211「声も見ず心も聞かじつるぎわざ世を創めたる神に習ひて。」- 植芝盛平
Original Waka
声も見ず
植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)
心も聞かじ
つるぎわざ
世を創めたる
神に習ひて
Translation
“Not even voices, seen, nor by heart-mind—tsurugi-waza—the world, created and set into motion, by kami—from them, I learn, willing to become [their successor].” — Ueshiba Morihei
Waka Translation
Voice, not even, seen,
heart-mind also unheeded,
tsurugi-waza—
the world, begun in motion
by kami—from them, I learn.
植芝盛平
歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）
聲も見ず（こえもみず）
心も聞かじ（こころもきかじ）
劍業（つるぎわざ）
世をはじめたる（よをはじめたる）
神にならひて（かみにならひて）
植芝盛平
Bungo Romanization
koe mo mizu
kokoro mo kikaji
tsurugi‑waza
yo o hajimetaru
kami ni narahi‑te (modern pron.: naraite)
Ueshiba Morihei
Translation, Notes, Commentary, and Research by Latex G. N. R. Space-Coyote
Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–211: Sword arts alone (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. https://shugyokai.org/6uxq (Original work published 1977)
声 / 聲（こえ; koe）— “voice; sound” – here, concretely “voices” but also connoting public talk, opinions, rumours.
も（mo）— additive / contrastive particle “even / also”; in this position it gives “not even voice…”.
見ず（みず; mi‑zu）— stem of 見る “to see” (上一段, with 未然形 and 連用形 both 見) + negative auxiliary ず in 終止形, “to not see”.
声も見ず / 聲も見ず（こえもみず; koe mo mizu）— literally, “I do not even see voices”, “I do not even look at (others’ / those) voices”; deliberately synesthetic: in normal usage one hears voices; “seeing” them foregrounds perception itself and hints at illusion—“I will not even give them the attention of a glance”; however, could mean not hearing voices, not seeing sights.
心（こころ; kokoro）— “heart, mind, feeling, intention”.
も（mo）— again, “even / also,” parallel to line 1.
聞かじ（きかじ; kikaji）— 未然形 聞か (of 四段 verb 聞く, “to hear, to listen; to heed”) + auxiliary じ, the classical negative volitional / conjectural. With a first‑person subject, じ expresses a firm resolution: “I absolutely will not …”, “I refuse to …”, “I shall not…”.
心も聞かじ（こころもきかじ）— “I will not listen to (even) the heart-mind”; taken together, lines 1–2 vow to stand beyond both external opinions (koe), sights (mizu) and internal, affective impulses (kokoro). The pairing is classical rhetoric: two parallel 5‑mora phrases capped with a 7‑mora clause using an emphatic auxiliary (じ) – a very “bungo” way to build a vow.
つるぎ / 劍（tsurugi）— “sword”, typically a straight, double‑edged blade in contrast to the curved katana, but in budō contexts often simply “sword”.
わざ / 業（waza）— “deed, act, technique; art”; in martial arts this is the standard term for a technique.
つるぎわざ / 劍業（つるぎわざ; tsurugi waza）— “sword‑art, sword‑technique”; tsurugi (剣) + waza (業); noun compound functioning as a thematic / pivot phrase (kire‑like pause before line 4). On waka phrasing and pivots, see introductions to tanka poetics; tsurugi refers to the classic double edged sword of antiquity in Shintō.
世（よ; yo）— “world; age; human world”.
を（o）— object marker.
創め / はじめ（hajime）— 連用形 of 下二段 verb 創む / 始む “to initiate, found, bring into being”.
たる（taru）— attributive (連体形) of auxiliary たり, expressing a resultative/perfect state “having done, and so now being in that condition”.
世を創めたり / 世をはじめたり（よをはじめたる）—（連体形 たる）— “(the kami) who has created / set in motion the world” (kami is in next line); yo (world) + accusative o + 始む/創む “はじめ” (下二段 ren’yōkei) + たり (resultative/perfective auxiliary; rentaikei “たる” → “the kami who has (once) begun / created the world”). For たり/たる in Classical Japanese, see reference grammars.
