修行会

205「呼びさます一人の敵も心せよ一を以て万に当たるぞ丈夫の道。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka¹

呼びさます
一人の敵も
心せよ
一を以て
万に当たるぞ

丈夫の道

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Beware—even of a single enemy you rouse. With the One (principle) as sole means, face the many: that is the Masurao Way.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation

Call and awaken
a single enemy even
heart-mind, be mindful

with the one as a sole means,
ten thousand, met, it is so!

The Masurao Way.

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

呼びさます（よびさます）
一人の敵も（ひとりのてきも）
心せよ（こころせよ）
一を以て（ひとをもて）
万に当たるぞ（ばんにあたるぞ）

丈夫の道（まさらおのみち）

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

yobisamasu 
hitori no teki mo 
kokoro seyo 
ichi o motte 
ban ni ataru zo

masurao‑no michi

Morihei Ueshiba

Notes

¹ This is near‑tanka core (5‑7‑5‑5‑7) plus a 7‑mora coda line naming the ethic (“masurao no michi”). Classical Japanese poetry allows such extra lines / mora (字余り, 行余り) in didactic verse and inscriptions, even when 5‑7‑5‑7‑7 is the normative ideal (Shirane, 2005). 

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–205: As your sole means (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. https://shugyokai.org/pidd (Original work published 1977)

呼び覺ます（よびさます; yobi-samasu）— ‘to call and awaken / arouse’; 連用形＋用言（四段活用「覚ます」） as a finite clause leading the admonition; together they function as a finite clause that presents the situation: “(When you) rouse (something / someone)”; semantically double-edged as (a) tactically, to provoke, “rouse”, “wake up” an enemy or dormant threat, and (b) spiritually, to stir up the “enemy” within or latent in oneself one’s own heart—anger, fear, ego—echoing Ueshiba’s emphasis on overcoming inner contention rather than destroying outer opponents.

敵（てき; teki) — enemy (<啇 – stem/root|<冂 – upside down box)|古 – old, ancient, things past, simple, unsophisticated, history>|攵 – strike, hit, folding chair (shobukan veranda!; person + weed, govern, control, manage, nurture)>; kakakotoba as -te form + ki (Space-Coyote, 2026); てき uses Sino‑Japanese but is fully normal in waka from the medieval period onward; some classical contexts use かたき, but that would add a mora and disturb the 7; 敵 (てき) is fully normal in premodern waka and didactic verse, despite being Sino‑Japanese. Its presence quietly marks the domain as martial / strategic rather than purely introspective (Frellesvig, 2010, p. 297).

一人（ひとり; hitori）— “one person; alone; a single”; hitori focuses on the minimal unit: one attacker, one inner impulse, one moment of negligence.

の（no）— 格助詞, genitive / attributive.

も（mo) — 副助詞 “even, also”; here, “even” marks this as at least this much: don’t nderestimate even just one.

一人の敵も（ひとりのてきも; hitori no teki mo）— “even a single opponent”; highlights the minimum unit—the single attacker, or the first stirrings of opposition—that must not be underestimated.

心せよ（こころせよ; kokoro seyo）— imperative of 心する (“to be mindful; take heed”), classical サ変「する」命令形 ‑せよ where せよ is its bungo command form (Shirane, 2005). 

以て（もって） — functions instrumentally ‘by / with’, here instrumental “by means of, with” (standard kanbun‑kundoku usage; cf. Shirane, 2005).

一を以て（ひとをもて; ichi o motte）— “with/by means of one,” 以(も)って marking the instrumental in kundoku style.

万（ばん）— “ten thousand, myriad; the many” (Sino‑Japanese reading ばん).

に（ni）— 格助詞 “toward / against”.

当たる（あたる; ataru）— 連体形 of 四段動詞 当たる “to hit; to face; to correspond to”.

ぞ（zo）— is the emphatic particle producing the classical 係り結び(kakarimusubi) pattern (exclamation with final predicate in 連体形), hence 当たる (‑ru) rather than modern 終止形. In performance, there is a typical pause slightly after ぞ, then voice the coda line as lingering yoin.

万に当たるぞ（ばんにあたるぞ; ban ni ataru zo）— “meet / face the many!”; exclamative 係助詞ぞ triggers 係り結び with the 連体形 ‑る of 「当たる」.

