Kasagake (Mounted Archery at a Distant Target)
笠懸Japanese mounted archery at a distant target, one of three medieval disciplines. The target was the archer's hat, later a leather disc, and the arrow has a hollow head, not a point.
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About Kasagake (Mounted Archery at a Distant Target)
Kasagake is Japanese mounted archery in which a galloping rider shoots at a target set away from the course. Daijisen defines it as a contest of shooting from horseback that flourished from the late Heian to the Kamakura period: at first the archer's hat was hung up as the target, later a round one covered in cowhide and stuffed with straw, for example. With yabusame and inuoumono it was, according to Daijisen, Nikkoku, Heibonsha and Nipponica, one of three warrior disciplines of mounted shooting. Maypedia distinguishes it from yabusame by a far-off target, about 30 m, while Nipponica gives for the distant form a target about 18 m from the course, about 54.5 cm across, and for the small form a square board about 12 cm on a side low above the ground. According to Nikkoku and Maypedia the arrow has a large hollow head instead of a point.
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The origin is not clear, according to Japanese Wikipedia. Nikkoku cites as the first attested use of the word a note in the diary Chuyuki from the 8th day of the 2nd month of 1092, while Japanese Wikipedia finds an earlier attestation from 1057, when members of the house of one of the Minamoto performed kasagake on the bank of the Kizugawa river en route to Nara. Heibonsha writes that it was reportedly held already in the Heian period and is mentioned in period writings and diaries such as Chuyuki, and Maypedia says it reportedly began with the nobility ordering warriors to practice shooting from horseback not on a special course but on a riverbank. Japanese Wikipedia, citing an older work, calls the claim that Minamoto no Yoritomo introduced kasagake mistaken, and Maypedia says only that Yoritomo often had people shoot at objects placed in bamboo. Nikkoku calls it the oldest of the mounted shooting disciplines, which had a less strict ceremony than yabusame and inuoumono, simpler equipment and needed less space, and so was often held in the Heian and Kamakura periods. In the Muromachi period, according to Heibonsha, its methods became established and many manuals appeared, while Nipponica places the decline only at the end of that period. In the Edo period, according to Nikkoku, the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune revived it with inuoumono and yabusame. Japanese Wikipedia cites a period work according to which Yoshimune practiced kasagake first, and says that after the Meiji Restoration it declined again and is now preserved by Takeda-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu. The Kamigamo shrine in Kyoto and a Kyoto tourist website state that the kasagake ceremony there is performed on the third Sunday of October by Takeda-ryu of the Dai Nippon Kyubakai society, which by its own overview has performed it since 1979 also at the Doshin festival in the city of Miura.
History
Japanese Wikipedia says the origin of kasagake is not clear. Nikkoku cites as the first attested use of the word a note in the diary Chuyuki from the 8th day of the 2nd month of 1092, Heibonsha says it was reportedly held already in the Heian period and is mentioned in period writings and diaries such as Chuyuki, and Nipponica places the first mentions in the 11th century. Japanese Wikipedia finds an earlier attestation in a work from 1057, when members of the house of one of the Minamoto performed kasagake on the bank of the Kizugawa river en route to Nara. Maypedia explains the beginning as the late Heian nobility reportedly ordering warriors to practice shooting from horseback not on a special course but on a riverbank. Nikkoku calls it the oldest mounted shooting and ascribes its popularity in the Heian and Kamakura periods to a less strict ceremony than inuoumono and yabusame, simpler equipment and smaller space needs.
