修行会

145「つきさかきこり靈はらふいずのめのみ親かしこし神のさむはら。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka

つきさかき
こり靈はらふ
いずのめの
み親かしこし
神のさむはら

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Tsukisakaki, kori, these ablutions by the shore, cleanses the spirit; Izunome–the Parent(s)—Samuhara of the kamis.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation

Tsukisakaki
kori purifies spirit
Izunome’s own—

Mioya august awe roused
kamis’ own Samuhara.

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

撞賢木（つきさかき）
凝り霊祓ふ（こりれいはらふ）
伊豆能売の（いずのめの）
御親かしこし（みおやかしこし）
神のサムハラ（かみのさむはら）¹

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

tsuki‑sakaki
kori rei harafu
izunome no
mi‑oya kashikoshi

kami no samuhara

Ueshiba Morihei

Notes:

¹ Katakana ス foregrounds the kotodama vowel; サムハラ is conventionally written in katakana because the “divine characters” are esoteric (Samuhara Jinja, n.d.).

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–145: Tsukisakaki kori (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/7cwp

つきさかき / 撞賢木（つきさかき; tsukisakaki）— not “moon” but itsuki (“consecrated”) + sakaki: a sacred sakaki bough used in sacred yorishiro in myth/rites; the term appears in Nihon Shoki (e.g., the epithets “撞賢木厳之御魂…”); tsuki here as from itsuki “consecrated,” not “moon” (yet that is a kakekotoba).

垢離（こり; kori）— ritual [cold water] ablution (often at sea or river) performed for purification prior to worship; gloss it inline (“ablution by shore”) to link it directly with “cleanses the spirit”; the line こり靈はらふ syntactically sequences the act (垢離) with its aim (霊を祓ふ); kakekotoba as both 垢離 (ablution) and 凝り (knotted stiffness).

靈（れい; rei）— spirit, mystery; numinous presence.

霊はらふ（れいはらふ; rei harafu）—  – “to purge / purify the spirit”; aligning the upper verse with Shintō harai/misogi practice; general background on Ōharae and harai.

はらふ / 祓ふ（はらふ; harafu）classical Yodan verb harafu “to exorcise, to purify (ritually)”.

こり靈はらふ（こりれいはらふ; kori rei harafu）— 垢離（こり：cold‑water ablution） + 霊（れい：spirit） + 祓ふ（はらふ：to purify/exorcise; yodan verb in bungo). 

伊豆能売（いずのめ; Izunome）— a deity who, in the Kojiki misogi scene of Izanagi, is born together with Kamunaobi and Ōnaobito rectify calamities; Kokugakuin notes also connect her to “word‑straightening and concord” (kotonaoshi‑washi); rendering “the Parent” echoes Ueshiba’s honorific 御親 (mi‑oya) and the poem’s “かしこし” (august). in the Izanagi misogi sequence; appears with 神直毘神 & 大直毘神 as forces that “straighten / rectify” calamity; Izunome manifests together with 神直毘/大直毘 to “straighten” disorder (magatsu), linking purification to cosmic rectification—apt for Ueshiba’s devotional vocabulary; possessive の links to the next noun. 

御（み; mi） — honorific prefix; in historical grammar it functions as a bound morpheme marking reverence toward the referent. NINJAL’s (2017) historical corpus treats ミ（御） as a prefixal element with numerous sacred exemplars (御子, 御言, 御手洗, etc.); indexes sacred dignity. In Shintō vocabulary mi‑ marks kami and imperial referents (mi‑koto, mi‑tama), a usage Kokugakuin’s (n.d.) Encyclopedia of Shintō treats as an honorific title/prefix for divine persons and attributes.

親（おや; oya）— – parent/elder (warning: vivid etymology.

御親（みおや; mioya） — rendered as Divine Parent, a Shinto / Ōmoto epithet for the primordial, nurturing deity (the god who is both Lord and Parent).

かしこし（kashikoshi） — classical i-adjective “august, awe‑inspiring,” in its conclusive ‑shi form.

み親 かしこし（みおやかしこし; mi‑oya kashikoshi） — 御親（venerable “Great Parent/Ancestral Deity”） + 畏し（かしこし：august, awesome; classical i‑adjective); classical honorific 御 + 親 marks a venerable progenitor / ancestress; かしこし is a bungo adjective meaning “august, awesome, worthy of reverence.”

神のさむはら / 神のサムハラ（かみのさむはら; kami no Samuhara）— Ueshiba repeatedly invokes Samuhara; the Osaka Samuhara Jinja explains “Samuhara” as a collective name for the Three Creation Deities (Ame‑no‑Minakanushi, Takamimusuhi, Kamimusuhi). Samuhara is kept as a theonym; Ueshiba noted that it is a word that “praises the highest virtue and meritorious achievement in the world” 「サムハラとは、世の最高の徳と功しを称えた言葉であります」(Takahashi, 1986, p. 33).

Morphosyntax. 祓ふ as yodan conclusive/form (not modern ‑う) and かしこし as a classical adjective reflect bungo morphology and lexicon. Standard segmentations (X の Y, honorific 御) match classical usage.

Register and diction. Lexemes like 撞賢木, 垢離, （御）親, サムハラ are archaizing/ritual; this is consistent with bungo devotional verse and norito‑like style. 

Kami-no-ku and shimo-no-ku. The poem parses naturally as 5‑7‑5 (upper) + 7‑7 (lower), the canonical division of tanka into kami‑no‑ku/shimo‑no‑ku. The rhetorical movement is classical: setting/rite → purification/agent (upper) → reverential naming (lower).

Pivoting linkage. The genitive の (line 3) works as a hinge from ritual act to divine identity—typical of waka’s compact syntactic turns and honorific closure in the shimo‑no‑ku.

Purification & “world‑straightening”. By naming Izunome—a deity that arises in Izanagi’s misogi to repair disorder—the poem frames martial practice as ritual purification and rectification, core themes in Shintō liturgy.

Samuhara devotion: Invoking Samuhara taps a living shrine tradition (Osaka & Okayama) that construes the name as a collective of the Creation Deities and deploys it in potent apotropaic talismans; Ueshiba’s closing cadence mirrors such norito‑style, efficacious naming.

Ueshiba and Ōmoto: Ueshiba’s religiosity was profoundly shaped by Ōmoto and Deguchi Onisaburō; his dōka commonly align aikidō with misogi and cosmic harmony—a point widely documented in the aikidō historiography. Reading 145 through that lens explains the choice of purificatory and theophoric diction.

Shintō scholarship perspective. Modern studies stress Shintō’s ritual pluralism and historical layering rather than a single timeless essence—precisely the kind of intertext (mythic lexicon + modern cultic theonyms) this dōka embodies.