Kyudo (Japanese archery)
弓道Japanese archery with an asymmetric bow of standard length 221 cm. Competition is at 28 m at a 36 cm target or at 60 m, and Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei awards kyu and dan grades and titles.
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JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Kyudo (Japanese archery)
Kyudo is Japanese archery. Daijisen and Nikkoku define it as the budo of shooting arrows from a bow, Daijisen includes the way of shooting and states that it reached the general public from the Meiji era. Nipponica describes it as the Japanese culture of shooting with a bow, in which usefulness, religiosity, the nature of an artistic path, educational value and competitiveness are interwoven, and adds that modern kyudo, unlike other budo, is not a duel between two people: the aim is to hit a fixed target precisely using the bow's elasticity, and through this practice to contribute to forming the person. The Goka 2020 study in a peer-reviewed journal shows that the name kyudo replaced the older kyujutsu roughly between 1918 and 1933 with an emphasis on the spiritual side, but according to it the transition was never complete.
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According to Nipponica, the Japanese bow is formed by five different curves, the grip lies roughly one third of the length from the bottom and the standard length is 7 shaku 3 sun (221 cm). Heibonsha writes that this length was already settled in the Nara period. The traditional bow is made of wood and bamboo, and since the forties of the Showa era, according to Nipponica, bows of glass and carbon fibre are made too. The archer holds the string in the Mongolian manner and the right thumb is protected by a deerskin glove called yugake. The shot is divided into eight stages, shaho hassetsu, which Nipponica and Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei give identically: ashibumi, dozukuri, yugamae, uchiokoshi, hikiwake, kai, hanare and zanshin. The federation asks that the eight movements form a single flowing sequence, and compares the shot to bamboo with eight nodes. Under the rules of Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei there are two disciplines: kinteki at 28 m at a target 36 cm in diameter and enteki at 60 m at a target 100 cm in diameter, and Heibonsha gives 50 m for enteki as well. The result is determined by the number of hits, by points for where the arrow lands, or by the judges' scoring, with Nipponica and Heibonsha naming the number of hits as most common. Under its examination regulations the federation awards five kyu grades, ten dan grades and the titles renshi, kyoshi and hanshi. At second dan, according to its unified criteria, hitting is not assessed, at the first it is asked that hits not be scattered, and at fourth dan a reliable hit already. Nipponica places the oldest excavated Japanese bows in the early Jomon period and states that in the Nara and Heian periods ceremonial foot and mounted shooting was held at court under Chinese influence, and that at the turn of Heian and Kamakura the Takeda and Ogasawara appear as the families of mounted archery. According to Heibonsha, the bow lost its practical value in the mid-16th century after firearms spread, after the Meiji Restoration archery officially disappeared and returned after the founding of Dainippon Butokukai in 1895. After World War II it was, according to Heibonsha, banned for a time, in 1949 the federation was founded (Heibonsha calls it Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei, Nipponica writes of Nihon Kyudo Renmei and places today's name in 1957), from 1951 kyudo could be practised in schools and since 1967 it has been a regular physical education subject in secondary schools. Abroad, according to Nipponica, it spread mainly in Europe, in 1972 a European federation was founded and in May 2006 the International Kyudo Federation, which had 28 countries and regions in January 2019. The link between kyudo and Zen arose, according to the Yamada 2001 study, only after 1956, when Herrigel's book appeared in Japanese.
History
Nipponica states that the oldest Japanese bows excavated so far come from the early Jomon period, are of a single piece of wood and shorter than 1.5 m, a text from the third century already describes a Japanese bow with the grip below the middle, and an excavated bow dated to roughly the fifth century measures 2 m with the grip in a ratio of about 7 to 3. In the Nara and Heian periods, according to Nipponica, ceremonial foot and mounted shooting was held at court under Chinese influence, and foot shooting was handled by the specialised families Tomo and Ki, around whom the rules for handling bow and arrow settled. In mid-Heian, according to Nipponica, a bow with bamboo outside was invented, at the turn of Heian and Kamakura a bow with bamboo inside as well, and in Muromachi and later further types. In accounts of bow ceremonies from the turn of Heian and Kamakura, according to Nipponica, Takeda and Ogasawara appear as the families of mounted archery, and Heibonsha says that Kamakura warriors practised mounted yabusame, inuoumono and kasagake and ceremonial foot shooting, and that the sources of today's ceremonies lie there. Green traces the traditional beginnings back to the possibly mythical emperor Jimmu, mentions the Taishi-ryu school around the year 600 and the founding of Henmi-ryu, generally held the first kyudo school, about 500 years later. Yamada 2001, by contrast, writes that organised schools were founded only from the Onin War (from 1467) and that the lineage can be documented by contemporary sources only from Yoshida Shigekata (1463 to 1543) and his son Shigemasa, to whom it was reportedly handed down by Heki Danjo Masatsugu, whose historicity some scholars question.
