The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Zen Saying 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, that can also be 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 Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a rare inspirational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any other special event|celebration.

The Birth of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Master Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido is known as the Art of Peacefulness. Not only Aikido but authentic martial arts are based on a philosophy of peacefulness and conciliation. To a layperson this statement can be hard to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners strike at each other at high pace. Even so it is true, the underlying doctrine 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 delicate as a kid and boy 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 remarkable that he later established a series of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would envision the founder  of the popular Aikido martial arts.

In spite of everything, Morihei Ueshiba came from a heritage of samurais and his father would tell him all the time about the deeds  and bravery of his grandfather. Ueshiba's father was involved in politics and one day he saw how the followers of a competing political group beat his father up. That same day he decided to work on his physical shape .

He studied 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 retired from 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 older martial arts practices from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he practiced in earnest with sensei 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 seriously.

After Morihei Ueshiba departed from 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 crucial effect on Ueshiba. This would contribute greatly to the spiritual philosophy underlying Aikido.

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

In 1942, he moved to Iwama from Tokyo and opened a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. He began calling his practice Aikido for the first time. Aikido is often rendered 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, which means Great Teacher or Great Master.

In spite ofhis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him a few times. Before his passing in 1969 Aikido had already expanded 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 devised a practice that has assisted innumerable people all over the world. A number of decades after his death, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their supreme teacher, their greatest master, their incomparable Sensei.

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