Aikido, the Spiritual Martial Art

Fact: The vast majority of those present for Ueshiba Morihei’s lectures had no substantial background in, or extensive knowledge of, the religions that influenced the models Ueshiba used to explain his understandings in the lectures.

Fact: The vast majority of those present during Ueshiba Morihei’s lectures admitted that they did not understand the content of the lectures.

Fact: Ueshiba Morihei, understandably, changed the content of his lectures to suit his audience. And, even still, most did not understand what he was trying to communicate.

Fact: Ueshiba Kisshomaru and Tohei Koichi changed the content and delivery of Ueshiba Morihei words to make them more marketable, not only in post-war Japan but throughout the rest of the world. One can even see Tohei Koichi doing this live as he interpreted Ueshiba’s speaking for the Rendez-Vous with Adventure TV show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS3i-oKno_A

Fact: The majority of those that studied with Ueshiba when he was actively teaching and therefore spent a substantial amount of time with Ueshiba Morihei, did not highly emphasize the “spiritual” side of Aikido. Yoichiro Inoue created his own art and had his own spirituality. Tomiki Kenji founded a separate branch of Aikido with little emphasis on spirituality. Mochizuki Minoru founded his own art. Shioda Gozo founded a separate branch of Aikido and wasn’t known for emphasizing spirituality. Shirata Rinjiro was exceptional in that he didn’t found a separate branch of Aikido or a separate art. He was also different from his peers in that he was raised in an Omoto household and among the teaching duties given to him by Ueshiba, he taught the Omoto Senyokai. He also practiced Shugendo Shugyo in the manner of his teacher Ueshiba Morihei. Nevertheless, as can one can see in videos of him teaching, his spiritual lectures were largely limited to quoting Ueshiba directly and sharing Ueshiba’s teaching models. (And both the quotes and models are easily factually substantiated.) Saito Morihiro became defacto separated from the Tokyo Hombu, and while certainly exposed to Ueshiba’s daily religious practices, didn’t place an inordinate emphasis upon them.

Fact: The majority of those sent abroad to spread Aikido were juniors to Ueshiba Kisshomaru and Tohei Koichi and, as a natural consequence, they spread the changed messaging and delivery of Ueshiba Kisshomaru and/or Tohei Koichi. Those that added more usually did so based upon their own subjective understanding which often varied greatly from individual to individual.

Fact: For most within and outside of Japan, the above facts were, and to a large degree remain, virtually unknown.

This last fact explains why, despite the preceding facts, the “spirituality” of Aikido became, and remains, the most commonly taught, lectured, written about, known AND the most diverse aspect of Aikido in those branches of Aikido that emphasize spirituality. This eclectic spirituality attributed to Ueshiba Morihei is what defines Aikido AS Aikido for the majority of those Aikido practitioners.

Many, if not most, of those individuals legitimately “learned” what they thought the spiritual teachings of Ueshiba were from their teachers, who probably thought that they legitimately “learned” those teachings as well. It is important to note that most of those that strongly felt that they learned these spiritual teachings from Ueshiba Morihei often did not spend a substantial amount of time directly under his tutelage. Their instruction seems to have been based more upon inspiration rather than on apprenticeship. Outside Japan, the sky was the limit as far as interpretation was concerned because Ueshiba Morihei’s lectures were for the most part unknown and uncomprehended. Those parts that were widely known were cherry-picked and heavily edited, and then re-edited in translation. And, as in the telephone game, the message can be morphed, misconstrued, and even misrepresented over time.

It has been about 70 years since Ueshiba Morihei retired. For the majority of that time the “party line” was virtually the only line known, both in Japan and internationally, with a few tweaks here and there to make sure that each group could identify themselves as the legitimate heir to the true “tradition.” In this way, the “party line” became the “tradition” by which other “lines” are now measured. And to point out factual contradiction was (thank you Stanely Pranin) and is (thank you Chris Li) to make the comfortable uncomfortable, and to threaten the legitimacy and hierarchy of organizations and thereby also to threaten their financial wellbeing. That is to say, “Them thar’s fighting words!”

While change is inevitable. And with today’s increased communication more facts are being made known more often, people’s understandings and beliefs are unlikely to change quickly. Why? Because when people have invested in a belief system, make that system part of their identity, take comfort in it and benefit from it, what is the motivation for change? Another factor is that unbiased translation (it can be well argued that there is no such thing as unbiased translation) of Ueshiba Morihei is largely relegated to Aikido history geeks and is largely available only outside of Japan. Even still, those digging for original material and providing an unbiased translation of the same, inevitably have “skin in the game.” And, as such, much of what would probably be considered objectionable material by those who would like to forget the actions and beliefs popularly espoused by Ueshiba and his peers during the period in which Ueshiba was most active will never see the light of day.

It was this same process by which Daito Ryu and Sokaku Takeda were effectively relegated to obscurity for decades. As Takeda Sokaku became a better-known part of Ueshiba’s martial heritage, Takeda became increasingly vilified by those that felt Takeda’s presence threatened Ueshiba Morihei’s primacy. One of the tacts taken was to paint Daito Ryu as brutal and bereft of moral and/or spiritual values. This narrative was capitalized upon by some individuals that took their Aikido knowledge and “hardened” it claiming it to be Aiki Jujutsu. As actual Daito Ryu became better known, both the narrative of brutality and those attempting to capitalize off of those attracted to that narrative, began to be seen for what they were. As various branches of Daito Ryu became better known and some Daito Ryu teachers became known for being able to deliver on the earliest technical claims of Aikido, some with Aikido began to study Daito Ryu. Others doubled down on the narrative that Aikido is a “spiritual art” not just a martial art. While some claimed that Aikido isn’t martial at all, others argued about its use “on the street.”

Of course, it is increasingly coming to light that the spiritual ideals that supposedly originated with Ueshiba Morihei as he “transformed” first many martial arts, and later corrected to primarily Daito Ryu, into a Spiritual Way, were actually present within Daito Ryu before Ueshiba Morihei began to study under Takeda Sokaku, just as was the usage of the term Aiki. This ought not to be terribly surprising considering that most Japanese martial traditions have some significant spiritual component. It is, however, an interesting counter-narrative to those that claimed that Ueshiba studied many brutal martial arts and transformed them into a uniquely original spiritual martial art with a singular claim to promoting peace and love.

So, yeah, sure, Aikido is a “spiritual” martial art that can have as many diverse spiritual nuances as one want to attribute to it, just as it can be special and uniquely valuable to personally. Why not? However, I think one would be hard pressed to factually substantiate that one’s own Aikido spiritual beliefs/understandings/teachings are one and the same as those of Ueshiba Morihei, even though this is a commonly implied.

Of course, Ueshiba stated that Aikido isn’t a religion (a system of beliefs and/or dogma). He said that it “completes” religions.

How?

Well, he explained that many times in his lectures . . . or you could just ask around.  I’m sure you’ll get plenty of answers!

I ought to have some time on my hands between seminars in Europe so stay tuned!

~ Allen

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