Jissen Aiki: Folding the Umbrella

One rainy evening in Tokyo, I was standing on a crowded subway car, headed to the dojo for keiko. As the train swayed between stations, I happened to glance at a man seated nearby—likely in his seventies, dressed in a fine wool suit.

Tokyo trains are meticulously clean and quiet as a church.

He had just collapsed his umbrella, and with quiet, deliberate precision, he began to fold it. One pleat at a time. No wasted motion. No drops of water spilled on the floor or the passengers around him. When he finished, he held the umbrella neatly between his knees with both hands, his posture composed and effortless.

What struck me most was the care he took with this seemingly trivial task. His attention to detail. His restraint. His clarity of action.

That, I realized, was an expression of true Jissen Aiki—Aiki in Practice. He was living the principles we train on the mat. He wasn’t waiting for conflict or danger to use them. He was putting Aiki into practice in the ordinary moments of daily life.

His life felt enviable not because of what he had—a fine suit, polished shoes, gold cufflinks—but because of how he was living it.

Rich or poor, skilled or new, Aikido teaches us how to live like that.

We often talk about big ideas in the dojo: power, flow, harmony. But real practice happens in small things—how you bow, how you fold your hakama, how you place your weapons. If you rush through these, you miss the deeper lessons Aikido has to offer.

That man on the train wasn’t doing martial arts. But in his own quiet way, he showed the same spirit: Jissen Aiki—Practical Aikido—through presence, consideration for others, and care in every movement.

Aikido helps us practice these qualities every day.

Not just in the dojo—but everywhere we go.