The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Zen T-Shirt

Japanese Aikido T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Aikido saying Jiki Shin Kore Dojo, meaning The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo, also translated 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 Japanese Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a singular inspirational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any important event|celebration.

The Dawn of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Sensei Morihei Ueshiba

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

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

Regardless, Morihei Ueshiba came from a heritage of samurais and his father would tell him frequently about the adventures  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 beat his father up. 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 military and he displayed such promise that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nevertheless, he left the armed forces 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 has many influences of older martial arts training from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he learned seriously with sensei Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was then and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and training of martial arts seriously.

After Morihei Ueshiba left the northern 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 effect on Ueshiba. This would contribute enormously to the spiritual philosophy underlying Aikido.

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

In 1942, he relocated to Iwama from Tokyo and started a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. He started calling his practice Aikido for the first time. Aikido is frequently translated 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.

Despitehis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him a few times. Before his death in 1969 Aikido had already expanded to several European countries, Australia and the US. Today Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced across the world.

Ueshiba developed a method that has helped countless people throughout the world. Some decades after his passing, Aikido practitioners still consider him their supreme teacher, their greatest master, their incomparable Sensei.

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