I’ve never seen the Japanese sport of archery, so when I heard it was being demonstrated yesterday on the local archery ground, I jumped at the chance. I was late, but the first 45 minutes seemed to just be a presentation on the history of the sport. When they finally got started, 3 elderly Japanese men that I hadn’t seen around town marched out in slow formal Japanese style. All graceful moves, they were obviously professionals. A Japanese friend told me that 3 archers had been flown in for the demonstration, probably 8th dan, which is about as high as you can get.
Each fired an arrow in turn. These bows are 2.2m tall and fired from 1/3 of the way along the string, which is very different from most bows. The other difference was the fact that the arrows seemed to appear in the target without having travelled the distance in between. That may be that they’re faster than Bhutanese bows or it may be purely because the target was only 20m away rather than the 150m range I’m used to seeing here.
Disappointingly, the professionals only fired two arrows each before passing the bows to the special guests. The Prime Minister was first, his arrow dropping to the ground after a couple of metres. The other guests didn’t fare much better so these bows were obviously very different in style to the local bows. The range was then opened up to the public and a number of us rushed forward to have a turn. I politely waited, watching as a few successful archers managed to cover the 20m. When at last it was my turn and I stood on the mat with a bow in hand waiting for an arrow, the commentator announced that they understood there were more people wanting to try, but due to time constraints they had to stop for the day. It made no sense. They’d paid all this money to bring professionals out only to shoot 2 arrows each and now, with only one person left wanting to try, they were stopping the show. The disappointment almost ruined my day.
Your archery reputation probably preceded you, Murray.
That’s what I’m thinking. They probably also knew that I hate losing and didn’t want to be around when I embarrassed myself by not even getting the arrow to fly.
It could be they were more concerned with the Prime Minister, honoured guests, and the rest of the general public. No idea why. It’s an astounding skill to fire arrows backwards, no matter what they say.
By the way, I like the photo thumbnails beside the stories. It makes me feel closer to the event you’re writing about.
I had the good fortune of watching a kyudo competition last year in Yonago. Nothing fancy – it was a group of secondary school students – but still amazing to watch. It must have been awesome seeing professionals, even for a couple of shots!