神（かみ; kami）— deity; here “the (primordial) kami”.
に（に; ni）— dative/locative: “to, toward, in accordance with.”
習ひ（ならひ; narahi）— 連用形 of 四段 verb 習ふ “to learn, to imitate, to follow.”
て（te）— conjunctive particle “and, in doing so, by,” linking to the implicit main verb “I practice / act”.
神にならひて（かみにならひて; kami ni narahite）— “following the kami; learning from the kami”; kami + dative ni + 習ふ (四段 ren’yōkei “ならひ”) + て (conjunctive particle “following / in accordance with”).
Synesthetic inversion. “声も見ず / 心も聞かじ”—“not even seeing voice; nor will (I) heed/listen to the heart”—reverses expected sense channels and vows to avoid illusion/distraction. The auxiliary じ marks volitional negation, a classical vow-like stance.
Pivot/theme. つるぎわざ stands as a thematic hinge into 世を創めたる神, pointing to sword‑work as aligned with primordial creative activity.
Cosmological register. “the god who began/created the world” evokes Shintō cosmogony (kuni‑umi and the creator deities) and, in Ueshiba’s thought shaped by Ōmoto, a creative, world‑order‑founding kami.
Ethos. “神に習ひて” = “following / learning / from the deity”, in preparation to “succeed them”. In Ueshiba’s discourse, sword‑practice (tsurugi) is a vehicle of cosmological harmony—famously, “Art of Peace” emphasizes the sword as a medium of universal principles.
Classical auxiliaries and inflections. Kept: 見ず (miru + ず neg.), 聞かじ (kiku + じ neg. volitional), はじめたる (下二段 verb + たり resultative, 連体形 たる), ならひて (四段 ren’yōkei + て). These are core bungo features as codified in major grammars.
Historical kana & kyūjitai. Used where apt (ならひて; 聲/劍), while preserving the transmitted wording (創/初 variants are attested across lists; I keep 創めたる as given in the cited list).
Pivot structure. A thematic third line is idiomatic for tanka—Carter and Brower & Miner note such internal pivots and rhetorical turns as standard reading strategies.
Negative volitional じ. In first‑person assertions, じ encodes resolution (“I shall not …”), exactly the force needed for 修行 (shugyō) vow‑language. Standard treatments list じ as the negative counterpart to む (volitional).
Resultative たり / attributive たる. はじめたる神 literally “the god who has begun (the world),” a classical relative/attributive construction that fits waka compression and allows the shimo‑no‑ku to conclude with 習ひて“following (that god).”
Semantic field. つるぎわざ + 神 + 世を創めたる binds martial technique to cosmology. This is squarely in Ueshiba’s poetic diction where budō is framed as the enactment of cosmic order; the translation preserves that alignment without modernizing it away. For the poetic reading of such alignments in traditional verse, see Carter; for sword‑culture’s ethical/spiritual frames, see Friday.
Shintō cosmogony & creator‑kami: References to a creator deity sit comfortably within the spectrum of Shintō myth (Ame‑no‑minakanushi, Takami / Kami‑Musubi, Izanagi / Izanami, etc.). A critical religious‑historical account helps read this as mythic register, not dogmatic theology.
Ōmoto influence on Ueshiba. Ueshiba’s thought was deeply shaped by Deguchi Onisaburō and Ōmoto practice; aikidō’s ethos (purification, harmonization, kotodama) permeates his verse and talks. Religious‑studies work and aikidō historiography detail this linkage.
Sword as cosmological instrument. Ueshiba repeatedly frames the sword as a conduit of universal power—the “Art of Peace” idiom. Reading つるぎわざ here as cosmogonic alignment (not mere technique) thus matches the founder’s published teachings.
