修行会

8「合気にてよろず力を働かし美しき世と安く和すべし。」- 植芝盛平

Original Waka

合気にて
よろず力を
働かし
美しき世と
安く和すべし

植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)

Translation

“By means of Aiki, all the encompassing powers, causing them to work—beautifully ordering a world in concord ought harmonize tranquility.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Waka Translation¹

By aiki means,
all these potent powers moving,
causing them to work—

beautiful ordered concord;
a peaceful harmony ought.

Morihei Ueshiba

歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）

合氣にて（あいきにて）
よろづ力を（よろづちからを）
働かし（はたらかし）
美しき世と（うつくしきよと）
安く和すべし（やすくわすべし）

植芝盛平

Bungo Romanization

aiki nite
yorozu chikara o
hatarakashi
utsukushiki yo to
yasuku wasu beshi

Ueshiba Morihei

Aikikai Romanization²

“Aikinite yorodzu chikarawo hatarakashi uruwasikiyoto yasukuwasubeshi.” – Morihei Ueshiba

Aikikai Practice Notes²

funekogi, furitama, ukemi

Notes

¹ Line 5’s extra syllable intended.

² Referenced in Aikido at Home #1 during Covid Crisis May 14, 2020

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

Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–008: Peaceful harmony (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. https://shugyokai.org/ed30 (Original work published 1977)

合氣にて（あいきにて; aiki nite）— “by/with [means of] Aiki”; にて is the classical instrumental / comitative equivalent of modern で (cf. Shirane, 2005); here it frames 合気 as the means or ethos by which action is undertaken.

よろず（yorozu）— “myriad; all manner of; everything”; classical 万（よろづ） functions as “myriad” and also “all (things)”; yorozu lexeme commonly evokes totality (“八百万の神/yaoyorozu no kami”), resonant with Shintō cosmology (Wikimedia Foundation, 2025-a, 2025-b).

力（ちから; chikara）— “forces / powers” (here in a broad, cosmological sense consistent with Ueshiba’s diction).

よろず力（よろづちから; yorozu chikara）— suggests all encompassing potency—both physical / spiritual energies that one can employ responsibly. Note the eight powers: 「 八力は、対照力『動、静、解、凝、引、弛、合、分、』『９－１、８－２、７－３、６－４』をいいます。」- 植芝 盛平, but not limited to these (e.g., bhumi).

働（はたら; hatara）— work; variant of 動 (movement, to move); semantic 人 + phonetic 動.

働かし (はたらかし; hatarakashi）— the 連用形 (conjunctive) of the causative 働かす, i.e., “(to) set to work / make [them] act”; using the ‑す causative in the conjunctive to bridge into the next syntagm is standard bungo practice; the phrase calls for activating all capacities under Aiki’s guidance.

美しき（うつくし; utsukushiki）— classical attributive (rentaikei) of 美し (“beautiful”), modifying 世. 

世（よ; yo）— generation, many spanning generations, era, period, time, epoch, dynasty, regime, year, age, world, earth, people (atemporal) (three leaves on a branch)

世と（よと; yo to）— marks comitative / associative “together with / in concord with [the world]”.

美しき世（うつくしきよ; utsukushiki yo）— attributive utsukushiki “beautiful” + 世 “world / age” + と as comitative “together with / in accord with”; beautiful world; note that world points to physical / spiritual world; “The beautiful world,” implying not only aesthetic beauty but a well-ordered, life-affirming world into which practitioners should fit themselves.

安（やす; yasu) — calm, comfortable, peace, easy, simple, cheap.

安く（やすく; yasuku) — adverbial of 安し, here “peacefully, gently, in tranquility” (not “cheaply”), a well‑attested classical sense.

和（わ; wa) — peace; harmony; tranquility; serenity.

和す（わす; wasu) — Sino‑Japanese 和する (“to harmonize; to join in concord”). Classical dictionaries also record 和す（やわす）“to soften, pacify,” but Ueshiba’s ethical idiom favors the Sino‑Japanese wasu “harmonize”; modal べし conveys advisability / oughtness: “should.”

安く和すべし（やすくわすべし; yasuku wasu beshi) — yasuku (adverbial of 安し “peaceful; calm” and 易し “easy; readily”) plus wasu “to harmonize / attune,” and modal beshi “ought / should” (classical necessity / recommendation); the polysemy of やすく (安く/易く) and the semantic range of 和す (read わす, also historically クワ(カ)す), enable waka‑style kakekotoba: “at ease / peace” and “to sum / harmonize” (kotobagaki), a wordplay cluster well‑attested in court poetry poetics (cf. Brower & Miner, 1961, DIGITALIO, n.d.-a, n.d.-b); effortless, natural union, echoing Confucian / Shintō ideals of living in balance with both community and universe; yasuku (“peacefully, calmly, at ease”) + wasu (“to harmonize”) + beshi (“ought to / should”)—a normative imperative; the moral orientation toward 和 (wa, harmony) resonates with the long-standing Japanese ideal of social and cosmic concord (famously articulated in early texts such as the Seventeen-Article Constitution’s “和を以て貴しとなす”).

Instrumental にて. Classical Japanese uses にて for means / location, where Modern Japanese prefers で; the poem’s first foot “合氣にて” is idiomatic bungo.

Rentaikei adjectives. ‑き — 美しき is the classical attributive; modern 美しい would be non‑classical.

Kakekotoba mapping. Sum carries the mathematical sense of 和 (“sum”) and the ethical‑aesthetic sense of 和(“harmony”), echoing 和す; at ease / in peace shadows the dual readings of 安く (安し／易し).

Waka enjambment. Conjunctive linkage at the line break — 働かし is the 連用形 of the causative 働かす, a standard way to enjamb lines in waka while maintaining classical syntax.

Classical grammar. Modal べし — べし attaches to the conclusive 和す and here expresses advisability / oughtness (also allowing the nuance “it is proper to …”), exactly as described in classical grammars. 

Historical kana & allomorphy. Forms like よろず (~歴史的仮名遣い よろづ), 美しき, and 和す reflect bungo spelling / inflectional habits that persisted into the 20th century literary standard (Columbia bungo syllabus overview). The reading also acknowledges historical variation in 和す (わす／クワす) and the dual semantics of 安し／易し, which make waka‑style kakekotoba possible (Lurie, 2011; DIGITALIO, n.d.-a, n.d.-b; Manapedia, 2020).

Lexical registers. 和す (Sino‑Japanese wasu “harmonize”) and よろづ (classical “myriad; all”) reflect premodern diction, aligning with waka and bungo usage.

Ueshiba’s dōka and Omoto influenced ethics of 和 (wa). The founder of Aikidō frequently framed technique as 和—cosmic reconciliation / harmonization—articulated in aphoristic waka‑like 道歌. His religious formation in Ōmoto (through Deguchi Onisaburō) stressed universal attunement and kotodama; this informs lines like “安く和すべし” (we ought to harmonize in peace) (Pranin, 2002; Greenhalgh, 2003; Stein, 2024; see Primer 4).

Poetic devices as ethical rhetoric. Classical devices (kakekotoba, kireji, yoin) are not ornamental only; they open semantic / affective space that matches Aikidō’s non‑dual and processual ethos—the cut (kire) invites a turn from means (“合気にて／働かし”) to goal (“美しき世…和すべし”), and the after‑resonance (余韻) leaves the enactment to reader / practitioner (Brower & Miner, 1961; Eväsoja, 2007).

Yoin (余韻, “after‑resonance”). The close avoids a full stop after “harmonies,” leaving the semantic field open, cultivating “aftertaste / resonance” (Eväsoja, 2007).