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 distinctive Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a rare creative gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any special occasion|celebration.
The Genesis of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Sensei Morihei Ueshiba
Aikido is known as the Art of Peacefulness. Not only Aikido but true martial arts are based on a philosophy of harmony and reconciliation. To a layman this statement can be difficult to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners strike at each other at high speed. However it is true, the fundamental principles of aikido and numerous 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 numerous hours reading and on quiet activities. It is said that he even considered becoming a Buddhist monk. It is quite remarkable that he later developed a series of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would envisage the founder of the popular Aikido martial arts.
Despite everything, Morihei Ueshiba came from a lineage of samurais and his father would tell him all the time about the adventures and audacity of his grandfather. Ueshiba's father was involved in politics and one day he saw how the followers of a rival political group attacked his father. It was that day that he resolved to work on his physical shape .
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 an infantryman in the Japanese military and he displayed such promise that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nevertheless, he left 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 seriously with master Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was at this point and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and training of martial arts seriously.
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 effect on Ueshiba. This would contribute considerably to the spiritual tenets of Aikido.
Uesiba developed 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 real warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to ward off slaughter.
In 1942, he moved 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, meaning Great Teacher or Great Master.
Despitehis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him a few times. Before his death in 1969 Aikido had already spread to several European countries, Australia and the USA. Nowadays Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced across the world.
Ueshiba created a practice that has assisted countless people throughout the world. Some decades after his death, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their supreme teacher, their Sensei, their master.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Aikido T-Shirt
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Japanese Zen EnsoT-Shirt with Original Zen 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 t-shirt swearshirt or hoodie.
In Zen Buddhism the Zen Circle is seen as a representation of enlightenment, infinity, the universe -the unsurpassed meditative state, the pursuit of enlightenment. Actually , a Zen circle can express many concepts in Zen Buddhism such as the unceasing circle of birth, death and rebirth or form and emptiness.
There aren’t strict, fixed rules to brush a Zen Enso as an ensou manifests your state of mind when you shape and create it. An Enso Circle can be peaceful or spirited, serene or energetic, expansive or sober. There are no two ensos alike. A famous Zen Enso by Fukushima Keido, a Japanese Rinzai Zen master who died in 2011 had the form of a triangle, but the Zen master considered it an enso all the same.
Most Zen circles start at the lower left, but they can be brushed from any point of the circle. Creating a Zen Enso isn’t about drawing a perfect; imperfect is perfectly acceptable, because it is humans 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 Enso circle may be open or closed as well.
The Enso Circle has become one of the most predominant 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 modify 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 is a spiritual practice that anyone can integrate in their lives. It is the Way of the Brush, as Japanese calligraphy is grasped.