修行会

157「まねきよせ風をおこしてなぎはらいねり直しゆく神の愛気に。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka

まねきよせ
風をおこして
なぎはらい
ねり直しゆく
神の愛気に

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Beckon and draw near, summon wind to rise and sweep, sweep all away now—knead, temper, and remake on—in kamis’ aiki.” — Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation

Beckon and draw near,
wind raised, stirred up in motion
mow down, sweep away—

knead, temper, and remake on,
kamis’ aiki, therein—

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

招き寄せ (まねきよせ)
風を起して (かぜをおこして)
薙ぎ払ひ (なぎはらひ)
練り直し行く (ねりなおしゆく)
神の愛気に (かみのあいきに)

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

maneki‑yose
kaze o okoshite
nagi‑harai
neri‑naoshi yuku
kami no aiki ni

Ueshiba Morihei

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–157: Beckon & draw, knead & remake (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/7bnx

招き（まねき; maneki）— ren’yōkei ‘beckoning’ (招く).

寄せ（よせ; yose）— ren’yōkei ‘drawing near’ (寄す / 寄せる).

まねきよせ / 招き寄せ（maneki yose）— “beckon and draw (it / them) close”; a ren’yō‑form sequence that propels the action into the next phrase (typical waka syntax); two ren’yōkei (“continuative”) verb forms stacked: 招き＋寄せ; this kind of ren’yō chaining is textbook bungo and waka syntax, functioning like “beckoning, drawing near…” and propelling the action forward without explicit subject or tense marking (連用中止); semantically: “to beckon (something/someone) and draw it close” – which can be read as inviting beings, energies, or circumstances toward the practitioner / the kami.

風（かぜ; kaze）— ‘wind; breath; current; atmosphere’.

を（o）— object marker.

起して（おこして; okoshite）— ren’yō + 接続助詞 of 起す ‘to raise, set in motion’; 起して is classical spelling for modern 起こして; 起す in bungo often means “to raise, stir up, set in motion”.

風をおこして / 風を起して（かぜをおこして; kaze o okoshite）— “having raised a wind” / “stirring up the wind(-breath)”, “raise / set a wind (in motion)”; kaze here can carry the sense of breath or current—physically or spiritually.

薙ぎ（なぎ; nagi）— ren’yō of 薙ぐ ‘to mow down, level, cut across’

払ひ（はらい; harai）— ren’yō of 払ふ ‘to sweep away, purify’ (orthographic 払ひ but pronounced harai)

薙ぎ払ひ（なぎはらい; nagiharai）— “sweep away (as with a mowing / sweeping cut)”; the compound evokes both martial motion and 祓い harai (purificatory sweeping), a central Shintō act. On the level of martial imagery: a mowing cut that sweeps through an attack. On the ritual level: 払ひ evokes 祓 (harae/harai), Shintō purification that “sweeps away” pollution (穢れ kegare). This double resonance (technique + purification) functions like a mild kakekotoba: one form harai points at both physical sweeping and ritual cleansing.

招き寄せ・風を起して・薙ぎ払ひ（まねきよせかぜおおこしてなぎはらい; maneki-yose kaze o okoshite　nagi-harai）— evoke a purificatory wind that “sweeps clear” 〈薙ぎ払う〉 is a conventional verb for “to mow / sweep away.” In Shintō, harae/harai (祓) is the family of purification rites whose imagery includes “sweeping away” pollution (kegare)—conceptually close to “薙ぎ払ひ”.

練り（ねり; neri）— ren’yō of 練る ‘to knead, temper, refine’; 練る is used for kneading dough, tempering metal, or refining text; metaphorically, it is also used for spiritual or moral refinement.

直し（なおし; naoshi）— ren’yō of 直す ‘to correct, fix, remake, restore’ (historical reading なほし).

行く（ゆく; yuku）— ‘to go; to go on / continue’ with auxiliary‑like aspect; 行く (yuku) in ren’yō‑linkage here is aspectual: “go on ~‑ing”; in classical/waka it often functions as a continuation or progression auxiliary.

練り直しゆく/ 練り直し行く（ねりなほしゆく; neri naoshi yuku）— “to knead and remake, continuing on”, “knead / temper and remake, and (keep) moving on”—remaking what has been purified; semantically akin to “refining” (練る) to restore order; neru is the verb used for working metal / dough—also a trope for moral-spiritual tempering in Japanese texts.

神（かみ; kami）— deity / divine principle / divinity / god(s).

の（no）— genitive (‘of, in, belonging to’).

神の（かみの; kami no）— marks the phrase as “of the kami / divine.”

愛氣 (あいき; aiki) – literally ‘love‑ki’; Ueshiba’s theologically charged spelling that puns on 合気 (aiki) ‘harmonizing ki’.

