Harmony as Martial Purpose

Aikido, the way of harmonising energy, was created by Morihei Ueshiba in the first half of the twentieth century, synthesising the jujutsu and weapons training he had studied, particularly Daito ryu aikijujutsu, with a religious vision drawn directly from his own devotion to Omoto kyo, a Japanese new religious movement founded in the late nineteenth century that blends Shinto derived elements with prophetic and universalist teaching, and specifically from his relationship with Onisaburo Deguchi, Omoto kyo's charismatic co founder and spiritual leader, whom Ueshiba served closely and whose teachings shaped his own developing martial philosophy over decades. Ueshiba described aikido's purpose in explicitly religious rather than merely technical terms, framing the art as a path toward reconciling and harmonising rather than defeating an opponent, a distinctive ethical stance among martial arts that Ueshiba grounded directly in Omoto kyo's broader teaching about universal love and cosmic harmony, so that aikido's well known emphasis on blending with and redirecting an attacker's force rather than meeting it with opposing force is presented within the founder's own account as religious conviction expressed through physical technique rather than as combat pragmatism alone.