修行会

解説

この第138首「主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら／世のいとなみの／本となりぬる」は、「主（す）の御親＝根源神」の〈至愛〉が、そのまま大御空（おおみそら）＝果てしない天のひろがりとして現れ、この世の営みの〈本〉＝泉源・基礎に「なりきった（なりぬる）」と詠み切ります。ここで至愛（しあい）は「試合（しあい）」への掛詞の含みももち、争いの試合を愛の実践へ反転させる芯概念として読める、という語注が要点です。結語〜なりぬるは古典の完了で、既に成就した宇宙的な基礎付けを宣言しています。

植芝盛平の六つのプライマーで見ると配列は明快です。プライマーの第一原理〈武＝宇宙原理〉は、至愛の心＝大御空を道の〈本〉と据える立ち位置。プライマーの第二原理〈人との合気〉は、対人の出会いを試合ではなく「至愛」の運用へと返す入口。プライマーの第三原理〈心魂一如〉は、身・息・声を同拍にそろえ、この〈本〉を体内の空（そら）として保つ芯。プライマーの第四原理〈和合美化〉は、技を壊す刃でなく、和と美をひらく空として扱う規範。プライマーの第五原理〈体＝道場、心＝修業者／修行者心／学び手〉は、世のいとなみ＝日常の一挙手一投足を、この〈本〉へたえず接地し直す稽古に落とす秤。プライマーの第六原理〈「至愛」の源に順う〉は、力の行き先が愛にかなっているかを量る最上位の基準です。

直前の三首との糸も一本化されます。第135首が示した「真空×空のむすび」で知り得る場が開き、第136首の「東の空に光り放つ御剣」で顕現のベクトルが定まり、第137首の「主の至愛のひびきが大宇宙の御いとなみを生む」で生成の動因が明らかになった。その流れを受けて 第138首は、その至愛の心こそが「この世界の営み」の泉源＝〈本〉として既に据わったと総括します。ゆえに修行者は、（第135首）むすびを悟り、（第136首）光を放ち、（第137首）至愛の響きに乗せたうえで、（第138首）あらゆる動作を「本へ接地する」実践に折り返す――この往還が、このページの稽古指針です。

口語要約のひとこと

「主の御親の至愛の心は大いなる御空となって、この世の営みのもとになりきった。」

和歌修辞補説――「の」の連鎖と御空の折り返し

本首では、既に指摘された「至愛／試合」の掛詞、第三句「大みそら」の体言止め、結語「なりぬる」の完了に加えて、格助詞「の」の畳用が一首の骨格を成しています。「主の」「至愛の」「世の」「いとなみの」と、「の」は三十一音のうちに四度置かれる。ただし、その関係は一様ではありません。「主の御親」では神名と尊称との所属・同格を、「至愛の心」では心の性質・内容を、「世のいとなみ」では営みの領域を、「いとなみの本」では働きと根源との関係を示す。同じ「の」を反復しながら、その結び方を少しずつ変えることによって、主から御親へ、至愛から心へ、世から営みへ、営みから本へと、存在が切断されずに運ばれます。「の」の連鎖そのものが、根源の至愛が大御空を経て世の営みに浸透する生成の運動を、文法の上で演じているのです。

とりわけ第四句「世のいとなみの」は、末尾の「の」によって意味を閉じることができず、第五句冒頭の「本」を待たなければなりません。ここには明瞭な句またがりがあります。下句は七・七の二句に分かれながら、統語上は「世のいとなみの本となりぬる」という一息の述定となり、世の営みが結句へ流れ込み、そのまま〈本〉へ根を下ろす。第三句では「大みそら」によって一度大きく切れ、第四句から第五句へは切れずに流れるため、本首には「切れ」と「続き」が同時に働きます。大御空としてひらかれた至愛は、そこで遠い天空に留まらず、句またがりによって世の日常へ降り、その足もとの本へ折り返されます。

