40「無明とは誰やの人が又月のいづるも入るも知る人ぞなし。」- 植芝盛平
Original Waka
無明とは
植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)
誰やの人が
又月の
いづるも入るも
知る人ぞなし
Translation
“As for ignorance: who on earth is the person—also the moon’s rising and setting—someone knowing—there is not. ” – Morihei Ueshiba
Waka Translation
As for ignorance:
who on earth is the person
also, the moon’s own
rising, and setting—is there
someone knowing—there is not.
Morihei Ueshiba
歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）
無明とは（むみょうとは）
誰やの人が（たれやのひとが）
又月の（またつきの）
出づるも入るも（いづるもいるも）
知る人ぞなし1（しるひとぞなし）
植芝盛平
Bungo Romanization
mumyō to wa
tare ya‑no hito ga
mata tsuki‑no
izuru mo iru mo
shiru hito zo nashi2
Ueshiba Morihei
Notes
1 Notes: TL/DR: following kakarimusubi historical kana, the last line in the shimo-no-ku would be 知る人ぞなき; 出づ (いづ, D‑shimonidan) and 入る (いる, R‑yodan) are the classical verbs for ‘(moon) rise’ and ‘(moon) set’; with the focus particle ぞ, strict kakarimusubi prefers the attributive なき (not なし).
2 Strict bungo variant: … shiru hito zo naki.
Translation, Notes, Commentary, and Research by Latex G. N. R. Space-Coyote
Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–040: Moonrise, moonset (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/h9ba
無（む; mu） — void; emptiness [as a characteristic] (i.e., empty of intrinsic existence).
明（みょ; myō） — clear; bright.
無明（むみょ; mumyō） — Japanese Buddhist thought (from Sanskrit avidyā), root delusion veiling true nature of reality. Ueshiba often uses it in a metaphysical, not merely moral, sense.
無明とは（むみょとは; mumyō to wa） — “as for mumyō (avidyā, ignorance)” (topic‑setting).
誰（たれ; tare） — who.
や（ya） — here is a kakarijoshi intensifier with interrogative force (“who indeed?”); the fixed expression 誰やの人 ‘who on earth (is the person)?’ is classical / medieval and dictionary‑attested (first cited in Kaimokushō, 1272; cf. Shirane, 2005; Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, n.d.).
誰やの人が （たれやのひとが; tare ya‑no hito ga） — rhetorical flourish akin to “who on earth is the person who…,” intensifying the impossibility.
又（また; mata） — also; again; still (doing).
月（つき; tsuki） — moon; across waka and Zen literature, the moon stands for awakened mind or ultimate reality; its “rising” and “setting” are appearances relative to the observer. From a doctrinal lens, the moon’s suchness does not come or go—only deluded perspectives do.
又月の（またつき; mata tsuki no） — “again / also, the moon (gen)”; may be read “also the moon’s …,” not necessarily temporal “again,” giving parallelism with the antithetical pair 出づる／入る (rising / setting). Such antithetical parallel is a common waka technique for marking cyclical time and cosmological rhythm. (Brower & Miner, 1961).
いづる — preserves historical kana (旧仮名遣い) づ for /z/, and 入る（いる）retains the classical reading for the moon’s “setting,” both standard in pre‑modern texts. (Seeley, 1991; Kotobank).
いづる／入る（; ） — izuru / iru; classical verbs “to rise / appear” (of heavenly bodies) and “to enter / set”, common in waka diction.
いづるも入るも（いづるもいるも; izuru mo iru mo） — “both rising and setting” (出づ・入る); compresses a full cycle (“rising” & “setting”) in one hemistich; the diction is strictly classical (いづる, 入る＝いる for celestial bodies; DIGITALIO);
知（し; shi） — wisdom.
知る（しる; shiru） — “someone who knows”; could often mean to “take care of,” “look after,” or “be responsible for”; in poetry (waka), it often refers to a person who understands or sympathizes with the speaker’s emotions, particularly their love or suffering—very important meaning in literary contexts; someone who is discerning, well-informed, or an expert in a certain field.
人（ひと; hito） — human; person; man.
ぞなし（zo nashi） — emphatically states “there is none”; leaves open echo (yoin, “after‑resonance”) by ending on a negation that lingers—a valued aesthetic in premodern Japanese poetics. (Parkes, 2005/2018).
知る人ぞなし（しるひとぞなし; shiru hito zo nashi） — “there is indeed no person who knows [it]”; the emphasis particle ぞ scopes over 知る（…人）, creating kakarimusubi on 知る (adnominal), while closing on なし; the formula X を知る人ぞなし is well attested in waka. (NINJAL; classical examples).
出づるも入るも知る人ぞなし — see Lab Notes.
Sense of the line. Ueshiba points past calculable, conventional knowledge (we can timetable moonrise) toward existential insight: in delusion, we don’t truly know the source or destination of phenomena. The verse nudges the reader to look beyond appearances toward the unchanging ground that the “moon” signifies.
Lexicon & orthography. Using 出（い）づ ‘to emerge/rise’ and 入（い）る ‘(moon / sun) to set’ is straightforwardly classical; writing いづる and reading 入る as いる matches dictionary and waka precedent.
Meter. The segmentation yields a clean 5–7–5 / 7–7—the canonical waka/tanka phrase rhythm (mora‑based in Japanese).
