Japanese Cultural Arts

Aikido is a Japanese martial way.  The martial tradition had a significant effect on the development of Japanese culture and vice versa.  The culture developed on a relatively isolated group of islands and filtered incoming knowledge exceptionally well.  This allowed for growth & change while maintaining the integrity & uniqueness of Japanese ideas & values.  As a result there is found a congruency of unique concepts across the spectrum of Japanese cultural arts & disciplines.  The martial class in Japan held a substantial role in governance and cultural authority.  The members of this class, the samurai, were not only trained in the ways of war, but the shogun also encouraged them in the arts.  This fostered the character of samurai into an elite & benevolent class of warriors.

By experiencing and appreciating the cultural arts today its possible to reverse engineer some of the elusive concepts underlying the bushido of the samurai class.  This can lead to insight for conceptual changes, and as a stepping stone towards transformation.      Among the more prominent arts are: Sado (way of tea), Shodo (way of calligraphy), sumi-e (black ink brush painting), Kado (way of flowers), Nihongo (Japanese language), Bunraku (puppet theater), Noh (theatrical storytelling and possesion), Kabuki (Japanese theater), Raku (ceramic pottery), Kodo (way of incense), Origami (paper folding), Kiri-e (cut paper picture), Ukiyo-e (woodblock print), Bonsai (potted plants), Taiko (great drum), Gagaku (Imperial court music), Shakuhachi (bamboo flute), Shamisen (stringed musical instrument), Nihon Ryori (Japanese food), Nihon Kagura (Japanese dance), Kimono (formal clothing), Nihon Teien (Japanese Gardening), Washi (papermaking), and of course the famous Geisha (art person).  In addition, there are the Buddhist and Shinto religions of Japan which contain numerous elements of art and philosophy.      Being that Murakumo Dojo has strong ties to Japan and the Japanese immigrant community in the USA we have on occasion opportunities to study these wonderful expressions of Japanese culture.

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