また、「主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら」という上句は、三つの体言を助詞や判断辞によって十分に固定せず、そのまま連ねた名詞句の累加となっています。散文化すれば、「主の御親〔の〕至愛の心〔は〕大みそら〔となり〕、世の営みの本となりぬる」とも、「主の御親〔は〕至愛の心〔であり〕、大みそら〔であり〕、世の営みの本となりぬる」とも補うことができる。しかし歌は、そのいずれか一つへ構文を閉じません。これは助詞・判断辞の省略法と同格法とが重なる構えであり、御親、至愛の心、大みそらを、原因と結果として離すよりも、相互に重なり合う一つの実在として立ち現れさせます。最後に一度だけ示される「となりぬる」は、直前の「本」だけでなく、第三句の「大みそら」にまで遡って働き、「大みそらとなり、世の営みの本となりぬる」という二重の成就を一つの述語へ集約します。

この体言の重なりには、見立てに近い無標識の隠喩も働いています。「至愛の心」は大みそらの〈ようである〉とは詠まれず、そのまま「大みそら」と置かれ、さらにその大みそらが「本」と定められる。したがって、ここには「心を空に見立てる」第一の転換と、「空を本に見立てる」第二の転換があります。通常は上方にある大みそらを、下方にある基礎・根として捉え直す、上下反転の見立てです。天は地から離れた彼方ではなく、世の営みを下から支える本であり、同時に、その営みの内部にひらく空でもある。見立ては装飾的な比喩に留まらず、天と地、内なる心と外なる世界を同じ根へ返す宇宙論的な等置となっています。

五句全体には、第一句から第五句へ戻る回環的な首尾照応も認められます。第一句「御親」と第五句「本」は、ともに生成の源を表して外側から照応し、第二句「心」と第四句「いとなみ」は、内なる動因と外に現れた働きとして内側から照応する。その中央に第三句「大みそら」が置かれ、上句と下句を折り返す蝶番となります。構造としては、「御親―心―大みそら―いとなみ―本」という同心円的な配列であり、御親から発した至愛の心が大御空へ開張し、世の営みを通って再び〈本〉へ収斂する。したがって、上句と下句の関係は、単なる「神的原因／世界的結果」の一方向ではありません。根源から世界へ発し、世界の働きから根源へ帰る、生成と帰還の折り返しが五句の配列そのものに組み込まれています。

音韻上では、お段母音の反復が顕著です。「すのみおや／しあいのこころ／おおみそら／よのいとなみの／もととなりぬる」の三十一モーラのうち、お段母音は十六モーラを占めます。「の」「こころ」「おお」「そら」「よ」「もと」「と」と、口を丸く保つ響きが一首の過半を通り、大御空の広がりと〈本〉の深さを同じ母音の場に置く。これは明確な脚韻ではなく、母音反復による音韻的照応です。また、「みおや―みそら―いとなみ」には「み」の響きが通っています。「いとなみ」の「み」は語構成上の尊称「御」ではありませんが、音の上では「御親」「御空」の聖なる〈み〉が世の営みの内部へまで運ばれる。さらに結句の「もと・と」では、「本」の語末と格助詞「と」が同音で接し、〈本〉と〈成る〉とを音でも継ぎ合わせています。これらは掛詞とは異なるものの、意味を越えて句と句を縫い合わせる音の縁となっています。

結語「なりぬる」については、完了だけでなく、連体形終止としての働きも重要です。「なりぬる」は、動詞「なる」の連用形「なり」に、完了の助動詞「ぬ」の連体形「ぬる」が接した形です。本首には「ぞ・なむ・や・か・こそ」のような係助詞がないため、この連体形は係り結びによるものではありません。形の上では、被修飾語を明示しない連体形終止、すなわち連体止めとして読むことができます。連体形終止は、体言相当の準体句を詠嘆的にそのまま表出する文末形式としても論じられており、本首の「ぬる」も、完了を言い切りながら、その後ろに「もの」「こと」「御業」などの名を置き得る余白を残します。 完了の「ぬ」が宇宙的成就を閉じる一方、連体形の「ぬる」は文法的にはなお外へ開いている。ゆえに本首の余韻は、内容上の壮大さだけでなく、「完了しているのに、なお続き得る」という結語の形そのものから生まれています。