Kotodama & embodiment. The opening antithesis (“voice not seen; heart not heard”) can be read as a discipline of perception and speech—resonant with kotodama (word‑spirit) and with embodied training discourses in Japanese religion and martial arts. For kotodama and Shintō terminology, see Bocking and Ono; for embodiment as an anthropological paradigm helpful in reading martial practice as world‑making, see Csordas.
Alternative texts. Some lists write 初めたる (初) rather than 創めたる (創); both read hajime, and both are compatible with the perfective‑attributive たり > たる analysis used here. The metrical and semantic readings remain unchanged.
解説; Commentary
この第211首「声も見ず心も聞かじつるぎわざ世を創めたる神に習ひて」は、まず「声も見ず／心も聞かじ」という二連で、外側の雑音（世評・噂・意見）と、内側のざわめき（感情や衝動としての“心”）の両方に“引きずられない”という誓いを立てています。とりわけ「声を見る」という共感覚的な反転は、声の内容以前に「知覚そのもの」に注意を向け、「幻や錯覚に目（耳）を奪われない」姿勢を強調する言い方です。続く「聞かじ」は古典の打消意志（助動詞 じ）で、「聞きたくない」ではなく「断固として聞かない」という修行語彙の決意に寄ります。そして三句目の「つるぎわざ」が“折れ（ピボット）”になって、四・五句「世を創めたる神に習ひて」へ跳ぶ――剣の業は、世界創成の神に学ぶほどの位相に置かれる、という読みへ導かれます。
このページの解説が示すように、ここでの「神」は単なる比喩ではなく、神道の創成神話（国産み等）を想起させる“宇宙論的レジスター”として働いています。つまりこの歌は、「剣の技術」を技術の外へ持ち出して、世界を“創める（はじめる）”働きに連なる行として置き直す。そのとき「声」も「心」も、捨てる対象というより、世界創成の規模に比べれば小さく移ろいやすい“揺れ”として相対化されます。さらに植芝の宗教的背景として指摘される大本（Ōmoto）由来の浄化・言霊・宇宙調和の語彙を踏まえると、つるぎわざは「相手を切る道具」ではなく、宇宙秩序に整列するための媒体として読める、という含意が立ちます。
六つのプライマーに糸を通すなら、プライマーの第一原理（武＝宇宙原理）は「世を創めたる神」へ整列する視座、プライマーの第二原理（人との合気）は“外声／内心”に振り回されず関係を結ぶ実務、プライマーの第三原理（心魂一如）は誓い（じ）を息・身で実装する芯、プライマーの第四原理（和合美化）は創成の秩序へ場を返す美学、プライマーの第五原理（体＝道場／心＝学び手）は「神に習ひて」を稽古の反復へ落とす回路、プライマーの第六原理（至愛の源に順う）は剣を“生かす方向”へ運転する点検軸になります。ここで「心も聞かじ」は、第202首の「心の小楯」と矛盾するのではなく、第155首の禊や第150首の“内なる障り”を経て、“聞いてよい心（澄んだ心）”と“聞くべきでない心（衝動・我執のささやき）”を峻別せよという含みとして読めます。また第147首の「筆や口には尽くされず」に呼応して、この歌は“語る・思う”以前に、剣の行そのものを創成神話のスケールへ接続せよと迫る。さらに「声を見ず」という反転は、以前から繰り返した非点状（点で捉えず、場として立つ）の作法とも響き合い、第163首の「よろづすぢ」のように、合気の線は尽きないまま――ただ、今この一瞬の“つるぎわざ”において世界へ開いていく、という余韻を残します。
口語要約のひとこと
「声にも惑わされず、心のささやきにも耳を貸さず、世を創めた神にならって剣のわざを行う。」
References
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Appendix I: Change Modification Log
20 DEC 25 - Applied Phase V styling on waka (initial test).19 DEC 25 - Phase IV completion; added commentary.26 NOV 25 - Phase IV preparation.07 OCT 25 - Initial notes transferred from index page; Phase III completion.14 APR 20 - Initial notes transferred to index page.