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In the Kamakura period it was, say Daijisen, Nikkoku, Heibonsha and Nipponica, one of three mounted shooting disciplines. The Dai Nippon Kyubakai society says the chronicle Azuma kagami tells of Yoritomo and Yoriie amusing themselves with kasagake with the gokenin, and that the practice aimed to train a shot to the face, a conspicuous spot of the armour. Maypedia says Yoritomo often had people shoot at a fan or footwear placed in bamboo. Japanese Wikipedia calls the claim that Yoritomo introduced kasagake mistaken, citing an Edo-period work that recalls the 1092 note, yet the same Wikipedia cites another old work saying the distant form began under Yoritomo's rule. Japanese Wikipedia says the town of Kasakake in Gunma prefecture, now part of the city of Midori, is named after Yoritomo reportedly performing kasagake there. In the Muromachi period, says Heibonsha, etiquette became established and many manuals appeared, while Nipponica puts the decline only at the period's end. English Wikipedia says only the Ogasawara and Takeda families preserved it after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate, whereas Nikkoku lists it in the Muromachi period among the three mounted shooting disciplines and Heibonsha writes of established ways and many manuals. In the Edo period, according to Nikkoku, the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune revived it with inuoumono and yabusame, Nipponica places the revival in the reforms of the Kyoho era, and Japanese Wikipedia cites a period work saying Yoshimune practiced kasagake first. After the Meiji Restoration, says Japanese Wikipedia, it declined again, and today Takeda-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu preserve it. The Dai Nippon Kyubakai society lists among its performances the kasagake ceremony at the Doshin festival in the city of Miura since July 1979, and the Kamigamo shrine in Kyoto says its kasagake ceremony is performed by Takeda-ryu of this society.
How it differs
Compared with yabusame, kasagake has one target instead of three, set farther from the course: Maypedia gives about 30 m against yabusame targets right next to the course. Nikkoku writes that kasagake has a less strict ceremony than yabusame and inuoumono, simpler equipment and manages with less space, while Japanese Wikipedia calls it more practical and technically harder but formally simpler, with a greater entertainment dimension. Dai Nippon Kyubakai adds that yabusame rides in one direction and shoots three targets on the left, whereas ceremonial kasagake rides there and back and on the way back shoots at a low target. Nipponica gives the kasagake arrow a hollow head instead of a point, but yabusame a forked point. Yet kasagake is not just a game: Daijisen, Nikkoku and Maypedia know a ceremonial form held at a shrine, and the Kamigamo shrine performs it today as an offering. The third discipline was inuoumono, according to Nipponica shooting from a galloping horse at running dogs with arrows that do not kill the dog, in the traditional form with 36 riders and 150 dogs, last staged according to Nikkoku in 1881.
Technique
The target and its distance set kasagake apart from yabusame. Daijisen says that originally the archer's hat was hung up as the target, later a round one covered in cowhide and stuffed with straw, for example, and Heibonsha describes a target of cypress wood covered in leather with cotton wool. The sources differ on the target's distance from the course: Heibonsha, Nikkoku and Maypedia about 30 m, Nipponica about 18 m, Japanese Wikipedia 5 to 10 bow lengths (about 11 to 23 m), and the Kamigamo shrine for its present ceremony about 5 m from the horse. Nipponica gives a course about 107 m long and divides kasagake by target distance into the distant form, the usual meaning, with a round target about 54.5 cm across with a black circle in the middle, and the small form with a square board about 12 cm on a side, about 36 cm above the ground and about 24 cm from the course edge. Nikkoku gives a target 1 shaku 8 sun on a side and Japanese Wikipedia for the small form a board 4 to 8 sun on a side set in bamboo, shot at on the return ride.
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According to Nikkoku and Maypedia the arrow has a large hollow head instead of a point, Nipponica describes it as a hollow egg-shaped piece of wood with holes fitted over the point so the archer does not injure the target, and says a ceremony with this arrow is now performed as the highest ceremony of kyudo. Only Japanese Wikipedia describes clothing: leg coverings as in yabusame, sleeves not tied up, no hand guard originally, and no hunting hat as in yabusame because the archer's hat used to be the target. The Dai Nippon Kyubakai society describes the ceremonial form as a ride there and back: outbound, the target is fenced with bamboo on both sides and the archer has only the moment of being perpendicular to it to shoot, on the way back the archer shoots at a smaller board near the horse's legs, for which the techniques of shooting diagonally down to the left and right serve.