一方、古典修辞の名称を過度に付与しないことも必要です。「大みそら」は格調ある歌語であり、高天原などの宗教的連想を招きますが、特定の地名と歌語伝承を背負う歌枕とは言いにくい。また、「主の御親」や「至愛の心」は後続語を定型的に導く枕詞ではなく、一首の命題そのものです。上句三句も、景物から本旨へ別の文脈を切り替える序詞ではありません。序詞は序の部分と本旨との文脈的転換を条件として認定されますが、本首では「御親・心・大みそら」がそのまま下句の主辞・根源を形成しており、切り離せる前置きとはなっていません。 同様に、明示的な切れ字もなく、第三句の切れは「や・かな・けり」ではなく、体言の据え方と判断辞の省略によって生まれます。厳密な意味での本歌取りも、具体的な本歌が確定しない限り認定すべきではありません。

縁語についても、「海―波―漕ぐ」のような定型的語群が配置されているというより、「御親―本」が根源の意味場を、「心―いとなみ」が内なる動因と外なる働きの意味場を、「大みそら―世」が宇宙と世界の意味場を形成している、と捉える方が適切です。すなわち、古典的な縁語を厳密に配したというより、宗教語彙どうしの意味的照応を幾重にも重ねた構成です。その照応を第三句の大みそらが一つに包み、初句の御親と結句の本とを円環状に結び直します。

このように第138首は、「至愛の心が世の営みの本となった」と意味の上で述べるだけではありません。「の」の連鎖が諸存在を結び、句またがりが営みを本へ運び、体言の連置が御親・心・御空を重ね、回環的な折り返しが根源から世界へ、世界から根源への往還を形づくる。そして完了の「ぬ」と連体形終止の「ぬる」が、成就と持続を同時に響かせる。至愛の心は、歌の内容として〈本〉となるばかりでなく、各句を生み、つなぎ、折り返し、なお余韻を栄えさせる修辞上の〈本〉にもなっているのです。

なお、既存の語注には一点だけ文法上の修正が必要です。完了の助動詞「ぬ」は未然形接続ではなく連用形接続であり、「なりぬる」は「なる」の連用形「なり」＋完了の助動詞「ぬ」の連体形「ぬる」と分析されます。また、「ぬる」の「る」は独立した助動詞ではなく、「ぬ」そのものの連体形語尾です（Ōno & Satake, 2005; Shirane, 2005）。

発話行為理論

オースティン（Austin, 1962）の三層に通すと、発話行為（locutionary）で見ると、この第138首の上句は「主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら」と根源・心・空を一息に置き、下句は「世のいとなみの／本となりぬる」と世の働きへ折り返す。第三句「大みそら」の体言止めは、明示の「や」や「かな」ではないが、三句切れの切れ字的な働きを帯び、天のひろがりを一度澄ませ、その澄みを結句の「本」へ降ろす。ここで空は遠い背景ではなく、営みの足もとへ折り返される御空です。

発話内行為（illocutionary）では、歌は単なる宇宙論の説明ではなく、稽古の基準を言い切る宣言となる。至愛は試合への掛詞的反転を孕み、勝敗の場を愛の運用へ変える。 「主の御親／至愛の心」と「世のいとなみの」の折り返しは、神的な親性を日常の一挙手一投足へ結び、上にある御空を下にある本へ通す。結語「となりぬる」の完了は、これから作る理想ではなく、既に成就した本を稽古の足場として定めます。

発話媒介行為（perlocutionary）では、読む場・唱える場・稽古する場に、競争心の鎮まり、息の深まり、所作の接地という作用が生まれる。 「となり」は「成り」の完了でありながら「隣」の近さも響かせ、根源を遠い彼方ではなく、すぐ隣の本へ寄せる。ゆえに第138首は、上句で天を仰がせ、下句で足もとを正し、至愛の御空を世の営みの底へ据え直す道歌となります。

コーダ

第138首が告げるのは、至愛がいつの日か世の営みを支えるようになる、という未来の理想ではない。「本となりぬる」という完了は、主の御親の至愛の心が、すでに大御空としてひらかれ、世界のあらゆる働きを成り立たせる根源となりきっていることを宣言する。したがって大御空は、日常から隔てられた高みにある背景ではない。息が動き、身体が応じ、他者との間に技が生まれる、その一つひとつの営みの内と底に、絶えずひらいている御空である。

