Japanese Aikido T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Zen 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 free flowing calligraphy is available in the cursive or semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. This original Japanese Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a rare motivational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any other significant moment|celebration.
The Origins of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Master 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 layman this assertion can be hard to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners hit each other at high speed. Even so it is true, the fundamental 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. Paradoxically, he was quite frail as a kid and boy 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 fantastic that he later created a string of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would envision the founder of the popular Aikido martial arts.
Regardless, Morihei Ueshiba came from a tradition of samurais and his father would tell him frequently about the deeds and courage of his grandfather. Ueshiba's father was into politics and one day he saw how the supporters of a competing political group attacked his father. It was that day that he resolved to work on his physical shape .
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 a foot soldier in the Japanese army and he displayed such promise that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nevertheless, he retired from 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 took inspiration from 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 then and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and practice of martial arts wholeheartedly.
After Morihei Ueshiba departed from Hokkaido, he met Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice based on traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made a crucial impact on Ueshiba. This would contribute considerably to the spiritual principles underlying Aikido.
Uesiba created the Aikido martial arts between 1925 and 1942 and gave it several names. During these years, he had some spiritual experiences and realized that the true purpose of a genuine warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to prevent slaughter.
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 translated 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, meaning 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 spread to Europe, Australia and the United States. Today Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced across the world.
Ueshiba devised a system that has helped countless people across the world. A number of decades after his death, Aikido practitioners still see him as their ultimate teacher, their Sensei, their master.
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Japanese Zen T-Shirt
Sunday, 4 February 2018
Japanese Zen EnsoT-Shirt with Original Zen Enso Circle Calligraphy
Meditative Zen Enso Circle t-shirts and apparel show your Zen aspirations in an artistic form. The popular Zen Enso on t-shirts and apparel is a splendid form of Japanese zen art that will inspire you and anyone who see it when you are wearing the Zen Enso Circle t-shirt swearshirt or hoodie.
In Zen Buddhism the Zen Circle is seen as a symbol of enlightenment, infinity, the universe -the unsurpassed meditative state, the search for enlightenment. In fact, a Zen circle can express many concepts in Zen Buddhism such as the endless circle of birth, death and rebirth or form and emptiness.
There aren’t rigid, fixed rules to draw a Zen Enso Circle as an enso manifests your state of mind when you shape and create it. A Zen Circle can be peaceful or spirited, calm or energetic, expansive or conservative. There are no two ensos alike. A famous Zen Enso Circle by Fukushima Keido, a Japanese Rinzai Zen master who passed away in 2011 had the form of a triangle, but the Zen master considered it an enso all the same.
Most Zen enso Circles start at the lower left, but they can be brushed from any point of the circle. Creating a Zen Circle isn’t about brushing a flawless; imperfect is perfectly acceptable, because it is people who draw the universal circle. The ink doesn’t have to be deep black all around the circle either, it can fade or vary, and can be wet or dry. Finally, the Zen Enso may be open or closed as well.
The Zen Enso has become one of the most widespread images of Zen art, at least in the West, and the symbol of Japanese Zen aesthetics and spiritual arts.
Traditionally, the tools and principles used for brushing an enso are the same as in traditional Japanese calligraphy: brush, ink and rice paper. Usually, you brush a circle in one fluid stroke and once you have created the enso, you don’t change it in any way. It is what it is at that moment, which is like saying the expression of your mind at that very moment.
Brushing a Zen Enso Circle is a spiritual practice that anyone can incorporate into their lives. It is the Way of the Brush, as Japanese calligraphy is seen.