This paper examines the relationship between ethics and the Japanese martial arts (budo). The issue of this relationship has been studied mainly from the standpoint of history, and has not been much researched from the standpoint of practitioners. Therefore, in this paper, I describe how practitioners acquire the ethics of budo by approach the topic through the concept of “becoming,” as maintained by Sakuta, Yano and Kameyama, with the intention of clarifying the inner processes adopted by practitioners. For this purpose, I observed participants at an aikido dojo. Generally, participant observation means describing the experiences of field work objectively. In this paper, however, I describe the aikido practitioners' inner experiences, and from that I try to clarify the practical aspect of the relationship between ethics and budo.
The findings of my study were as follows. In the practice of aikido, the practitioners are instructed to harmonize with each other and are taught that this feeling of harmonization is the “Aikido spirit”. Not only by developing this feeling, but also an awareness that the mind and body don't match each other, and control of mind and body cannot be achieved together, aikido practitioners gain a new view of the world, and reflect on everyday life and communication with others through the feeling gained in the dojo. Aikido practitioners acquire ethics through constant reflection on mind and body. Such reflection is indispensable in order for practitioners to embody morality. I think it is possible to consider fundamentally the roles of modern Japanese martial arts by clarifying these processes.

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