第三句「大みそら」は、上句と下句を分ける切れであると同時に、両者を折り返す蝶番でもある。主の御親から至愛の心へ、至愛の心から大御空へとひらかれた流れは、「世のいとなみの」と句をまたぎ、結句の「本」へ降りてゆく。しかし、その本は出発点から離れた終着点ではない。初句の御親と結句の本とは円環をなし、根源から世界へ発した至愛を、世界の営みから再び根源へ帰す。「なりぬる」はその円環の成就を閉じながら、連体形の余白によって、その成就がなお一挙手一投足のうちに続くことを響かせる。

ここにおいて「至愛／試合」の掛詞的反転は、単なる言葉遊びに留まらない。試合という出会いの場を消し去るのではなく、その場を何によって成立させるかを問い直す。勝敗、対立、力の交差が先にあるのではなく、至愛の心という〈本〉が先にあり、技も呼吸も間合いも、その本から現れ、その本へ帰らなければならない。稽古とは、至愛を遠い理念として仰ぐことではなく、すでに足もとにある大御空へ、動作のたびに接地し直す営みとなる。

第135首の真空と空のむすび、第136首の御剣の光、第137首の至愛の響きは、この第138首において一つの本へ収斂する。むすびによって場がひらき、光によって方向が定まり、響きによって世界の営みが生まれ、そのすべてが至愛の大御空を根としていたことが、ここで明らかになる。ゆえに本首は、眼差しを天へ上げながら、同時に足もとを正す。大御空を仰ぐことと、世の営みを整えることとは別の行為ではない。主の御親の至愛を〈本〉として生きるとき、天はそのまま地となり、心はそのまま営みとなり、あらゆる営みは再び、その尽きることのない御空へと折り返されるのである。

English Translation

Commentary

This Dōka 138—Su no Mioya / shiai no kokoro / ōmisora / yo no itonami no / moto to narinuru (主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら／世のいとなみの／本となりぬる)—brings its declaration to completion: the “Supreme Love” of the Divine Parent of Su—the primordial deity—manifests directly as the Great Firmament, the boundless expanse of heaven, and has fully become (narinuru;なりぬる) the “source”, the fountainhead and foundation, of the workings of this world. Here, shiai (至愛), “Supreme Love,” also bears the suggestion of a kakekotoba (掛詞) with the homophonous shiai (試合), “match” or “contest.” The central point of the lexical note is therefore that it may be read as the core concept that reverses the contest of conflict into the practice of love. The closing -narinuru (〜なりぬる) is the classical perfective, declaring a cosmic foundation already brought to fulfillment.

Read through Ueshiba Morihei’s Six Primers, the sequence is clear. The First Primer, Bu = Uchū Genri (武＝宇宙原理), “Bu = Cosmic Principle”, establishes the heart of Supreme Love—the Great Firmament—as the source of the way. The Second Primer, Hito to no Aiki (人との合気), “Aiki with Another/Others”, makes the interpersonal encounter an entrance through which the match is returned from contest to the enactment of Supreme Love. The Third Primer, Shinkon Ichinyo (心魂一如), “Heart-mind and Spirit, Inseparable”, is the core that brings body, breath, and voice into a single cadence and maintains this source as the sora (空), the sky within the body. The Fourth Primer, Wagō Bika (和合美化), “Harmonization and Beautification”, establishes the norm by which technique is treated not as a blade that destroys, but as a sky that opens harmony and beauty. The Fifth Primer, Karada/Tai = Dōjō, Kokoro = Shugyōsha / Shugyōsha / Manabite (体＝道場、心＝修業者／修行者／学び手), “Body = Dōjō; Heart-mind = Practitioner, Ascetic, or Learner, provides the measure by which the workings of the world—the every gesture of ordinary life—are brought down into a practice that continually regrounds them in this source. The Sixth Primer, Shiai no Minamoto ni Shitagau (「至愛」の源に順う), “accord with the source of Supreme Love”, is the highest-order criterion by which to measure whether the destination of power accords with love.

