Aikido-related gods appeared. They were led by “Sarutahiko-no Ookami” who was created to defend against evil spirits and lead them to goodness. Then, finally “Hayatakemusu-no Ookami” appeared and declared that he had encroached upon the blood of the Ueshiba family and, as such, was the guardian god of Aikido.
He told O-sensei to become “Izunome”, a goddess whose mission is to purify the world. This way, Sarutahiko, through Hayatakemusu, gave O-sensei the mission of promoting “Takemusu Aiki”, or to purify evil spirits and bring about peace on earth through Aikido.
However, O-sensei did not follow this revelation, as he thought that the task was beyond his capability. Then, he got seriously ill, and it took him about a year to recover. During his illness, he realized that the mission of Aikido was indeed the proliferation of the great love of the Supreme God in the world and decided to accept that mission.
With the continued backing of the military government, Aiki Jujutsu (renamed as “Aiki Budo” around 1940) greatly prospered. However, O-sensei was wondering if Aiki Budo was the true budo he was searching.
In 1942, a year after the start of WWⅡ, Kobukan was integrated into Dainihon Butokukai （Great Japan Martial Arts Association）. On this occasion, O-sensei changed the name of his budo from “Aiki Budo” to “Aikido”. Also, he resigned from all official positions and moved to Iwama, Ibaragi Prefecture, leaving the management of the Honbu Dojo in Tokyo and instruction of Aikido there with his son Kisshomaru-sensei. Apparently, he did so in order to distance himself from the military and to pursue his own goal of achieving true budo while engaging in farming.
Also in 1942, with the help of the same couple as mentioned before, O-sensei held another kamioroshi ritual. A number of gods appeared and congratulated the birth of Aiki. Then, a divine revelation was made by Sarutahiko, again through Hayatakemusu, stating, “In order to purify the world, WWⅡ must stop. To do so, it’s your (O-sensei’s) responsibility to build an Aiki Shrine and also a dojo to pursue Takemusu Aiki. Following the divine revelation, O-sensei built the Aiki Shrine in Iwama in 1944. His dojo was built later in the spring of 1945. Within a few months after the completion of the dojo, WWⅡended.
After WWⅡ, O-sensei continued to stay in Iwama, primarily engaged in farming. As an ardent believer in Shinto, he practiced various daily purification routines. In between these routines he taught Aikido in his newly built dojo. Increasingly, he became a religionist as well as a martial artist.
O-sensei encountered with Masahisa Goi, the founder of Byakko Sinko Kai, in 1957, by which time O-sensei’s Oomotokyo-based thoughts on Aikio had been well established. Unlike in the case of Deguchi where O-sensei sought to visit Deguchi to learn about his religion, this time Goi became interested in Aikido and O-sensei after reading Aikido, mentioned in the Appendix. Therefore, their relationship was not that of master (Goi) and disciple (O-sensei). Rather, they regarded each other as equals bound by mutual understanding and respect. The publication of Takemusu Aiki published by Byakko Shinko Kai, as mentioned in the Appendix, testifies to this.
In a sense, their mutual bond was natural, because both O-sensei and Goi believed in the universal God (Ame-no Minakanushi-no Kami), and Byakko Shinko Kai being an offshoot of Oomotokyo. Beyond that, while O-sensei’s martial art with a strong belief in love and harmony was apparently very appealing to Goi, O-sensei found “World Peace”, that Goi preached to promote, still another concrete goal for Aikido to pursue beyond love and harmony.
I have so far reviewed O-sensei’s search for the spiritual foundation of Aikido. In summary, in the process of studying Oomotokyo, O-sensei has become a religionist as well as a martial artist. As a religionist, his goal was to “misogu (purify)” the polluted Japan and world. Later, after WWⅡ, to achieve “world peace” was added as another concrete goal. At the same time, he was a martial artist. So, he often said to the effect that preaching to purify the world is not sufficient, it’s more important to do it. In his case, he took it as his mission to purify Japan and the world through Aikido.