Training
Kasagake today is performed, according to the Kamigamo shrine and its own overview, by Takeda-ryu of the Dai Nippon Kyubakai society. Dai Nippon Kyubakai, which represents Takeda-ryu, says that applicants must attend at least two regular trainings, held every Sunday except performance days, before the admission assessment, and that it turns away those who only want to shoot at many targets, because it is not a sport. The same society says kasagake uses shooting diagonally down to the left and right, whereas yabusame trains shooting straight to the left. Historically, Heibonsha calls it an archery art for training martial skills, and according to Dai Nippon Kyubakai a warrior was to practice a shot to the face, a conspicuous spot of the armour.
Competition
Daijisen, Nikkoku and Maypedia call kasagake a contest in shooting from horseback, and Nikkoku and Maypedia give a drawn form, which Japanese Wikipedia describes as a contest with judges: ten archers draw from five pairs of lots, and after ten rides the number of hits decides the winner of each pair. Japanese Wikipedia also mentions a form of a hundred shots by one archer as a prayer or thanksgiving, and a ceremonial form at a shrine in which the targets were offerings. We have not found present-day rules, distances or championships for kasagake in the sources, and the Kamigamo shrine describes its ceremony as an offering to the shrine.
Today
The Kamigamo shrine in Kyoto states that its kasagake ceremony is performed by Takeda-ryu of the Dai Nippon Kyubakai society, the course is about 180 m long, riders in armour set out from the south end, turn at the north end and shoot at targets on both sides on the ride back. The shrine claims that kasagake as an offering to the shrine is performed in all of Japan only there. The Kyoto city tourist website gives the ceremony as the third Sunday of October from 13:00 and describes the distant form as shooting horizontally from a galloping horse and the small form as shooting at a target on the ground. Kanagawa prefecture gives the Doshin festival with kasagake as the last Sunday of May on Aburatsubo beach in the city of Miura, and Dai Nippon Kyubakai lists it in its overview since July 1979. Japanese Wikipedia also names the city of Midori in Gunma prefecture and says that kasagake is preserved by Takeda-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu, mentioning for Ogasawara-ryu a small form of kasagake at the Katori jingu shrine.
Did you know
The name kasagake reportedly comes, say Nikkoku and Maypedia, from hanging the archer's hat as the target, which Maypedia specifies was on a branch. Japanese Wikipedia adds that this is why no hunting hat is worn in kasagake as in yabusame. Dai Nippon Kyubakai maintains that practicing the shot to the face had a combat purpose, and recalls that the three warriors it names reportedly fell struck by an arrow in the face. The town of Kasakake in Gunma prefecture, now part of the city of Midori, bears its name, according to Japanese Wikipedia, because Yoritomo reportedly performed kasagake there.
Frequently asked questions
How does kasagake differ from yabusame?
In number and distance of targets and degree of ceremony. Yabusame shoots three targets beside the course, kasagake one target about 30 m away according to Maypedia, about 18 m according to Nipponica. Nikkoku gives kasagake a less strict ceremony and simpler equipment, Dai Nippon Kyubakai a ride there and back with a second, low target on the way back.
Who founded kasagake and when did it arise?
The founder is unknown and the origin is unclear, according to Japanese Wikipedia. Nikkoku cites the first occurrence of the word in the diary Chuyuki from 1092, Japanese Wikipedia an earlier attestation from 1057. Japanese Wikipedia calls the claim that Minamoto no Yoritomo introduced it mistaken.
Where can kasagake be seen today?
At Kamigamo shrine in Kyoto on the third Sunday of October, where, says the shrine, Takeda-ryu of the Dai Nippon Kyubakai performs it, and at the Doshin festival in Miura on the last Sunday of May, says Kanagawa prefecture. Japanese Wikipedia also names the city of Midori in Gunma prefecture.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.