The thread running through the preceding three poems likewise becomes one. Dōka 135 opened the field in which knowing becomes possible through shinkū × kū no musubi (真空×空のむすび), “the joining of true vacuum and emptiness.” Dōka 136 determined the vector of manifestation through higashi no sora ni hikari hanatsu mitsurugi (東の空に光り放つ御剣), “the August Sword casting forth light in the eastern sky.” Dōka 137 then revealed the generative impulse in Su no shiai no hibiki ga daiuchū no mi-itonami o umu (主の至愛のひびきが大宇宙の御いとなみを生む), “the resonance of Su’s Supreme Love gives birth to the august workings of the Great Universe.” Receiving that current, Dōka 138 concludes that this very heart of Supreme Love has already been established as the fountainhead—the source—of “the workings of this world.” The practitioner therefore awakens to musubi (むすび) in Dōka 135, sends forth light in Dōka 136, enters the resonance of Supreme Love in Dōka 137, and then, in Dōka 138, folds every action back into the practice of “grounding it in the source.” This circuit of going forth and returning is the guiding principle of practice on this page.

A one-sentence colloquial summary

“The heart of Supreme Love belonging to the Divine Parent of Su became the Great Firmament and has wholly become the source of the workings of this world.”

Supplement on waka rhetoric: The chain of no (「の」) and the fold of the Great Firmament

In addition to the already noted kakekotoba (掛詞) of shiai/shiai (「至愛／試合」), the nominal ending of the third line, ōmisora (大みそら), and the perfective conclusion narinuru (なりぬる), the repeated case particle no (の) forms the structural skeleton of the poem. Su no (主の), shiai no (至愛の), yo no (世の), and itonami no (いとなみの): no appears four times within the thirty-one morae. Its relations, however, are not uniform. In Su no Mioya (主の御親), it expresses belonging or apposition between the divine name and the honorific title; in shiai no kokoro (至愛の心), it expresses the nature or content of the heart-mind; in yo no itonami (世のいとなみ), it marks the domain in which the workings occur; and in itonami no moto (いとなみの本), it expresses the relation between activity and source. Although the same no is repeated, its mode of connection changes little by little, carrying being without rupture from Su to the Divine Parent, from Supreme Love to the heart, from the world to its workings, and from those workings to their source. The chain of no itself grammatically enacts the generative movement through which primordial Supreme Love passes through the Great Firmament and permeates the workings of the world.

The fourth line in particular, yo no itonami no (世のいとなみの), cannot bring its meaning to closure because of the terminal no and must await moto (本) at the beginning of the fifth line. Here there is a clear ku-matagari (句またがり), an enjambment across verse units. Although the lower verse is divided into two seven-mora lines, it forms syntactically a single, unbroken predication: yo no itonami no moto to narinuru (「世のいとなみの本となりぬる」), “it has become the source of the workings of the world.” The workings of the world pour into the closing line and there put down roots in the source. Because the poem makes a broad cut after the third line, ōmisora (大みそら), while flowing without interruption from the fourth line into the fifth, “cut” and “continuity” operate at once. Supreme Love, opened out as the Great Firmament, does not remain there in a remote heaven. Through the enjambment it descends into the ordinary world and folds back beneath it, toward the source at its feet.

Moreover, the upper verse, Su no Mioya / shiai no kokoro / ōmisora (主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら), forms an accumulation of three nominal phrases that have not been fully fixed by particles or copular markers. Recast as prose, the syntax could be supplemented as Su no Mioya [no] shiai no kokoro [wa] ōmisora [to nari], yo no itonami no moto to narinuru (主の御親〔の〕至愛の心〔は〕大みそら〔となり〕、世の営みの本となりぬる): “The heart-mind of Supreme Love belonging to the Divine Parent of Su became the Great Firmament and the source of the world’s workings.” It could equally be supplemented as Su no Mioya [wa] shiai no kokoro [de ari], ōmisora [de ari], yo no itonami no moto to narinuru (主の御親〔は〕至愛の心〔であり〕、大みそら〔であり〕、世の営みの本となりぬる): “The Divine Parent of Su is the heart-mind of Supreme Love, is the Great Firmament, and has become the source of the world’s workings.” The poem, however, does not close its syntax into either construction. The ellipsis of particles and copular markers overlaps with apposition, allowing the Divine Parent, the heart of Supreme Love, and the Great Firmament to appear not as a cause and its separate result, but as a single, mutually interpenetrating reality. The predicate to narinuru (となりぬる), presented only once at the end, reaches back beyond the immediately preceding moto (本) as far as the third line, ōmisora (大みそら), gathering the double fulfillment—“became the Great Firmament” and “became the source of the world’s workings”—into a single predicate.