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Heibonsha states that the bow and arrow were the main weapon until the mid-16th century, when hand firearms spread rapidly and they lost practical value, and that the bow has been revered since antiquity as a sacred instrument. In the Edo period, according to Nipponica and Heibonsha, kyudo became linked with Zen and Confucianism and was practised as an exercise of body and mind, and Heibonsha adds that the name kyudo settled only at the start of the Showa era. A special chapter of the Edo period is toshiya, shooting along the veranda of the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, which Nipponica describes as shooting over 66 ken (about 120 m) in a space about 2.2 m wide and 5 m high, Heibonsha places the first documented performance in January 1606 and, according to Nipponica, the unbeaten best result was set in 1686 by an archer from Kii Province, who got 8133 of 13053 arrows through. After the Meiji Restoration, according to Heibonsha, archery officially disappeared and was cultivated only outside the authorities, from the founding of Dainippon Butokukai in Kyoto in 1895 it returned, in schools it was extracurricular and in 1936 was permitted as a regular subject. The Goka 2020 study shows that the renaming of school clubs from kyujutsu to kyudo began in 1911, gathered pace in 1919 and by 1932 was almost complete, in publications the transition is visible from a book of 1918 and after 1933 the author no longer found the word kyujutsu, the reason being emphasis on the spiritual side, on whose form archers disagreed. After World War II kyudo was, according to Heibonsha, banned for a time, in 1949 the federation was founded (Heibonsha and Britannica give Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei, Nipponica Nihon Kyudo Renmei and today's name only from 1957, Japanese Wikipedia states that the new Nihon Kyudo Renmei was founded on 3 April 1949, the federation itself writes of 22 May 1949, and in 1953 it became a foundation), from 1951 kyudo could be practised in schools and since 1967 it has been a regular physical education subject in secondary schools. Japanese Wikipedia states that the first volume of the handbook Kyudo kyohon appeared in August 1953, setting down shaho hassetsu and taking over ceremonial customs mainly from Ogasawara-ryu. Nipponica adds that bows of glass and carbon fibre have been made since the forties of the Showa era, that a European kyudo federation was founded in 1972 and the International Kyudo Federation in May 2006.
How it differs
Japanese Wikipedia describes the differences from sport archery: the string grip in archery is based on the Mediterranean type with three fingers and in kyudo on the Mongolian type, which Nipponica confirms, the arrow in kyudo is nocked on the right side of the bow and the bow has no stabiliser, sight or clicker, and in its equipment section the federation prohibits a sight and a mark on the bow. Green writes that the Japanese archer draws the string to the right shoulder, not to the chin, and so Japanese arrows are longer. The study Goka 2025 shows that after archery was included in the Olympic Games in 1957 the federation strove for kyudo to take part in the 1964 Olympics, among shooters it was acknowledged that kyudo is less accurate than archery, changes to equipment and technique were considered, and the competition rules were changed. Japanese Wikipedia adds that in 1958 the federation joined the international archery federation and in 1968 left its membership to the Japanese archery federation.
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Japanese Wikipedia states that most practitioners belong to no school and practise according to the federation's way, and besides this there exist Ogasawara-ryu, Heki-ryu, Honda-ryu, Yamato-ryu and Chikurin-ryu. Maypedia and Britannica name as the main schools Ogasawara-ryu (according to Maypedia ceremonies and mounted shooting) and Heki-ryu (shooting). Maypedia calls yabusame and kasagake remnants of old competition shootings, while Yamada 2001 calls the fixed distance of 28 m of today's ranges a continuation of shooting on foot. According to Nipponica it differs from other budo in that it is not a duel with an opponent, and the federation writes on this that in the world of the bow there is no enemy and the only enemy is one's own wavering mind.