一を以て万に当たる（ひとをもてばんにあたる; ichi o motte ban ni ataru zo）— is a classical Sino‑Japanese turn (“to meet the many by means of the One”); in Aikidō discourse it names the principle of dealing with attacks from all directions through a single centered rule/axis. The aphorism appears in Aikidō guidelines and in lectures by senior shihan (e.g., Tada Hiroshi) in explicitly tactical and philosophical senses. 

丈夫（まさらお） — evokes the Man’yōshū ideal of the “valiant / steadfast man” (contrasting later taoyame‑buri ‘feminine / soft’ style). Choosing the kun reading masurao is a hallmark of older diction and aligns the poem with classical ethical aesthetics.

丈夫の道（まさらおのみち; masurao no michi）— “the way of the valiant man”; here 丈夫 is read ますらを, the classical/kundoku reading attested since the Man’yōshū and in major dictionaries. 

Kami-no-ku to shimo-no-ku. Lines 1–3 move from situation (rousing) → object (enemy) → imperative (“keep watch”), mirroring 呼びさます／一人の敵も／心せよ. Lines 4–5 present the principle (“with the One…”) and its application (“meet the countless multitudes”), corresponding to 一を以て／万に当たるぞ.

Lexicon. Reading 敵 as かたき and 丈夫 as ますらを favors Yamato words and classical aesthetics over modern Sino‑Japanese teki / jōbu. This is consistent with waka diction and with national‑learning (kokugaku) valorizations of masurao-style vigor from Man’yō poetics.

Kundoku + bungo mix. Phrases like 一を以て combine kanbun-kundoku (“以て＝もって”) with bungo imperatives (心せよ). This blended high register is normal in moral or didactic verse from prewar Japan.

Cultural keyword. 丈夫（ますらお） carries a deep cultural history (from Man’yōshū onward) used to construe ethical manliness; the poem’s last line explicitly tags its ethic as “the masurao’s Way.”

Meter management. Editors often allow a 31‑mora core and treat tag lines (e.g., 丈夫の道) as coda. Using ひとつ (kun) for 一 regularizes line 4 to 7 mora; using てき for 敵 keeps line 2 at 7. This is a standard way to reconcile kundoku phrasing with waka prosody.

Kakarimusubi. The emphatic ぞ licenses the 連体形 当たる, a textbook bungo feature; keeping this instead of the modern 終止形 produces the right classical cadence.

Instrumental 以て. Treating 以て as an instrumental postposition (‘by / with’) matches kanbun reading conventions summarized in classical grammar handouts and reference grammars.

Aikidō ethics & tactics. The formula 「一を以て万に当たる」 appears in Aikidō statements of practice: train so a single centered principle (posture, breath/axis) addresses attacks from all directions. Tada Hiroshi explicitly frames this as the path where “from the One, myriad methods arise,” linking technical development to mental clarity.

Religious vocabulary. Ueshiba’s language is saturated with Shintō / Ōmoto motifs (kotodama, cosmic unity of “one and many”). Religious-studies surveys (Hardacre) and detailed studies of Shintō terms (Bocking) help contextualize this inclusive, cosmological rhetoric that informs the dōka.

Anthropology of martial arts. Reference works in martial‑arts studies (Green & Svinth) emphasize that Japanese budō articulate embodied ethics through aphorism and verse: proverbs like this dōka are training devices meant to align body, tactics, and moral vision.

Terminological nuance. Reading 丈夫 as　masurao (not jōbu “robust / healthy”) anchors the poem’s ethos in classical masculinity and Man’yō idiom rather than in modern colloquial Japanese—hence the bungo reading is not antiquarian ornament but the intended register. Standard dictionaries and scholarship on masurao‑buri support this (cf. Naito, 1996).

Yoin. Ending with 〜の道 is a common pattern in moral verse: it shifts from description to definition, leaving the reader with an after‑echo of “the Way” itself rather than any specific action. In performance or calligraphic inscription, 「丈夫の道」 often appears visually separated (as on stone monuments and scrolls), enhancing its status as yoin‑heavy coda — very much in line with classical Japanese aesthetic practice around path‑words (michi, dō).

Shugyokai note. There are many simultaneous kakekotoba here, as the one is also the first, allowing for a reading, “with the one / first, meet / strike the ten thousand” or “with the one / first, ten thousand meetings / strikings” etc. Many readings simultaneous, where 当たる itself is myriad in meaning.