First Things First or Ichi no Maki

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Most practitioners of Daito Ryu and Aikido are aware that the word “Aiki” is composed of two characters: The first character conveys the meaning “to unify, come together or fit.” The second character is commonly defined as energy or spirit. It is well known that together they mean the unification of “Ki” energy. What isn’t so commonly known is what these “Ki’s” that come together are, how they fit together, and what the significance of that is.

To answer these questions it is important to understand some general Chinese cosmology. And in order to understand Ueshiba Morihei’s explications on Aiki, one must also become familiar with the Japanese version of that same cosmology used extensively by him.

In Chinese cosmology, that prior to genesis is unknowable and ineffable emptiness (empty of all relativistic defining traits and characteristics such as time, space, existence, non-existence, etc.) This is called Wu in Chinese, or Mu in Japanese.

Wu/Mu “gives rise” (at least from our dualistic perspective) to a Singularity and that Singularity is known by and manifests as, a duality that is co-dependent and mutually arising. In Chinese, this duality is represented as Yin/Yang. (Please note for the future that this relationship itself “Singularity vs Duality” is co-dependent and mutually arising.)

In Japanese, Mu gives rise to Ichi-Rei (one spirit), which is composed of Ni Ki (Two Ki), two Ki’s that are Yin/Yang in Chinese or, in Japanese, In/Yo.

In/Yo represents any relationship that is mutually arising, codependent, and oppositional. They are mutually arising meaning that when one rises the other necessarily does too. They are codependent meaning that the one’s being is defined by the other’s being. They are oppositional in that one is the antithesis of the other.

These both have a common origin, the “O moto” or great (singular) origin, which is Ichi Rei (One Spirit) as mentioned above. How is this? Paradoxically Yin/Yang – In/Yo are inseparably linked as one since either gives rise to the other, and the absence of one necessitates the absence of the other.

When one sees the ubiquitous Yin/Yang symbol one is also seeing a visual representation of Aiki. The Yin/Yang symbol is representing the Singularity made known by the continuous inter penetration of Duality.

So Aiki as originally understood in Daito Ryu/Aikido, was the dynamic unification and the interplay between In/Yo.

It should be noted that there also exists a whole other, different, yet virtually identical cosmology that was also known by Sokaku Takeda, Ueshiba Morihei, and Shirata Rinjiro. That cosmology comes from Esoteric Buddhism of Indian origin, but influenced by the Chinese and, in turn, Japanese (and other cultures it came into contact with) as it made its way East. For the sake of simplicity, I won’t go into that presently.

Ki here doesn’t necessarily fit into strict categories such as Energy (measured by magnitude) or Force (having vector) as we know them. Rather, Ki, in its capacity as a phenomenological descriptor, carries aspects of both of these and more. Please keep this in mind as we move on to discuss various occurrences of Aiki and their utility.

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