In the following, I will explore Takemusu Aiki, a conceptual framework of Aikido, created by O-sensei after long years of searching. He derives it from his understanding of the universe creation processes of Oomotokyo, supplemented by the divine revelations obtained through his (personal) mystical experiences of possessions and oracle interpretations.
4. Takemsu Aiki: O-sensei’s Shinto-based Aikido
He began to explain his Aikido using Honda’s One Spirit Four Souls Three Origins Eight Forces theory, adopted by Deguchi. As mentioned before, the theory says that the universe and all creatures of the Supreme God consist of spirit (consisting of four souls), body (consisting of three origins) and eight forces, created out of the interaction of the spirit and the body. As mentioned before, O-sensei believes that Aikido is one of those creatures of the Supreme God.
However, in my understanding, O-sensei did not follow this framework to the end in developing his concept of Takemusu Aiki. He is a man of intuition with a holistic view, so Honda’s analytical framework is too restrictive for him. In the end, therefore, he came up with a much simpler framework to describe his views of Aikido. Also, he introduced the fourth body origin called “ki” which comes to play a key role in his new framework.
He summarizes his views of Aikido in Ch. 7 (de facto the final chapter) of Aiki Shinzui. According to O-sensei, Aikido consists of three elements. They are “shin (heart, feeling or mind)”, “ki (air, will, mind, breath, breath power, or energy)” and “tai (body or body move)”. Further, each of “shin”, “ki” and “tai” has to be harmonized with the workings of the universe created by the Supreme God.
“Shin-ki-tai” is different from another popular expression, “shin-gi-tai” (or mind, technique, and body) commonly used in other Japanese martial arts such as judo and kendo. In Aikido, “gi” (or technique) is the outcome of interaction of the three elements (of shin, ki, and tai). Shin represents the spiritual side and tai represents the physical side of Aikido, while ki connects the two to create energy. Strictly speaking, though, he is referring to shin, ki and tai of the Aikidoists, or people exercising Aikido, rather than Aikido as a martial art form.
Each of shin, ki and tai corresponds to rei (spirit), riki (force) and tai (body) in Oomotokyo. Also, as spirit precedes body in Oomotoyo, O-sensei regards shin as superior to tai, or shin leads tai.
In the following, I will discuss each of shin, ki and tai in detail. Here, it is important to note that shin, ki, and, to a lesser extent, tai have multiple meanings which differ depending on the situation or context.
Largely following Deguchi’s theory of the creation process of the universe mentioned before, O-sensei believes that the Supreme God, which he calls “Su-no Ookami ”, started to create the universe with the help of many gods that followed him/her. “Shin” (heart) of the universe is, therefore, the heart of the Supreme God that created the universe. From his golden experience of 1925, O-sensei firmly believes that the heart of the Supreme God is “ai” (love). The Japanese word “ai” has multiple meanings; “ai” here should not be confused with “ai” in Aikido where “ai” means joining or meeting.
Perhaps, O-sensei’s concept of “ai” is closer to “benevolence” than “love” in English. In explaining love, O-sensei often rephrases it “to create and foster”, just like parents giving birth to and nurturing their children. Also, this ai is the main part of musubi in ancient Shinto, the other part being “joining”.
O-sensei starts from the conviction that shin or “kokoro” (heart) of Aikido has to be love. This is so because the heart of the Supreme God of the Universe is love and Aikido was created by this God through Sarutahiko and Hayatakemusu. In Aikido, as a practical martial art, in what ways can we love our opponent?
For example, in an extreme situation of street violence, how can we create and foster our attacker(s)? According to O-sensei, “to create” means “not to kill” or even “not to harm” our enemy but let him/her live unharmed. Then, “to foster” means “to lead him/her to goodness”, that is, to let him/her realize that violence is futile and bad, thereby the attacker can correct his/her behavior. This way, you can “misogu (purify)” your attacker.