Within this layering of nominals, an unmarked metaphor akin to mitate (見立て), an imaginative recasting, is also at work. The poem does not say that “the heart-mind of Supreme Love is like the Great Firmament.” It simply places it as ōmisora (大みそら), then determines that Great Firmament as the moto (本), the Source. There is therefore a first transformation, “to recast the heart-mind as sky,” and a second transformation, “to recast the sky as source.” This is a mitate that reverses above and below, reconceiving the Great Firmament normally situated overhead as the foundation or root lying beneath. Heaven is not a distant realm separated from the earth. It is the source supporting the workings of the world from below, while simultaneously being the sky that opens within those workings. The mitate does not remain an ornamental metaphor; it becomes a cosmological equation that returns heaven and earth, the inward heart and the outward world, to the same root.

Across all five lines, a circular correspondence between beginning and ending—an enclosing shubi-shōō (首尾照応)—can also be recognized. The first line, Mioya (御親), and the fifth, moto (本), correspond from the outer edges as sources of generation. The second line, kokoro (心), and the fourth, itonami (いとなみ), correspond from within as inward motive and outwardly manifested activity. At their center stands the third line, ōmisora (大みそら), as the hinge that folds the upper and lower verses into one another. Structurally, the poem forms the concentric sequence Mioya—kokoro—ōmisora—itonami—moto (御親―心―大みそら―いとなみ―本). The heart-mind of Supreme Love issuing from the Divine Parent opens outward into the Great Firmament, passes through the workings of the world, and converges once again into the source. The relation between the upper and lower verses is therefore not merely the one-way movement of “divine cause” toward “worldly result.” The fold of generation and return—proceeding from the source into the world and returning from the world’s workings to the source—is built into the arrangement of the five lines themselves.

Phonologically, the repetition of the /o/ vowel is striking. Of the thirty-one morae in su no mioya / shiai no kokoro / ōmisora / yo no itonami no / moto to narinuru (「すのみおや／しあいのこころ／おおみそら／よのいとなみの／もととなりぬる」), sixteen carry an /o/-row vowel. Through no (「の」), kokoro (「こころ」), ō (「おお」), sora (「そら」), yo (「よ」), moto (「もと」), and to (「と」), a resonance that keeps the mouth rounded extends through more than half of the poem, placing the breadth of the Great Firmament and the depth of the source within the same vowel-field. This is not explicit end rhyme, but phonological correspondence through vowel recurrence. The sound mi (み) likewise passes through mioya—misora—itonami (みおや―みそら―いとなみ). The mi in itonami (いとなみ) is not morphologically the honorific mi (御), yet at the level of sound the sacred mi of Mioya (御親) and misora (御空) is carried into the very interior of the world’s workings. In the closing moto to (もと・と), moreover, the word-final to of moto (本) touches the case particle to (と) in the same sound, joining the source and “becoming” phonetically as well. These effects are not kakekotoba, but they form sonic affinities that stitch one line to another beyond their semantic relations.

Regarding the closing narinuru (なりぬる), its operation as a sentence-final attributive form is important in addition to its perfective meaning. Narinuru is formed from nari (なり), the continuative form of the verb naru (なる), together with nuru (ぬる), the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary nu (ぬ). Because the poem contains none of the binding particles zo, namu, ya, ka, or koso (ぞ・なむ・や・か・こそ), this attributive form is not produced by kakari-musubi (係り結び). Formally, it can instead be read as a sentence-final attributive form without an expressed head noun—that is, as rentai-dome (連体止め), an attributive-form closure. Such endings have also been discussed as sentence-final forms that directly present a substantivized or quasi-nominal clause with exclamatory force. Here, nuru (ぬる) leaves room for a following noun such as mono (もの), “thing,” koto (こと), “event” or “fact,” or miwaza (御業), “august work.” The perfective nu closes the cosmic fulfillment, while the attributive nuru remains grammatically open toward what lies beyond it. The poem’s yoin (余韻), its lingering resonance, therefore arises not only from the grandeur of its content, but from the grammatical form of a conclusion that is “complete and yet still capable of continuing.”