Particles & kakarimusubi. The emphatic ぞ typifies classical focus; a fully “schoolbook” bungo form would give …人ぞなき (rentaikei). Allowing なし realistically reflects later usage as kakarimusubi declined from late medieval through early modern stages.
Regional (Kansai) flavor within an archaizing register. Ueshiba (from Wakayama/Kansai) often wrote dōka (道歌, “poems of the Way”) in a hybrid of classical diction and Kansai‑colored syntax. The sequence 誰やの人 is idiomatic if we hear や as Kansai copula and の as explanatory linker (cf. ノヤ／ネン paradigms). That mix coheres with his era’s tendency to “sound classical,” not to reproduce Heian grammar mechanically.
Buddhist doctrinal anchor: 無明 (avidyā) is the primal ignorance that obscures the Four Noble Truths and initiates samsaric becoming; read this dōka as a concise soteriological observation: even the cycles of the moon—rise and set—have “no knower,” modeling the inaccessibility of ultimate knowledge to deluded grasping. (Buswell & Lopez, 2014).
Waka intertext. Classical anthologies abound in moon‑rise/set collocations (e.g., Kokinshū passages that juxtapose いでて／入りぬる with the moon). The line leans on that lexicon, letting bungo cadence carry the thought.
Religious milieu. Ueshiba’s spirituality braided Shintō (Ōmoto) with Buddhist ideas; his dōka frequently universalize ethical insight in liturgical‑sounding waka form. Reading the line as a tanka therefore aligns with both his practice and his audience’s expectations.
LAB NOTES
Line 4/5 has many permutations and the waka is loaded with puns; check out izuru (出づ) and iru (居る) .
解説; Commentary
このページの第40首は「無明とは／誰やの人が／又月の／いづるも入るも／知る人ぞなし」と詠み、批判的口語訳にすれば――「無明（むみょう）ってさ、いったい“誰”がそれをわかってるって言える？ 月が昇るのも沈むのも――ほんとうに“知る”人なんていないんだ」――という趣旨です。ここでの無明は仏教語の avidyā（根本的な〈知らなさ〉）で、経験的知識（暦での月出没）を越えた「存在論的な分からなさ」を指します。また「月の昇降」は和歌伝統の象徴語彙で、月は本性（覚り）の喩とされ、出入りは観る側の相対的現れにすぎないという含意がのる。末句の「ぞ」は係り結びで焦点を強め、本来は連体形「なき」が教科書的形ですが、ここでは「なし」で締めて余情（よいん）を残す語り口が選ばれています。こうした文法メモ（いづる／入るの古典用法、誰やの人のレトリック）まで本ページに丁寧に示されています。
この一句を六つのプライマーに“糸戻し”すると、プライマーの第一原理〈武＝宇宙原理〉が示す「現象の出入りに振り回されず、根源へ整合する」という座標がまず立ちます。プライマーの第三原理〈心魂一如〉は、観察者（心）と所作（身）のズレをなくす芯、プライマーの第四原理〈和合美化〉は「出る／入る」の対立を美へ収束させるテロス、プライマーの第五原理〈体＝道場、心＝修業者／修行者心／学び手〉は毎呼吸・毎一挙が“月の出没”に見立てられるという日常運用、そしてプライマーの第六原理〈「至愛」の源に順う〉が「知る人ぞなし」の前でうぬぼれず、愛に基づく判断に従う倫理を与えます。プライマーの第二原理〈人との合気〉の観点では、相手や情勢の“出入り”を測るより、出入りを超えた合一の拍を聴く――そんな視座を、この一首は静かに促しています。
直前の三首とも手筋がつながります。第37首〈手綱を緩めるな〉は、無明＝迷いが走り出す前に心の手綱を締める戒め、第38首〈右を陽に、左を陰にして導け〉は、出（陽）／入（陰）の見せ—受けを配電して導く作法、第39首〈言向け勧め、愛の剣に〉は、知らぬ者を呼び覚ます言葉と決断の倫理でした。第40首はそれらの運用の“底”にある認識論――「現れの出没に“本当に知る者”はいない」――を滲ませ、出／入の循環に取り込まれず、合気の“一”へ返す謙虚さを据え直す章だと読めます。
批判的読解に関する注記：この偈文にはナーガールジュナの四難が重ねられている。「月が昇る」は「ある」（अस्ति）に対応する。「月が沈む」は「ない」（नास्ति）に対応する。「昇り沈む」は「両者」（उभय）に対応する。「いずれをも知る者なし」は「いずれでもない」（अनुभव）に対応する。この偈は現象を自我と誤認する無知を鋭く指摘し、第39首の呼びかけと目覚めである。
口語要約のひとこと
「無明ってさ、いったい誰のこと？――月が昇るのも沈むのも、本当に知る人なんていないんだ。」
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Appendix I: Change Modification Log
21 DEC 25 - Phaes V styling applied to waka.07 NOV 25 - Phase IV refinement; commentary added. Still a difficult poem to translate for accessibility due to the optimal kami-no-ku to shimo-no-ku folding in working memory managing conceptual attack, sustain, and decay for efficacious transmission.22 OCT 25 - Phase IV complete; translation updated for more punch, upper/lower parallelism, after tone, and allusion to tetralemma (see Nagarjuna, ~200/1995).14 OCT 25 - Phase III completion.14 APR 20 - Initial notes transferred.