The underlying philosophy is that human beings are an artifact of the Supreme God; therefore, to destroy a human being, even though he/she is your enemy, is against the will of the God, and therefore is an act of polluting which is the worst “sin” in Shinto. Instead, mending his/her mind, an act of purification, is what the God wants.
The concept of misogi (purification) is related to love. As mentioned above, in Aikido misogi is an act of love when done to others. O-sensei repeatedly states that before you purify others you have to examine if your mind is not polluted or controlled by evil spirits, and if so, you have to purify yourself first. In O-sensei’s expression, you have to “win over yourself”, or more specifically, win over your “ego” and “self-desire”, such as your desire to “defeat” your opponent in Aikido.
It is generally believed that the physical act of “mizugori (water cleansing)” helps to purify oneself spiritually as well. Actually, O-sensei himself often engaged in this act.
O-sensei’s view of love is incorporated in the Charter of Aikido Ethics (January 5th, 2015). It says as follows (my translation): “3. The Spirit of Aikido: Aiki means love. The way of true budo is to make it one’s mission to cherish and protect all living things, and to fulfil that mission. Thus, Aikido is the way to achieve absolute self-perfection by overcoming one’s ego, by neutralizing your opponent’s will to fight, and ultimately by nullifying the existence of the opponent itself. (Excerpt from Aikido by Master Morihei Ueshiba)
O-sensei seeks the origin of ki, too, in the creation processes of the universe described by Deguchi. In this context, ki has two meanings. One meaning is air (or breath), the other being energy that the spiritual power of air produces. According to O-sensei, in the process of the universe creation, mist-like air was discharged from the dot. This is the origin of physical ki (air) which produced the “su” kototama. It started to breathe and with it, “u” kototama was born. It in turn created a pair of kototamas, “a” and “o”. Between the two, the power of attraction or pulling arose. This is the source of ki (energy).
So, in O-sensei’s Takemusu Aiki, ki (energy) is used primarily for what he calls “kyushu” (absorption, assimilation, or merger). This way, ki is closely related to the concept of musubi (joining). Ki-musubi with the universe means to absorb the energy of the universe into yourself. Ki-musubi with your opponent means to absorb his/her ki (energy) and merge it with your own ki (energy).
As mentioned above, ki (energy) was produced out of the breathing or exhaling and inhaling of ki (air) of the universe. Therefore, in Aikido, breathing is extremely important. According to O-sensei, by performing Aikido while unifying your shin (heart) and tai (body), subtle change takes place in your breathing. With this change in breathing, your body can function smoothly and effectively.
Then, you reach the stage where your breathing assimilates with the breathing of the universe. Your ki (energy) expands in the universe and joins with the ki (energy) of the universe. Finally, you will be able to absorb the ki (energy) of the universe so that you can perform your techniques as freely and effectively as you wish. The renewed energy is strengthened causing subtle change in your breathing, and the cyclical process continues. O-sensei calls this entire process “ki-no myoyo (mysterious effect of ki energy)”.
While O-sensei places ki in the center of Aikido, he says very little about tai (body) itself beyond what was already said in Honda’s “Three Origins” adopted by Deguchi. For living things, three origins are hard, soft and flowing substances. According to O-sensei as interpreted by Shimizu, for human beings, they are bones, muscles, and blood and other fluids circulating within human body.
O-sensei comments very little about individual substances of the body; the only comment is about blood, where he talks about the need for smooth blood circulation. He takes a holistic view of the body using such terms as “gotai (five parts of the body)”, meaning the whole body. His only substantial comment is that one has to harmonize one’s body with the workings of the universe, or of natural laws. Here, as in the case of blood circulation, he talks about the body movement, not the body itself.
His almost total neglect of the physical side of Aikido is understandable in view of the fact that he firmly believes that the spirit or mind leads the body.
