Paper short abstract:

This presentation looks at how prewar occult beliefs and practices, based closely on Shinto and Japanese mythohistory and initially confined to Japan, were transformed into global practices through the martial art aikido from 1958 through the 1970s.

Paper long abstract:

Starting in 1958, Japanese aikido teachers were rapidly dispatched around the world, including Singapore, South Africa, France, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Aikido quickly gained worldwide appeal as a martial art, but it brought with it two other types of knowledge, both of which originated in the early 20th century. First, seemingly from its first overseas establishments from 1958 through 1963, aikido introduced methods of breathing practice, physical austerity, and bodily meditation which its founder Ueshiba Morihei connected to Shinto mythology and tradition. Aikido historians seem to assume these practices originate in Deguchi Onisaburō’s Oomoto movement, but in fact, they can be traced to Kawazura Bonji’s Misogi movement, with Oomoto being a secondary source of spiritual language surrounding them. Second, starting around 1972, Ueshiba’s disciple Nakazono Mutsuro infused aikido with teachings about the symbolism of Japanese syllables, called kotodama. These teachings, which have found their way into many aikido publications, were combined with an unusual Japan-centric view of human evolution. Nakazono was inspired by the Takenouchi Documents, an alternative ancient historical narrative or, as I have called it in the past, “parahistory”; in this case, there are very few actual documents associated with the narrative. These more spiritual teachings of kotodama and parahistory originated with Nakazono’s contemporary in Japan, Ogasawara Kōji, and most were most likely unrelated to the key concerns of the founder Ueshiba. Through such esoteric beliefs and practices, aikido’s fortunes became tied to an exoticized spirituality which perceived aikido’s original masters as having special access to the flows, vibrations, and natural harmonies of the universe. In the 21st century, this “harmonious” worldview has isolated aikido from other martial arts and seems to be losing popularity.