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The Meaning of Ai-Ki-Do
Aikido means the Way of Harmonizing Energies, and was the name
given by Morihei Ueshiba to the martial art he developed from the Daito-ryu
Aiki-jujitsu that he had been taught by Sokaku Takeda.
Aikido is written with three kanji, or Chinese characters.
Buddhist monks in the 6th century A.D. brought to Japan the ideographic Chinese
writing system wherein each character conveys a meaning. This stands in
contrast to alphabetic writing systems, wherein each character conveys a sound.
Because kanji convey meanings rather than sounds, the same character can be
pronounced differently by people who speak different languages. For
instance, the character which is pronounced ki in Japanese is pronounced as chi
by speakers of Mandarin Chinese. This is because while both Japanese and
Chinese agree that the character means Energy, it is the case that the word for
energy in Japanese is pronounced ki, while in Mandarin Chinese it is pronounced
chi.
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This character means blending or harmonizing. It is
pronounced ai by the Japanese. Because it is pronounced hap by the
Koreans, they read the three characters as Hapkido, which is to say that the
name of the Korean martial art called Hapkido is written with the same three
characters as is Aikido. That is because it was founded by Young Sool Choi,
who studied Aiki-jujitsu under the same man, Sokaku Takeda, as did the
founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. |
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This character means energy. As mentioned above, the
Japanese pronounce it ki. However, energy here should be thought of
metaphysically as well as physically. One does not just mean the power
to move physical things or magnetism or electricity. The founder of
Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, was a believer in the Omoto branch of the
indigenous Japanese religion of Shinto. Omoto practitioners believed
that everything in the Universe, material or not, was ultimately derived
from sound energy. Consequently one should strive to harmonize one's
energy with the Universe, and the Universal vibration. |
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This character means road, path, or way. It is
pronounced do (with a hard oh sound like Homer Simpson cursing: Doh!) by the
Japanese and Tao by the Chinese. It is the same Tao as in Taoism.
It conveys the metaphorical and poetic meaning of a proper life path, as in
"follow the way of peace." So, Aikido means the Way of Harmonizing
Energies. The idea is that an attacker is simply out of harmony with
the Universe, and that your job is not to kick his ass but, rather, to
help him regain harmony with the Universe. That is why Aikido favors
techniques that can restrain the attacker without hurting him. |
Whereas Tokaku Sakeda taught Aiki-jujitsu, or Techniques that
Harmonize Energies, Ueshiba wished to make his art form a spiritual path in its
own right. The older system had a bunch of techniques that were good in a
fight because they allowed you to blend with your enemy and use his energy
against him. Ueshiba wanted something more. He wanted a spiritual
path, a Do. Hence, as he pursued Omoto spiritual practice, he
re-Christened his art as Aikido to indicate that it was a spiritual path rather
than just a kick butt fighting system.
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