In fact, he often says that Aikido is formless, or there is no fixed “kata (forms)”; rather, techniques come out naturally and spontaneously, if you have mastered how to control your ki. This view of Aikido is what he means by Takemusu Aiki.
5. Afterthoughts
So far, I have attempted to introduce O-sensei’s Takemusu Aiki as objectively as possible. In the following, I would like to make a few observations as to how we may put O-sensei’s concept of Takemusu Aiki into our daily Aikido practices.
Although he advocates the superiority of spirit to body, he also says that spirit has to be based on the sound physical foundation. These two statements may sound contradictory to each other, but there is no contradiction from the historical perspective. He admits that he was practicing “physical” Aikido which he had completed by about 1942 when he moved to Iwama. However, he did not write anything on physical Aikido beyond the two instructional documents, mentioned in the beginning.
His ideas about Takemusu Aiki were firmly established shortly after WWⅡin 1945. Those dictations that formed the basis for the couple of books on Takemusu Aiki, were taken beginning in1950 through 1968, a year before his death. In other words, Takemusu Aiki reflects the last half of O-sensei’s entire Aikido career. Therefore, it is a mistake to concentrate on ki training at the neglect of physical training.
The first step of Aikido training is, therefore, physical, that is, the training of strong bones, strong and flexible muscles, and “correct” and smooth movements, especially footwork. It is desirable that one has done a fair amount of physical training to develop strong bones and muscles before undertaking Aikido. If not, it is best to do this separate from Aikido on your own. Aikido exercise, usually done at the beginning of an Aikido class, is designed primarily to increase flexibility; it is not sufficient to develop strong muscles.
Then, comes the learning of footwork and specific techniques according to the predetermined syllabus. As we all know, one has to learn basic katas (forms) before learning more advanced techniques, which include kaeshi-waza, henka-waza, kokyu-nage, jiyu-waza (free throws), multiple opponent techniques, and finally weapons take-away techniques.
Turning now to the spiritual side of Aikido, there are two key concepts, shin (or kokoro) and ki. Shin is an entirely spiritual concept. It has both an emotional aspect and a mental aspect, although O-sensei used shin to mean primarily the emotional aspect. The first aspect may be translated as “heart” while the second aspect may be translated as “mind”.
While shin is an entirely spiritual concept, ki is a concept that has both spiritual and bodily or physical elements. The spiritual element may be translated as “mind”, while the physical element may be translated as “energy”. Thus, ki partly overlaps with shin mentioned above. O-sensei uses ki to mean both mental and physical elements; therefore, we may translate ki as “mind” or “energy” depending on the context.
As already mentioned, the heart of Aikido (ists) is love. This originates from the love of the Supreme God to human beings. As I understand, it is a vertical or one way love (from the God to men) not a horizontal or two-way love (between the God and men). This type of love may be more appropriately called “benevolence”. Apparently, O-sensei uses the term ai to mean the first type of love.
So, in Aikido, as a practical martial art, you have to put yourself in the vertical, not horizontal, relationship via-a-vis your opponent (enemy or attacker). You have to be benevolent to him/her; you are not supposed to destroy or even hurt your opponent. Rather, you are expected to lead him (her) to his (her) goodness which is gifted by the God to all human beings to begin with. It is important to note here that the God can afford to be benevolent because he is almighty.
Likewise, the precondition to be benevolent in Aikido as a martial art, is to be almighty, or at least combined physical and technical superiority over one’s opponent. O-sensei had reached this stage before advocating the spirit-first Aikido. Those of us who have not achieved that high level of proficiency, cannot afford to be that benevolent. “Love your enemy” is the ultimate goal for us to achieve.
What may be a more practical goal in daily practice? As a minimum, you are not expected to compete with, or attempt to win over your partner. Yakusoku keiko, where the respective roles of tori and uke are predetermined, has been designed for this reason. Your “opponent” is not your enemy or even your competitor; he/she is your partner to help you learn the techniques. So, perhaps, it is more practical to practice with a “gentle” heart and with a maximum care for not injuring him/her, which I believe is the first step towards the ultimate goal of absolute and unconditional love.
