The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Japanese Aikido T-Shirt

Zen Saying T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Zen saying Jiki Shin Kore Dojo, meaning The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo, also rendered as The Straightforward Mind Is The Place Of Practice, The Direct Mind Is The Place Of Enlightenment. The fluid calligraphy is available in the cursive or semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. This original Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a rare creative gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any other important moment|celebration.

The Dawn of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido is known as the Art of Peace. Not only Aikido but authentic martial arts are based on a philosophy of harmony and conciliation. To an amateur this statement can be hard to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners hit each other at high speed. Even so it is true, the fundamental doctrine of aikido and many martial arts are harmony and tranquility.

Aikido was developed by Morihei Ueshiba, born in Japan in 1883 to a family of farmers. Strangely, he was quite feeble as a kid and youngster and he spend numerous hours reading and on quiet activities. It is said that he even considered becoming ordained as a Buddhist monk. It is quite fantastic that he later created a string of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would envision the creator  of the popular Aikido martial arts.

Despite everything, Morihei Ueshiba came from a lineage of samurais and his father would tell him all the time about the deeds  and audacity of his granddad. Ueshiba's father was involved in politics and one day he saw how the followers of a rival political group attacked his father. It was that day that he resolved to work on his body .

He learned jujitsu and judo, among other martial arts, but he didn't really make them his own for several years. At the time, the early 1900s, he was an infantryman in the Japanese army and he showed such capabilities that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nevertheless, he left the army and went back to the family farm. In 1912 he moved with his wife to Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

Morihei Ueshiba's aikido took inspiration from older martial arts practices from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he practiced seriously with sensei Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was then and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba started taking the study and practice of martial arts wholeheartedly.

After Morihei Ueshiba left the island of Hokkaido, he got to know Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice derived from traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made a significant impact on Ueshiba. This would contribute considerably to the spiritual doctrine of Aikido.

Uesiba created the Aikido martial arts between 1925 and 1942 and gave it different names. During these years, he had some spiritual experiences and grasped  that the true purpose of a real warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to prevent slaughter.

In 1942, he moved to Iwama from Tokyo and started a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. He began calling his practice Aikido for the first time. Aikido is usually rendered as The Way of the Harmonious Spirit, The Way of Unifying with Life Energy or Ki.

He taught the Aikido martial art for circa twenty years and he became known as O Sensei, meaning Great Teacher or Great Master.

In spite ofhis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him a few times. Before his death in 1969 Aikido had already spread to Europe, Australia and the United States. Today Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced all over the world.

Ueshiba created a method that has helped innumerable people across the world. A number of decades after his passing, Aikido practitioners still see him as their supreme teacher, their Sensei, their master.

Aikido T-shirt