At the same time, care is needed not to impose classical rhetorical categories too freely. Ōmisora (大みそら) is elevated poetic diction and invites religious associations with Takamagahara (高天原), but it is difficult to classify it as an utamakura (歌枕), which bears the tradition of a specific place-name and its inherited poetic associations. Likewise, Su no Mioya (主の御親) and shiai no kokoro (至愛の心) are not makurakotoba (枕詞), fixed epithets that conventionally introduce a following word; they constitute the proposition of the poem itself. Nor do the three lines of the upper verse form a jo-kotoba (序詞), a prefatory phrase that shifts from an introductory image into a separate principal meaning. Recognition of a jo-kotoba requires a contextual turn between its prefatory portion and the poem’s principal statement, whereas here the Divine Parent, the heart-mind, and the Great Firmament directly form the subject and source of the lower verse and cannot be detached as an independent preface. Similarly, there is no explicit kireji (切れ字). The cut after the third line arises not from ya, kana, or keri (や・かな・けり), but from the placement of the nominal phrase and the omission of a copular marker. Nor should honkadori (本歌取り), strict allusive variation upon an earlier poem, be asserted unless a specific source poem can be established.

The same caution applies to engo (縁語), associated words. Rather than finding a conventional cluster such as umi—nami—kogu (海―波―漕ぐ), “sea—waves—to row,” it is more appropriate to say that Mioya—moto (御親―本) forms the semantic field of origin, kokoro—itonami (心―いとなみ) forms the field of inward motive and outward operation, and ōmisora—yo (大みそら―世) forms the field of cosmos and world. In other words, the poem does not so much deploy engo in the strict classical sense as layer multiple semantic correspondences among forms of religious vocabulary. The Great Firmament in the third line gathers those correspondences into itself and reconnects the Divine Parent of the opening line with the source of the closing line in a circular form.

Dōka 138 therefore does more than state, at the level of meaning, that “the heart-mind of Supreme Love became the source of the workings of the world.” The chain of no binds the various forms of being together; the enjambment carries the workings into the Source; the juxtaposition of nominals overlays the Divine Parent, the heart, and the Great Firmament; and the circular fold shapes a passage from the source into the world and from the world back to the source. The perfective nu (ぬ) and the attributive ending nuru (ぬる) then allow fulfillment and continuation to sound at once. The heart-mind of Supreme Love not only becomes the source within the content of the poem. It also becomes the rhetorical source that generates the lines, joins them, folds them back upon one another, and allows their yoin to continue flourishing.

One point in the existing lexical note nevertheless requires grammatical correction. The perfective auxiliary nu (ぬ) follows the continuative form, the ren’yōkei (連用形), not the irrealis form, the mizenkei (未然形). Narinuru (なりぬる) is therefore analyzed as nari (なり), the continuative form of naru (なる), plus nuru (ぬる), the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary nu (ぬ). The ru (る) in nuru is not an independent auxiliary; it is the attributive-form ending of nu itself (Ōno & Satake, 2005; Shirane, 2005).

Speech Act Theory

Passed through the three levels of Austin’s (1962) theory, the locutionary act of Dōka 138 places origin, heart-mind, and sky in a single breath in the upper verse—Su no Mioya / shiai no kokoro / ōmisora (主の御親／至愛の心／大みそら)—and then folds them back into the workings of the world in the lower verse—yo no itonami no / moto to narinuru (世のいとなみの／本となりぬる). The nominal ending of the third line, ōmisora (大みそら), carries the kireji-like force of a third-line cut, although no explicit ya (や) or kana (かな) appears. It allows the expanse of heaven to become lucid for an instant, then lowers that clarity into the moto (本), the source, of the closing line. Here, the sky is not a remote background, but an august sky folded back beneath the very footing of the world’s workings.

