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

Japanese Aikido T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Zen maxim Jiki Shin Kore Dojo, meaning The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo, that can also be translated as The Straightforward Mind Is The Place Of Practice, The Direct Mind Is The Place Of Enlightenment. The fluent flowing calligraphy is available in the cursive or semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. This original Aikido saying calligraphy T-shirt makes a singular motivational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any other special occasion|celebration.

The Birth of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido is known as the Art of Harmony. Not only Aikido but genuine martial arts are based on a philosophy of peacefulness and concord. To a layperson this affirmation can be difficult to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners hit each other at high tempo. Even so it is true, the key truth of aikido and many martial arts are harmony and tranquility.

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

Despite everything, Morihei Ueshiba came from a lineage of samurais and his father would tell him often about the deeds  and audacity of his granddad. Ueshiba's father was into politics and one day he saw how the supporters of a rival political group attacked his father. That same day he decided to work on his body .

He explored 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 a foot soldier in the Japanese armed forces and he displayed such potential that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nevertheless, he quit the army and went back to the family farm. In 1912 he relocated with his wife to Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

Morihei Ueshiba's aikido has many influences of previous martial arts training from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he practiced in earnest with master Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was at that time and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and training of martial arts wholeheartedly.

After Morihei Ueshiba departed from Hokkaido, he met Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice derived from traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made a crucial effect on Ueshiba. This would contribute greatly to the spiritual principles of Aikido.

Uesiba created the Aikido martial arts between 1925 and 1942 and gave it several names. During these years, he had a number of spiritual experiences and understood  that the true intention of a genuine warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to ward off killing.

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

He taught the Aikido martial art for approximately 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 throughout the world.

Ueshiba created a system that has assisted innumerable people across the world. A number of decades after his passing, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their unmatched teacher, their greatest master, their incomparable Sensei.

The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo