Kyudo - Japanese archery

Kyudo is a form Japanese archery that uses a large, asymmetric bow called a yumi. We just wrapped up a series of Western-style archery classes before our trip and were excited to try out a different style.

Kyudo archery

Kyudo range - the targets are 36cm (14 in.) wide at a distance of 28m (92 ft.)

Besides the size of the bow, there are a couple of form differences from the Western-style archery we’d been practicing back home. The most difficult thing to get used to was the lack of an arrow rest, with the arrow resting on the outside of the bow on the left thumb.

Kyudo archery

Bows were more than 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall!

There are 8 different steps to shooting an arrow. Hitting the target is great, but the emphasis is on consistent, repeatble motions. In theory. In practice they let us tourists shoot as many times as we wanted with significantly less regard for form.