修行会

10「あるとあれ太刀習って何かせん唯一筋に思ひ切るべし。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka

あるとあれ
太刀習って
何かせん
唯一筋に
思ひ切るべし

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Be that as it may—having studied the sword, then what? Cut off all wavering and devote, single‑minded, to the one straight path.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation

Be that as it may,
learned the way of the long sword—
what would that avail?

with but a single purpose,
sever doubt—decide—be thus.

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

あるとあれ（あるとあれ）
太刀を習ひて（たちをならひて）
何かせむ（なにかせむ[-ん]）
ただ一筋に（ただひとすじに）
思ひ切るべし（おもひきるべし）

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

aru to are
tachi o narahite
nani ka sen
tada hitosuji ni
omohi kiru beshi

Ueshiba Morihei

Aikikai Romanization¹

“Aru to are tachi naratte nanika sen Tada hitosuji ni omoikiru besu.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Aikikai Practice Notes¹

funekogi, furitama, nipo [p+] tenkan*

Notes

¹ Referenced in Aikido at Home #3 during Covid Crisis May 19, 2020

Translation, Notes, Commentary, and Research by Latex G. N. R. Space-Coyote

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–010: What would you yet do? (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/pmgs

あるとあれ / 有るとあれ（aru to are）— “be it as it may”, “be that as it may”, “even if it be so”, “whatever there be”. Here と is quotative / conditional and あれ is the imperative of the ラ変 verb あり used in the permissive / concessive “let it be” sense (命令形の放任法) seen in set phrases like 「何事にてもあれ」 (“whatever the matter may be”; cf. Shirane, 2005).

太刀（たち; tachi） — sword; in classical poetry, the tachi often symbolized a warrior’s identity, strength, and honor.

太刀習って（たちをならって）— “having trained / learned the sword.” In budō discourse, tachi (sword) often stands for martial training as a whole, not just blade work.

太刀を習ひて（たちをならひて）— “having trained in the long sword.” 太刀（たち）denotes the long, slung sword (as opposed to 打刀), a culturally charged metonym for bujutsu / budō discipline. The conjunctive ‑ひて is the classical ‑て after a 四段 verb (習ふ) in 連用形 (Kotobank, n.d.); tachi‑o narahite “having learned the sword (arts)”; 太刀 also pivots to 断ち (tachi, “cutting off”) as a possible 掛詞 (Carter, 2019; Waseda IAS, 2022).

何かせん（なにかせん）— literally “what shall (one) do?”; a rhetorical nudge: “what will you actually do with it?” / “what’s it for?”.

何かせむ（なにかせむ[-ん]）— literally “what shall (we) do?” The interrogative 何 plus か signals question / stance, and せむ (classical volitional of す) here conveys “what is there to do (but…)?”; the final む is read ん (see above). か is one of the focus particles that trigger kakarimusubi behavior; with む the form is identical in 終止/連体, but the interrogative force is clear.

唯一筋に（ただひとすじに）— “into the single line / path”; suji is a “line,” “strand,” or guiding principle. Here it means “the sole course,” (i.e., undivided commitment); ただひとすじに – “single‑heartedly; with one straight path.” 一筋（ひとすじ） carries the senses “one strand / line” and figuratively “single‑minded, unwavering”; the compound 唯一筋（ゆいいっすじ） is a Sino‑Japanese equivalent with the same pragmatic force (see Kotobank, n.d.).

思ひ切るべし（おもひきるべし）— “one ought to resolve decisively / cut off hesitation.” 思ひ切る is ‘to make up one’s mind, to sever attachment’; べし is the classical modal with deontic and epistemic values (obligation/appropriateness, strong inference). Here the deontic “ought to/must” fits the imperative ethic of training (cf. Carter, 2019; Narrog, 2002; Shirane, 2005).

Kami‑no‑ku and shimo-no-ku. “Be that as it may—having studied sword—what (good) would it do?”
The phrase sets up a concessive stance, then questions instrumentality. “Single‑mindedly, you should omohi‑kiru—cut off vacillation / decide.”

掛詞 / Pivot. 太刀 (tachi, “sword”) pivots to 断ち (tachi, “cutting off”), and 切る (to cut) puns through 思ひ切る (“to make up one’s mind”), a classical economy that waka prizes (cf. Carter, 2019; Waseda IAS, 2022).

切れ / Kire. No explicit kireji appears in the source, but the syntactic break after 何かせん functions as a cut between problem and directive—common in waka, where lineation + modality (here べし) supply closure (Carter, 2019; “Kireji”, 2025).

余韻 / Yoin (after‑tone). Ending on the modality べし leaves a normative resonance (“it should be done”), an after‑tone akin to the aesthetics of 余情/言外の情趣 in waka criticism (Ōishi, 2007; Tsuchida, 2024).

Grammar. The concessive X とあれ (“even if…”) and the deontic べし are standard bungo; む → ん (here せん) is the expected contraction (Shirane, 2005).

Lection: Writing 唯一筋 yet reading ただひとすじ follows common waka practice where graphs carry sense while kana supply the classical reading (Carter, 2019).

Kakekotoba economy. Exploiting 太刀／断ち and 切る／思ひ切る compresses ethical injunction (“cut off indecision”) into martial imagery—canonical waka technique (Carter, 2019; Waseda IAS, 2022).

Ueshiba’s dōka: Short, aphoristic waka‑style verses by Ueshiba are widely transmitted; the present line appears in multiple dōka lists and critical translations. Read as a tanka, it enacts the founder’s pedagogy: technique matters less than a single path decided without hesitation.

Religious framing: Ueshiba’s worldview was deeply shaped by Ōmoto‑kyō (Deguchi Onisaburō) and kotodama practice; his dōka frequently compress Shintō‑inflected ethics into compact verse (Stalker, 2008; Greenhalgh, 2003; Aikido Journal, 2011).

Martial modernities: Read against modern budō discourse (often reconstructed in the late 19th–20th centuries), the poem’s “single line” ethic aligns with self‑cultivation ideals rather than technique accumulation (cf. Benesch, 2016).

Textual variants exist. Some transmit 思い斬るべし (斬る “to cut down”), which intensifies the sword/decision pun while preserving the ethical force (AikiTakemusu, 2014).