Kyudo - Japanese archery

Picture: Heki Danjo teaching Yoshida Shigekata.

Besides kisha, Japanese horse archery, there is hosha, shooting techniques on foot, especially the techniques of the foot soldier. These became more relevant as the objective of military interventions changed from policing expeditions on horseback to outright invasion and occupation of neighbouring territory in the sengoku jidai, which necessitated infantry.

Hosha culminated in the late 15th century in battle field techniques ascribed to Heki Danjo Masatsugu, the half-mythical teacher to Yoshida Shigekata (sometimes claimed to be a nom de guerre of Shigekata himself), famous for a devastatingly precise technique with great penetrating power.

This Yoshida Ryu aka Heki Ryu split into a number of branches, some of which, like the Okura Ha, Sekka Ha, Satsuma Ha, Dosetsu Ha, Insai Ha, and Chikurin Ha still are taught today. (The Chikurin Ha has possibly a different origin than the other branches.)

Here is an old movie of the techniques and tactics of the Satsuma Ha that give an impression of what the practical application of Heki Ryu on the battlefield may have looked like:

https://youtu.be/dTLCKDRIg14

https://youtu.be/FtCb_yHdC1I

https://youtu.be/H8ge-vxt5a0

The Takeda Ryu is perhaps less known than its sister tradition of kisha or Japanese horse archery, the Ogasawara Ryu, but it claims the same origin in the Minamoto clan.

They practice yabusame and some variations, as kawarake wari and kasagake.

https://youtu.be/2D4t2k-Joc0

http://yabusame.main.jp/english/english.htm

A presentation of one of the two extant traditions of kisha, Japanese horse archery. They have also long been responsible for teaching reiho, etiquette / propriety. Their teachings include standing archery and purification rituals with the bow that have a background in shinto.

https://youtu.be/U-Cd9YNFrdc

http://www.ogasawara-ryu.gr.jp/english/about.html

Further reading:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo6512379.html

In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture.

First published in German in 1948 and translated into Japanese in 1956, Herrigel’s book popularized ideas of Zen both in the West and in Japan. Yamada traces the prewar history of Japanese archery, reveals how Herrigel mistakenly came to understand it as a traditional practice, and explains why the Japanese themselves embraced his interpretation as spiritual discipline. Turning to Ryoanji, Yamada argues that this epitome of Zen in fact bears little relation to Buddhism and is best understood in relation to Chinese myth. For much of its modern history, Ryoanji was a weedy, neglected plot; only after its allegorical role in a 1949 Ozu film was it popularly linked to Zen. Westerners have had a part in redefining Ryoanji, but as in the case of archery, Yamada’s interest is primarily in how the Japanese themselves have invested this cultural site with new value through a spurious association with Zen.

These texts were first published on the now defunct website of the Seishinkan Kyudojo in California. The first one is written by the dojo’s instructor Earl Hartman and details his approach to practicing and teaching kyudo. The second text was written by Saito Chobo, a senior practitioner of the Ogasawara Ryū and translated by Earl Hartman.

This is a community for traditional Japanese archery in its classic (koryū) and modern (gendai) forms.