Now turning to ki, the key element of Aikido, the first question is how to generate ki. According to O-sensei, you do it in the seiza (sit up straight) position. You do deep breathing, feel the breathing of the universe, collect and inhale the whole breath of the universe, and then exhale. This way you can adapt your breathing with the breathing of the universe. By repeating this deep breathing several times, you can absorb the energy of the universe. O-sensei did not give a specific name to this important exercise other than shuho (training method). This exercise should not be confused with mokuso in Zen Buddhism where the objective is to achieve the state of "mu (no-mindness)".
You do this exercise first, and then face your opponent, where you will begin to use your ki (mind). According to O-sensei, there seem to be four stages of ki usage: ki-gamae (mind-setting), ki-musubi (mind-joining), ki-no-nagare (mind-leading), and ki-osame (mind-sheathing). At the mind-setting stage, you must feel a sense of “oneness” or identity with the universe, or heaven, thereby absorbing the energy of the universe and freeing yourself from the gravity of the earth. This way, you are ready to move as freely as you wish, in other words, the “unity of mind and body” is achieved.
When you face your opponent, your mind tends to become aggressive or defensive against the opponent’s attack. But here the harmonious meeting of two minds is needed. At this mind-joining stage, you do not join your mind with the mind of your opponent. Instead, you feel as if you stand in the middle of the universe and absorb your opponent’s mind into yourself. This way, you can easily control your opponent’s mind and therefore body as well.
Then, you move to next stage of mind-leading. According to O-sensei, you have to lead your opponent’s mind and body in a circular way. O-sensei’s circle is a three-dimensional concept. So, he often illustrates the circular mind by a ball where there is no edge. Physically, circular movement includes horizontal circle, vertical circle and all types of diagonal circles. It seems to me that all irimi (entering) moves start with a vertical circle, while tenkan (turning) moves start with a horizontal circle. At the end of this stage, you execute your technique.
In so doing, you are preparing to put your active mind to rest by discharging energy. This is the mind-sheathing stage. You concentrate your mind into “tanden” , or one point in the abdomen, by deep breathing. This way you can collect discharged energy and store it in your tanden. Please note that tanden is a term used more popularly in Zen Buddhism than in Shinto, but I use it here, as O-sensei did use it, if not frequently.
Although O-sensei’s reasoning involving ki is sometimes difficult to follow, I do believe in his basic thesis that mind leads body and that ki energy is real, not imaginary. Therefore, by learning how to obtain and use ki you can increase the effectiveness of your techniques. Above is my interpretation of the usage of ki in Aikido practice.
To the extent that ki (mind) derives from shin (heart), then, practicing Aikido with gentle heart improves your skills. Higher level of skills forms the basis for a higher level of love. Perhaps, all of us Aikidoists are on the long journey of training towards the ultimate goal of absolute or unconditional love to our enemies.
Appendix: Sources of Information
O-sensei wrote, with his disciples, a couple of books on Aikido in the 1930’s as instructional materials for his students. As such, those two books, namely, Budo Renshu (Martial Art Exercise) (1933) and Budo (Martial Art) (1938) were circulated primarily among his students, and not among the public at large. Also, they are mostly about the technical aspect of Aikido with a brief explanation of its spiritual aspect. It was after WWⅡ(1945) that his thoughts on the spiritual aspect of Aikido have come to be widely known.
After WWⅡ, although he has not written any book by himself, he was involved in the production/publication of the following two books where his spiritual and religious views of Aikido are abundantly presented with little reference to the technical aspect.
