Erick Mead

O Sensei may or may not have approved any English translations of his works (I am not aware of any evidence that he did, in fact), but his son clearly did. From his works "harmony" has become the most well-accepted attribution flowing directly from his usage of it. It is apt in the physics of what occurs, a point that is true in too many ways for me to describe in this thread, but I have dwelt on them elsewhere.

The term "Aiki" seems old enough in its provenance to not necessarily track the compounds ( such as with "wa") you suggest for "harmony" as are used more modernly. Is there anything that establishes that point one way or the other? In at least one Doka he does juxtapose "aiki" directly with "harmony" in Abe's translation and I seem to remember, although I do not have Stevens parelle translation handy at the moment that he used 和 "wa" specifically in that context.

O Sensei was a scholar (autodidact or not) of ancient sources and in reading Kojiki, and Motoori's commentaries on it, he was unavoidably schooled in aspects of linguistic questions and their significance. His punning and stress on kotodama is a clue to his interest in the uses of language as a source of deeper meaning. However, his interest was primarily literary and mystical, not linguistic. (Too?) many have spoken to the mystical, but short shrift is given to the literary aspects. In my opinion that is where we should primarily look, to his literary usage and imagery.

Given that the etymology of the decomposed character itself ( some times unreliable, but valid in this case) is basically 入 一 口"join-one-gate." There are clues of that precise imagery in the Doka to O Sensei's intended usage.

Abe Sensei notes that Izanami (she who invites) cleansed herself of the filth of death upon her escape from the underworld at the "Odo" ("narrow river mouth") in Awagihara. Stevens translates that linguistically as "the small gate." Abe instead gives its literary significance as a mythological place. ("Gate" and "mouth" are also the same character 口, which composes into "Ai" as 口"join-one-gate."

Abe also says that O Sensei described Aiki as being born from the thrashing of Izanagi (He who invites) in his cleansing there. At a "narrrow river mouth" whorls of water back up at the constriction, some open and become progressively still in the upstream pool, while some become tighter and tighter as they enter the nozzle and gain much speed, at the throat of the stream. These images are not accidents and they all relate. There are many more.

O Sensei used the image of the joining of heaven and earth by the floating bridge, fire and water in the change of self, the sexual connotations of the mutually inviting divine couple, and also the cross figure (juji). These recurrent motifs are of the same basic trope with the different images in some respects interchangeable.

Properly read, that is a powerful literary source for his intended usage on these points, for which we need not depend on more general linguistics. The imagery is of two seemingly independent components nevertheless joined at one and only one narrowly defined connection, diametrically different, and yet performing the same function in the same essential manner, reversed of one another in dynamic. Moreover, as the river image and the larger myth involving Izanagi and Izanami make clear, either one alone is condemned to death. If one dies the other must revive it, and if they conflict with one another in battling death they condemn each other to continue in death, but if they act together then they both return to life.

If you get the original from Prof. Goldsbury, please do us all the the favor of re-publishing it here.

But Ki, while ineffable in some respects is not vague that way. It is equally congealing as well as airy, the eight powers imagery betrays that aspect clearly enough. I made the point elsewhere that the concept of Ki from more general sources is one that combines the aspects of energy as we view it with the aspects of mass -- as a synthetic whole, and so energy is not really apt, standing alone.