Origin of the name of Iwama Shinshin Aiki Shurenkai name and its emblem

“This emblem conveys our school’s keen will to keep to these fundamental concepts.”

Hitohira Saito sensei


This figure represents the phenomena of the universe. The universe and its creation are de- scribed in the Kojiki. Just as the bible stands as the founding text for Christians, its equivalent in Japan is the Kojiki.
This text isn’t about Japan exclusively; it depicts the foundations of the origin of the elements and how the universe, the sun, the stars and the earth were created. It also tells us about the birth of the gods. These are founding elements displayed in this emblem: The circle, the square, the triangle. These shapes embody the natural elements such as water and fire.

Fire also stands for spirit, or soul: Tamashii「魂」). In the Japanese language, there are two ways to say fire: “Hi”「ひ」and “Ka”「か」), while water is “Mi”「み」. If you put them together, you get “Kami”「神」, in Japanese, the word “Kami” means “god”.
The gods who created the universe also created the earth, the moon and the sun; they passed down the vital energy to all of us. Regarding this matter, the circle, the square and the triangle stand for all of these elements. As it can be observed in our emblem, eight lines divide it. They represent the powers of the universe: the energy that brings together and takes apart, that hardens and melts, that strains and relaxes, that eventually moves and stops. These eight opposing powers of the universe match the divine number eight. The red colour stands for fire, while white stands for water and refers to the tides. The motion the tides make is associ- ated with the breath, the process of breathing in and out. Similarly, the earth and the universe breathe in and out in the rising and descending flow of the tides.

This emblem stands for all of these things that are tied to the phenomena of the universe. You can find these figures in the Japanese Shinto belief. These concepts might be complex, but O’sensei attached great importance to the universe’s phenomena, particularly to the Kojiki. He also gave great importance to Japanese Shinto, the sacred history of the imperial house, and taught us to absorb these elements in our very flesh while practising Aikido.

Hitohira Saito Sensei Headmaster of Iwama Shinshin Aiki Shurenkai

Extract adapted from the 2012 Interview, Courtesy of Olivier Eberhardt / Dento Iwama Ryu France

我が組織のマーク、一霊四魂三元八力宇宙から様々な星全ての成り立ちを表現する丸三角四角を三元と呼びます、三角はイクムスビ丸はたるむすび四角はたまつめむすび、三角は
入身、さばき、丸は転換、螺旋、四角は、同化、気結び、定まる結びの極みまた、神人一体、鎮魂を意味する三角は生魂霊いくたま、まるは足魂霊たるたま、四角は、玉溜産霊たまたまるたまと言います、他にも奥深い意味が沢山在ります。日本語は神の言葉と同じ発音であると開祖はお話しくださいました。

Morihiro Saito Soke
June 2021

Use only official files, provided on the links below

Download Institutional Manual

REQUIRED for all Dojo Cho

Download Source Files

For all purposes (professional prints, websites, office documents, etc.).

If you need any technical support for using the official files please contact andres.t@iwamaaikido.com