All arts that the Founder of Aikido studied were samurai techniques devised to kill or maim opponents. They were jutsu, Japanese for technique. Look at Morihei Ueshiba in the mid-1930s and you find exemplary technique. To one contemporary, he was "something of a genius among jujitsu practitioners"; recent research confirms Ueshiba was then teaching pure (Daito-ryu) aiki-jujutsu.
In this perspective, the meaning of "aiki" is that it provides a more effective way to kill or maim opponents, a better way to defeat others.
However, as each jutsu turned into do, like judo or kendo, the point of practice became that of using the training to build character rather than to equip killers. It was to cultivate traits of courage, sincerity, mindfulness, loyalty, generosity, and the like; to "purify and forge the self." But the elements of practice remained similar. Aiki Budo, as Ueshiba at times termed his art in the 1930s, was practice in the warlike techniques of aiki-jutsu to build character. Those who attacked you were called enemies or opponents.
After the War, when the practice had been renamed Aikido, O-Sensei went further in his emphasis on love and peace. Aiki training became more than self-polishing, it was framed as as a vehicle for harmonizing the human family. In interviews in the mid-1950s O-sensei voiced his affinity for nonviolence and pacifism. In a later statement he declared: "Aikido is the way of union and harmony of heaven, Earth, and humanity." O-Sensei declared that in his aikido, there are no enemies. This led to designating attackers as partners rather than opponents, to increasing concern for taking care of one another in practice, as well as to diminished emphasis on named techniques. It also led him to emphasize the difference between aikido and other arts that turned into competitive sports.
As one of his biographers has written: "Ueshiba did not invent the Way. He regarded aikido not as his own creation but as a holy path that was revealed to him as a mirror of the divine ordinance of the universe."
In all traditions, those who believe they possess the keys to the kingdom are notorious for relapsing into infighting with others similarly possessed. Near the end of his life Morihei confessed sadly, "I have given my life to opening this path, but when I look back there is no one following me . . ." The lack of harmony among his disciples and constant bickering over who is teaching the "real" aikido disheartened him.
Morihei Ueshiba opened a path for us, one that can be followed both physically and spiritually, but each person must tread it by himself or herself and each choose his or her own direction without presuming that direction absolute. Listen to the Founder: "Daily training allows your inner divinity to shine brighter and brighter. Do not concern yourself with the right and wrong of others. Keep the mind right and clear as the endless sky, the deepest ocean, and the highest mountain. Keep your mind set on Aikido, and do not criticize other teachers or traditions."
That said, my classes this year will be exploring how what O-Sensei described as the Aiki Way can be related to the three classic principles of aikijutsu which Ueshiba studied in his early 30s with Takeda Sensei: shisei (posture); kuzushi (take balance); and aiki.