Paper short abstract:

This essay approaches Ueshiba's aikido as a ritual and performative practice. It argues that the idea of aikido practice as a rectification of the problems caused by humanity is not just spiritual metaphorics and speculation but a distinctly political statement.

Paper long abstract:

In this essay, I will approach Ueshiba's aikido as a ritual and performative practice and analyze how a unity of life, doctrine, and practice is created that rests on three pillars: martial arts, farming, and religion. First, I will focus on Ueshiba's biographies and unravel the literary techniques that establish the narrative of an apolitical, charismatic leader in the tradition of the Ōmoto-kyō who legitimizes his spiritual and martial leadership through tradition and spirit possession. The second part will elaborate on the basic cosmic and metaphysic principles in aikido. Instead of limiting the exegesis to a text-eminent analysis, I will argued that the idea of aikido practice as a rectification of the problems caused by humanity is not just spiritual metaphorics and speculation but a distinctly political statement that has to be analyzed and contextualized within the political and ideological frame of increasing (religious) nationalism and pan-Asianism as well as the "fascistization" of martial arts between the late 1920s and 1945. The last part will turn toward aikido practice as a performative and ritual act to purify the world—based on the "movements" of voice (koe), physical body (nikutai), and mind (kokoro).