At the illocutionary level, the poem is not merely a cosmological explanation; it becomes a declaration that decisively establishes the criterion of practice. Shiai (「至愛」), “Supreme Love,” contains a kakekotoba-like reversal toward shiai (試合), “contest,” transforming a field of victory and defeat into a field for the enactment of love. The fold between Su no Mioya / shiai no kokoro (主の御親／至愛の心) and yo no itonami no (世のいとなみの) connects divine parenthood to every gesture of ordinary life, conducting the Great Firmament above into the source below. The perfective conclusion to narinuru (となりぬる) does not present an ideal still waiting to be created; it establishes a source already brought to fulfillment as the very ground upon which practice stands.

At the perlocutionary level, the poem produces effects within the places where it is read, chanted, and practiced: competitive impulse settles, breath deepens, and gesture becomes grounded. Within the completed construction of “becoming,” to nari (となり) also allows the nearness of the homophonous tonari (隣), “beside” or “next to,” to sound within it, drawing the primordial source away from a distant beyond and bringing it near as the source immediately beside every act. Dōka 138 thus raises the gaze toward heaven in its upper verse, corrects the footing in its lower verse, and sets the Great Firmament of Supreme Love anew into the very bedrock of the world’s workings.

Coda

Dōka 138 does not announce a future ideal in which Supreme Love might one day come to support the workings of the world. The perfective force of moto to narinuru (本となりぬる) declares that the heart-mind of Supreme Love belonging to the Divine Parent of Su has already opened as the Great Firmament and has wholly become the source from which every worldly activity arises. The Great Firmament is therefore not a remote background suspended above ordinary life. It is the august sky continually opening within and beneath each movement of breath, each response of the body, and each technique arising in the interval between persons.

The third line, ōmisora (大みそら), is at once the cut between the upper and lower verses and the hinge that folds them together. The movement that opens from the Divine Parent into the heart-mind of Supreme Love, and from that heart-mind into the Great Firmament, passes across the enjambed yo no itonami no (世のいとなみの) and descends into the moto (本), the source, of the closing line. Yet this source is not a destination separated from the poem’s beginning. The Divine Parent of the first line and the source of the fifth form a circle, returning Supreme Love from its movement into the world back through the world’s workings toward its origin. Narinuru closes that circuit as an accomplished reality, while its attributive form leaves a grammatical openness through which the fulfillment continues to resound in every subsequent act.

Within this structure, the kakekotoba-like reversal of shiai (至愛), “Supreme Love,” and shiai (試合), “contest,” is more than verbal play. It does not abolish the encounter called a match; it transforms the ground upon which that encounter takes place. Victory, opposition, and the crossing of forces do not come first. The source—the heart-mind of Supreme Love—comes first, and technique, breath, timing, and distance must arise from that source and return to it. Practice is therefore not the contemplation of Supreme Love as a distant principle. It is the repeated grounding of every action in the Great Firmament already present beneath one’s footing.

The musubi of true vacuum and emptiness in Dōka 135, the radiance of the August Sword in Dōka 136, and the resonance of Supreme Love in Dōka 137 converge here into a single source. Through musubi, the field is opened; through light, the direction of manifestation is established; through resonance, the workings of the universe arise; and in Dōka 138, all are revealed as having always been rooted in the Great Firmament of Supreme Love. The poem therefore raises the gaze toward heaven while correcting the footing upon the earth. To behold the Great Firmament and to order the workings of the world are not separate acts. When the Supreme Love of the Divine Parent is lived as the source, heaven becomes the ground, heart-mind becomes activity, and every activity folds back into the inexhaustible august sky from which it arose.

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Appendix I: Change Modification Log

23 AUG 26 - Updated formatting; added additional poetics analysis; added codas to Japanese and English commentaries.
02 JUN 26 - Added Speech Act Analysis; updated citation style.
12 APR 26 - Updated references; corrected Nishioka (n.d.) and Fukushima (n.d.).
21 DEC 25 - Phase V styling applied to waka.
07 DEC 25 - Cleaned up commentary (i.e., English quotes to Japanese quotes); back propagated Primer references to Japanese.
30 NOV 25 - Phase IV completion; additional classical Japanese references found; changed Great Parents to Mioya to preserve unique meaning and syllable counts closely aligning to mora counts; commentary added.
23 NOV 25 - Phase IV preparation.
18 OCT 25 - Phase III completed; template for dictionaries here.
14 APR 20 - Initial notes transferred.