修行会

210「緒結びの七十五つの御姿は合気となりて世をば清めつ。」- 植芝盛平 

Original Waka

緒結びの
七十五つの
御姿は
合気となりて
世をば清めつ

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“Generative bindings’ seventy-five forms—as for their august presence: becoming aiki, cleansed the world through and through…” — Ueshiba Morihei

Waka Translation

Omusubi’s knots,
their own seventy five’s own
august form, on this—

aiki, thus becoming,
the world, cleansed pure through and through.

植芝盛平

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

緒結びの（おむすびの）
七十五つの（ななそいつつの）
御姿は（みすがたは）
合氣となりて（あいきとなりて）
世をば清めつ（よをばきよめつ）

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

omusubi no
nanaso itsutsu no
mi sugata wa
aiki to nari te
yo oba kiyome tsu

Ueshiba Morihei

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–210: Knots of muse (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. https://shugyokai.org/8okj (Original work published 1977)

緒（お; o）— “cord, strand, thread, connection”.

結び（むすび; musubi）— “tying, knotting; generative binding”; Shinto term meaning “knotting, binding, generative coupling.” In classic mythology (e.g., the Kojiki), Musubi names creative kami (Takami-Musubi, Kami-Musubi). In Aikido pedagogy, musubi also means relational connection with a partner—sensing, blending, and co-arising of movement. Rendering it as “creative binding” preserves both the cosmological and technical senses.

緒結び（おむすび; o‑musubi）— “cord‑tying / musubi (binding)”; see musubi as generative “binding” in Shintō; invokes musubi—not merely “tying cords,” but the Shintō principle of generative binding/creativity, linked to Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi. The term musubi in religious studies denotes the “power of becoming / creation”; In Ueshiba’s Omoto‑ and Shintō‑inflected vocabulary, 気結び・生産び・緒結び (“ki‑musubi, iku‑musubi, o‑musubi”) form a triad of ways ki binds heaven, earth, and beings; here 緒結びの is genitive: “of (that) Omusubi‑binding,” implying the primordial knotting of the universe and of human life; this gestures both to literal strands/cords and to Musubi as a creator‑kami; this double valence works like a kakekotoba (pivot word) between concrete knotting and cosmogonic binding.

七十（ななそ; nanaso）— archaic native form for “seventy”.

五つ（いつつ; itsutsu）— native “five”.

七十五つ（ななそいつつ; nanaso itsutsu）—“seventy‑five”; alludes to the “seventy‑five sounds” (shichi‑jū‑go‑goe/on) in kotodama lore: the 50 basic syllables + 20 voiced + 5 semi‑voiced (50+20+5=75); Ueshiba repeatedly ties Aiki and cosmogony to kotodama’s sound‑matrix in his talks and dōka.

御（is a classical honorific prefix used for kami, emperors, and revered things (御子, 御言, 御魂, etc.).

姿（すがた; sugata）— “form, figure, manifestation, appearance”.

御姿（みすがた; mi-sugata）— “august / numinous form / appearance”; frames the 75 as divine epiphanies (honorific mi‑), which “become Aiki”—i.e., harmonizing force (below).

は（wa）— marks the topic (here, “as for the august forms of that seventy‑fivefold Omusubi…”.

合気 / 合氣（あいき; aiki）— here is Ueshiba’s technical–spiritual term, not just “harmonized ki”.

~となりて（あいき; aiki）— と (to quotative / result marker) + なり(nari; ナリ‑conjugation “to become, to be”) + conjunctive て (‑te); sense is “coming to be as X; taking the form of X”.

合気となりて (あいきとなりて; aiki to nari te) — “becoming aiki”, with nari‑te the conjunctive of 成る ‘to become’ in bungo. So: “(these forms) come to be as aiki,” i.e., the 75 divine forms / voices manifest themselves as [the principle of] Aiki.

世（よ; yo）— “world, age, realm of human affairs” (not just “planet Earth”).

をば（oba）— classical emphatic object (を＋は; Shirane, 2005); marks “world” as a focused object / field directly affected: not just the world, but making world, purified (i.e., stabilizing and bringing the world to continuous binding with emptiness).

清め（きよめ; kiyome) — is the continuative form of 清む / 清める, “to cleanse, purify (ritually or morally)”.

つ（tsu) — is the classical perfective auxiliary (連用形接続); at poem‑end it functions much like a kireji, adding completion and gentle emphasis.

世をば清めつ（よをばきよめつ; yo oba kiyome tsu) — wo‑ba marks the object “world” with emphatic topicalization; ‑tsu is the classical perfective auxiliary (“has purified”); uses classical wo‑ba for object‑focus and the perfective ‑tsu, yielding “(have) purified the world,” a cadence common in bungo closure.

Kami-no-ku to shimo-no-ku. The upper verse’s cosmic source → numerological / sonic articulation (75) → divine form folds onto the lower verse’s forms → Aiki → purification of the world. Structuring a poem as “from mythic origin to present human realm” is a familiar move from Man’yōshū through medieval religious waka.

Archaic numerals. Reading 七十 as nanaso and combining with native itsutsu (“five”) reflects documented native number morphology (…so for tens; …tsu counters), widespread in Heian/medieval usage and preserved in forms like misoji / yosoji / nanasoji.

Historical particles. をば (wo‑ba) = accusative を + bound particle は; an emphatic object/topic marker standard in classical style and still felt as archaising in modern waka.

Classical aspect. Sentence‑final ‑つ is a perfective auxiliary (like ‑ぬ); in Early/Middle Japanese it closes declaratives with resultative/completive force—exactly the nuance needed for “(has) purified”.

Rekishiteki kanazukai. Writing をむすび, よをば, and kyūjitai 氣 signals classical orthography and phonology conventions typically used when rendering pre‑modern diction. (For general bungo overviews and practice, see standard handbooks.)

Dictional register. The honorific 御 (mi‑) in 御姿, the theological Musubi, and the resultative close in 清めつ all register as court‑poetry diction and cadence, aligning Ueshiba’s verse with long‑standing waka conventions even as the content refracts modern Aiki cosmology.

Musubi as cosmological principle. In Shintō thought, musubi is the creative binding force tied to deities like Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi; it grounds myths of generation and the growth of all things. Reading 緒結び against this backdrop turns “knot‑tying” into a cosmogonic metaphor for emanation.

Kotodama’s “seventy‑five sounds”. Ueshiba’s dōka and lectures often frame Aiki through kotodama (“word‑spirit”), explicitly mentioning 75 sounds as the matrix of universal dynamism. The poem’s 七十五つの御姿 (“seventy‑five august forms”) maps neatly onto this schema.

Embodiment & budō. From an anthropological lens, Aiki ritualizes embodied alignment of speech/sound, breath, and movement—the meshing of technique, cosmology, and purification. This resonates with studies of embodiment and Japanese martial culture that read practice as moral‑cosmological training, not mere combat. In that idiom, “becoming Aiki” (合気となりて) purifies the world (世をば清めつ) is a ritual statement of restoring order.

Yoin. Ending on 清めつ (perfective) creates a strong sense of a completed act whose effects continue—exactly the 余韻 (yoin) classical poetics talks about (the state of a purified world that still “rings” after the poem ends).