Politics and spontaneity: Reflections on the politics of Aikido and deep ecology

Examining the relations between the martial arts, nationalism, and security has been the main framework for thinking about the politics of the martial arts in recent historical and cultural studies. However, the mechanisms of power implied in tying the martial arts to the activities of the state or state actors are not always clear. By applying insights from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben to the phenomenon of the practice of the traditional martial arts as a practice of the self, the relationship between politics and spontaneity can be explored. The argument is made that martial arts can become a form-of-life that deactivates sovereign and biopolitical relations of power.