修行会

131「こんげんの気はみちみちてけんこんや造化もここにはじめけるかな。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka

こんげんの
気はみちみちて
けんこんや
造化もここに
はじめけるかな

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Of the primal source’s ki filled to overflowing, heaven and earth—O!—even nature begins here, indeed, beginning has been realized—Wow—” – Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation

Primal Source’s own
ki filled and overflowing,
heaven and earth—O—

creation so begins here,
beginning, realized—Wow—

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

根源の（こんげんの）
氣は滿ち滿ちて（きはみちみちて）
乾坤や（けんこんや）
造化もここに（ぞうかもここに）
始めけるかな（はじめけるかな）

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

Kongen no
ki wa michi‑michite
kenkon ya
zōka mo koko ni
hajimekeru kana

Ueshiba Morihei

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–131: Source of ki overflows (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. https://shugyokai.org/i8ff (Original work published 1977)

根源（こんげん; kongen）— “root / origin,” paired with 気 / 氣 (ki), points to a primal, cosmogenic breath / energy in Ueshiba’s discourse rather than a local, physical “root”.

根源の（こんげんの; kongen no）— “of the source / origin”.

気 / 氣（ki）— vital breath / [life-]force; in Ueshiba’s usage, the living current that permeates beings and the cosmos; in Japanese martial and healing traditions, ki or qi is a pervasive animating principle that links body, mind, and cosmos (Ohnishi & Ohnishi, 2009).

みちみちて / 滿ち滿ちて（michimichite）— intensifies 満ちる “to be full, to fill up”, michi‑michi = “brimming / filled to the brim” (i.e., filling and overflowing); the verb michimichite evokes a vessel filled to overflowing—ki at plenitude; reduplication of verbs / adjectives as intensification is standard in classical Japanese; kakekotoba as (a) 滿ち (みち; michi) “to be full, to fill up”, and (b) 道 (みち; michi) as “the way” even if not strict canonized kakekotoba.

気はみちみちて（ki wa michimichite）— “the ki is brimming to fullness” (michimichiru = to be full to the brim); considering kakekotoba of (a) 滿ち, and (b) 道 therefore “the ki is brimming to fullness”, “the ki is the way brimming”, and “the ki is pathway [of] ways” which makes sense according to characteristics of ki as an animating force (linguistically, phenomenally etc.).

乾坤（けんこん; kenkon）— classical binome Heaven–Earth, from 易経 (Yijing) Qian 乾 (heaven, pure yang) and Kun 坤 (earth, pure yin); used broadly for the cosmic pair; Japanese dictionaries gloss 乾 in 乾坤 as “heaven / sky” and note its association with yang, emperorship, and the northwest direction.

や（ya）— — here functions as an exclamative that creates a 切れ字 (kireji) cut (kire) after line 3, a classical poetic effect; ける (attrib. of けり) + かな gives an evidential–exclamatory close typical of waka diction; ends the kami-no-ku with an apostrophic cry (e.g., “Heaven and Earth—O!”, tense equivalence to “O Heaven and Earth!”, though functionally inequivalent as a budōka).

乾坤や（けんこんや; kenkon ya）— “O Heaven and Earth!” (exclamatory ya); Kenkon (乾坤): the paired poles Heaven–Earth (cf. Qian–Kun in the Yijing), a common Sino‑Japanese cosmological dyad. Calling out “kenkon ya” mirrors classical waka’s apostrophic “O…!”!!!!

造化（ぞうか; zōka）— in literary usage means both “creation / creative transformation” and “Nature” (the generative working of the cosmos); not merely “creation” as a one‑time event, but the generative-transformative activity of nature / the kami—the same idiom that underlies phrases like zōka no myō (“the wondrous work of creation”).

ここ（ここ; koko）— Ueshiba often locates “here” in the practitioner’s own center (hara, 丹田) and in the dōjō’s living moment; thus “even creation begins here” points to the microcosm where Heaven and Earth are conjoined through disciplined body‑mind.

造化もここに（ぞうかもここに; zōka mo koko ni）— “even Creation here” (zōka = creation / nature’s generative working) hajimekeru kana: “indeed begins!” (classical exclamatory ending).

始め（はじめ; hajime) — continuative form of 始む／始める “to begin”.

ける（keru) — attributive (連体形) of auxiliary けり. In classical Japanese, けり expresses realized past or sudden realization (“ah, it has begun!”) and often combines with exclamative particles in waka.

かな（kana) — 終助詞 (final particle) expressing exclamation, emotion, often with a touch of wonder or reflection. Classical grammars list かな as a standard waka‑ending exclamative.

はじめけるかな（hajimekeru kana）— approximately “has (indeed) begun, how wondrous!”; classic evidential exclamatory close typical of waka.

Function words and endings are classical. ける (連体形 of けり) before かな gives the well‑attested evidential/exclamatory tone of waka endings; や marks an internal cut; も (‘even/also’) and に (locative) behave canonically.

Lexis is historically appropriate. 乾坤, 造化, 根源, 氣/気 are Sino‑Japanese literary items common to classical diction.

Orthography. Presenting 氣 / 滿 (kyūjitai) and reduplication 滿ち滿ち is in line with pre‑postwar orthographic norms. 

5–7–5–7–7 with a mid‑poem cut. Placing や at the end of the kami‑no‑ku creates a rhetorical and rhythmic cut before the shimo‑no‑ku, a pattern extensively discussed in classical poetry criticism.

Exclamatives at closure. Finishing with …けるかな reproduces the classical exclamative close, a strategy noted in waka / haikai poetics (use of けり／かな for emotive culmination).

Waka as one unbroken line vs. editorial five lines. While Heian‑style calligraphy often writes waka as a continuous stream¹, modern scholarly and didactic practice prints 5 separate lines to show 5–7–5–7–7 and the kami / shimo turn; that’s what is done here.

Kami-no-ku and shimo-no-ku. The tanka’s kami‑no‑ku concentrates the image of primordial ki filling the cosmos and hails Heaven–Earth; the shimo‑no‑ku completes the thought by situating creation’s beginning “here”—the embodied locus where cosmic forces are harmonized.

Ueshiba’s cosmology. Calling on 乾坤 (Heaven–Earth) and 造化 (creation) reflects the synthesis of Shintō cosmology and Ōmoto-influenced spirituality central to Ueshiba’s teaching. Scholarly treatments of Shintō (cosmos, kami, creation) and of Ōmoto’s ideas (Deguchi Onisaburō) explain the background in which such language thrives.

Aikidō’s spiritual genealogy. Histories and studies note Ueshiba’s deep ties to Deguchi and Ōmoto as shaping the ethical–cosmological frame of aikidō (e.g., Heaven–Earth joining in the practitioner). 

‘Ki’ as world‑pervading vitality. Academic work on aikidō and Japanese religions discusses ki as an animating principle binding self, community, and cosmos—precisely what “根源の気は満ち満ちて…” enacts poetically.

Shugyokai note. Remember, “here” is an orthogonality across the entire plain all at once, from sky to ocean floor.