に（ni) – locative / instrumental case particle ‘in / through / by’; 格助詞止め (“ending on a case particle”) suspends the line: literally “in / through the kami’s love‑ki… [and then…?]”; this is a classic waka technique akin to kire and yoin, leaving the action hanging inside divine ambience instead of giving a closed predicate.

神の愛気に（かみのあいきに; kami no aiki ni）— “in the divine aiki of love”; Ueshiba often plays on 合気 (aiki, “co‑ki / attuning ki”) and 愛気 (aiki, “love‑ki”), explicitly tying aikidō to love and harmonious cosmic order.

Overall sense. Reading the poem straight in bungo would be something like, “beckoning and drawing near, raising a wind, sweeping (all) away, kneading and remaking as (we / it) go(es) on, within the kami’s love‑ki (aiki)”.

Kami‑no‑ku and shimo‑no‑ku. The division after line 3 mirrors the classical 5‑7‑5 // 7‑7 bipartite structure; in premodern discourse the top 5‑7‑5 often poses or sets an image, and the bottom 7‑7 resolves or reframes it—here, from raising/purging wind to remaking under divine ai‑ki.

Orthography. Using 歴史的仮名遣い—e.g., 払ひ (harahi), 直し→なほし, 行く→ゆく—reflects classical spelling conventions. The verbs and compounds Ueshiba uses—薙ぎ払ふ, 練り直す—have classical precedents and fit into the semantic field of Heian–Kamakura waka (motion, cutting, purification, refinement), as documented in literary histories and anthologies such as the Shinkokinshū (新古今集; cf. Rodd, 1205/2015).

Semantics. The poem is built almost entirely out of ren’yōkei sequences: 招き｜寄せ, 起して, 払ひ, 練り｜直し｜行く. Classical Japanese routinely strings ren’yō forms to show successive or concurrent actions without explicit conjunctions. 行く read as yuku (ゆく). Reading 行く as yuku rather than iku is standard in pre‑modern diction and waka anthologies. Aikidō’s founder framed technique in Shintō inflected language like harai misogi (purification), musubi (cosmic binding), aiki as love, so reading the poem in that idiom is culturally grounded.

連用形連接・連用中止. stacking verbs in the ren’yōkei (“招き＋寄せ”, “薙ぎ＋払ひ”, “練り＋直し”) and using ren’yōkei to bridge lines is standard bungo technique.

ゆく vs. いく. Reading 行く as yuku reflects older usage / reading choice familiar from classical diction.

Orthography. 払ひ, 氣, and 起して follow historical kana / kanji tendencies rather than fully modernized spellings; guidance on historical kana and their relationship to modern norms is codified by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Shintō purification & renewal. “Raising wind” and “sweeping away” are readily legible through harae / harai (purification), removing kegare (pollution) often with wind, water, salt, or ritual wands prior to renewed order.—imagery native to Shintō ritual semantics. Harae / harai purification rites that remove kegare so people and communities can approach the kami. The concept of kegare includes death, disease, blood, and misfortune, and is balanced by restored purity and vitality. Harai is described as “removing sin, pollution, and misfortune” by sweeping or washing them away. Ueshiba’s sequence “raise a wind / sweep (薙ぎ払ひ) / knead and remake” maps almost perfectly onto a Shintō logic of: (a) calling in divine force (招き寄せ, 風を起して), (b) sweeping away pollution (薙ぎ払ひ as martial/ritual harai), and (c) re‑forming a purified self or world (練り直し行く). Anthropologists like Ichirō Hori (1968) have shown how such purification and renewal cycles shape everyday Japanese folk religion, not just formal shrine rites.

Ōmoto influence & kotodama: Ueshiba was deeply shaped by the Ōmoto (Omoto‑kyō) religious movement and its leader Deguchi Onisaburō, who emphasized universal love, world renewal, and the spiritual power of words (kotodama; Pranin, 1996, 2020;

Yoin, ending に. Ending on に, a case particle, is a variant of joshi‑dome (particle‑final) closely related to taigen‑dome (noun‑final endings) discussed in studies of imperial waka anthologies; it produces an open, suggestive closure rather than a firm predicate. 格助詞止め leaves the poem suspended “in / by the kami’s loving ki,” a classical waka effect (助詞止め/体言止め系) that creates resonance beyond the final line which heightens suggestiveness.

Shugyokai note. Maxwell’s demon’s close cousin working (via beckoning, drawing, transforming “winds” [e.g., raising, sweeping], kneeding, tempering, remaking) on sorting “polluted” vectors, across the entire span from sky to ocean floor, at once. So good!¹