the Absolute: the condition as it existed before the creation of the world · a sword technique in the Yoshioka Kenpō school of kendō · short for 太極拳 (Taikyokuken): Tai Chi
köken: Ultimately from Middle Chinese 太極 (MC thajH gik). First cited to a text from roughly 1060, with the spelling 大極. The main spelling in Japanese is 太極. The alternative with 大 instead of 太 appears to be largely obsolete, and is not listed in many dictionaries.