1) Takemusu Aiki: Dictation of Master Morihei Ueshiba, by Hideo Takahashi (1976)
2) Aiki Shinzui (The True Spirit of Aikido): Sayings of Morihei Ueshiba, the Founder of Aikido, by Kisshomaru Ueshiba (1990)
Although Aiki Shinzui was published in 1990, the contents are the reproduction of O-sensei’s articles which were contributed to Aikido, Aikikai’s monthly journal beginning in 1950 through 1954, and Aikido Shinbun (Aikido Newspaper, also a monthly publication) from 1959 through 1968. It is interesting that this “blank period” between 1954 and 1959 is covered by Takemusu Aiki.
At any rate, in Aiki Shinzui, O-sensei’s articles were compiled/edited by Kisshomaru-sensei, O-sensei’s son and the 2nd Doshu. It was published with his name under the supervision of O-sensei. The book consists of seven chapters covering O-sensei’s thoughts on Aikido and one chapter covering the collection of 110 Aikido poems written by him.
According to O-sensei, Aikido is: the learning of soul (Ch. 1), love (Ch. 2), the expression of “Takemusu” (Ch. 3), the correct use of “ki” or breathing, (Ch.4), unification with the universe (Ch. 5), “misogi” or purification (Ch. 6), and identification with the Supreme God (Ch. 7). Ch. 8 presents his thoughts on Aikido in a poem form. I think his poems are more effective in conveying his thoughts than proses (which he rarely wrote), as he was a man of intuition and inspiration than that of reason and logic.
Takemusu Aiki is a collection of 32 speeches/lectures of O-sensei recorded by Hideo Takahashi, a member of Byakko Shinko Kai, a newly founded Shinto-based religion. As the founding editor of its monthly journal, Byakko, Takahashi interviewed O-sensei from 1958 through 1961 and published the records as articles in the journal primarily for the members. Later in 1976, he compiled those articles in a book form and published it commercially.
This book is valuable in that it presents O-sensei’s ideas/views with his own words in the form of quotation, separated from Takahashi’s explanation and interpretation. However, these 32 speeches/lectures were made more or less spontaneously, and O-sensei apparently did not bother to edit those pieces to present them in a systematic way. As a result, there are a lot of repetitions among the 32 pieces, as well as a lack of elaborations on certain key terms.
In addition to the above two books there are several other books useful in understanding O-sensei’s thoughts. The following three books present the authors’ interpretations of O-sensei’s thoughts in a logical way. Therefore, they are much easier to understand than the previous two books.
1) Aikido, by Kisshomaru Ueshiba under the supervision of O-sensei (1957)
2) Kojiki-to Ueshiba Morihei: Aikido-no Shinto Sekai (Records of Ancient Matters and Morihei Ueshiba: Shinto World of Aikido), by Yutaka Shimizu (2006)
3) Ueshiba Morihei-no Takemusu Aiki (Morihei Ueshiba’s Takemusu Aiki),
by Yutaka Shimizu (2006)
Aikido by Kisshomaru-sensei is the first “official” book on Aikido published in 1957. Then he was the chief instructor of Honbu Dojo, while O-sensei was
Doshu. Being the first publication by Aikikai, it is the introduction to Aikido
covering such topics as the spirit of Aikido, history of Aikido, basic techniques of Aikido, O-sensei’s biography, O-sensei’s poems and O-sensei’s interview. Of particular importance is the spirit of Aikido as interpreted by Kisshomaru-sensei and O-sensei’s interview by a couple of newspaper reporters. In the interview that Kisshomaru-sensei also attended, O-sensei explained his ideas on what Aikido is all about. His remarks were supplemented by Kisshomaru-sensei.
Yutaka Shimizu, the author of the remaining two books is a writer/instructor of various Japanese and Chinese martial arts including Aikido. He is also a researcher of Shinto. In addition to the above two books, he wrote a number of books and articles on the spiritual side of O-sensei’s Aikido. In doing so, he heavily relied on Takemusu Aiki and Aiki Shinzui as the sources of information. In both Ueshiba Morihei-no Takemusu Aiki and Kojiki-to Ueshiba Morihei, Shimizu interpreted O-sensei’s Aikido in the context of original Shinto as recorded in old history books.
End