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

Aikido T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Zen aphorism 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 fluent flowing calligraphy is available in the cursive or semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. This original Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a unique motivational 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 Emergence of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido is known as the Art of Harmony. Not only Aikido but true martial arts are based on a philosophy of harmony and conciliation. To an amateur this affirmation can be hard to believe when you see how Aikido practitioners strike at each other at high pace. Even so it is true, the fundamental doctrine of aikido and a lot of martial arts are harmony and tranquility.

Aikido was founded 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 a Buddhist monk. It is quite impressive that he later created a series of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would imagine the mastermind  of the widespread Aikido martial arts.

Regardless, Morihei Ueshiba came from a lineage of samurais and his father would tell him often about the adventures  and courage of his granddad. Ueshiba's father was into politics and one day he saw how the supporters of a competing political group assaulted his father. That same day he resolved to work on his physical condition .

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 armed forces and he showed such capabilities that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Even so, he left the armed forces 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 started taking the study and training of martial arts wholeheartedly.

After Morihei Ueshiba left Hokkaido, he met Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice derived from traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made an extraordinary impact on Ueshiba. This would contribute considerably to the spiritual principles underlying Aikido.

Uesiba developed the Aikido martial arts between 1925 and 1942 and gave it different names. During these years, he had several spiritual experiences and grasped  that the true intention of a genuine warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to prevent 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 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 about twenty years and he became known as O Sensei, which means Great Teacher or Great Master.

Despitehis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him several times. Before his death in 1969 Aikido had already spread to several European countries, Australia and the United States. Nowadays Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced throughout the world.

Ueshiba created a practice that has assisted many thousands of people across the world. Some decades after his death, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their unmatched teacher, their greatest master, their incomparable Sensei.

Aikido T-shirt