Technique
Nipponica gives the standard bow length as 7 shaku 3 sun (221 cm) and, by the archer's draw length, also bows 2 sun longer (227 cm) and 3 sun shorter (212 cm), the bow has five different curves and the grip lies roughly a third from the bottom, which Heibonsha says increases recoil and protects the bow from breaking. Bow strength is now the spring weight at an 85 cm draw, marked in kilograms, formerly, according to Nipponica, by the number of people needed to bend it. Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei rules require a Japanese bow of 221 cm as standard with the grip about a third from the end, and the federation adds that the bow must have no sight or mark. According to Nipponica the arrow has a shaft, feathers, a head and a nock, the shaft is bamboo, now also duralumin or carbon, the feathers mainly eagle and hawk, two arrows form one hand and a set of four or six is often used, and Heibonsha names the first arrow haya and the second otoya. Yugake is, according to Nipponica, a deerskin glove worn on the right hand to protect the base of the thumb, divided by shape into mitsugake, yotsugake and morogake, and the string grip is of the Mongolian type.
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The eight stages of shaho hassetsu are given identically by Nipponica, Daijisen, Britannica and the federation: ashibumi, dozukuri, yugamae, uchiokoshi, hikiwake, kai, hanare and zanshin, and Nipponica adds that today's eight arose in the first half of the Showa era when zanshin was added to the earlier seven paths, and that older divisions had five, seven or twelve parts. Green gives yudaoshi as the eighth stage instead of zanshin, the return to stance after the shot. In its text on shooting the federation describes ashibumi as a stance of about 60 degrees by draw length so that the tips of the big toes are in line with the target centre, dozukuri as placing the bow on the left knee and the right hand on the right hip with the centre of gravity at the body's centre, yugamae as placing the right hand on the string, adjusting the left hand (tenouchi) and only then looking at the target (monomi), uchiokoshi as raising both fists slightly above the forehead line and hikiwake as the pull through the position daisan evenly to both sides. Kai is, according to the federation, the moment the pull is complete and body and mind are one, and Nipponica mentions the touch of the string on the chest (munazuru) and of the arrow on the cheek (hozuke). Hanare is, according to Nipponica, technically the most difficult phase and the ideal is a reflex from practice, zanshin is the state of body and mind after the shot, which the federation calls the sum of the shot, followed by yudaoshi. The federation stresses that the eight movements are to form a single unbroken sequence.
Training
Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei states that there are in principle no limits of age or sex, beginners start with a weak bow and may use the dojo's equipment. The suitable bow strength is, according to the federation, usually half of what the archer can lift into uchiokoshi, and at first about a third to a quarter. Before the first stage the draw length must be set by the length of the archer's arms plus 5 to 6 cm for safety. For practice the federation names the makiwara, a tightly bound bundle of straw ideally 45 to 54 cm across, shot at from one bow length (about 2 m), and a rubber bow for practising form. The target hangs on an embankment of clay and sand called azuchi, which according to Nipponica is as wide as the whole range and has a roof against rain. Clothing, according to the federation's rules, is the kyudogi with hakama and white tabi, or Japanese dress, which the examination regulations require of the titles kyoshi and renshi and from fifth dan upward.
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Nipponica writes that the quality of movement in kyudo depends little on age, sex, strength and build, that a very static movement must turn immediately into a dynamic one, which requires a calm mind and strict self-control, and that the goodness or badness of the archer's mind and technique is directly reflected in the result, so self-reflection, harmony, self-control and humility are asked for. Green distinguishes three degrees of skill: hitting the target, piercing the target as an enemy, and the state in which the archer has united mind, body and bow, which Green names the true aim of kyudo.
Ranks and progression
Under its examination regulations the Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei awards five kyu grades from fifth to first, ten dan grades from first to tenth, and three titles: renshi, kyoshi and hanshi. Renshi requires at least fifth dan, kyoshi the title of renshi and hanshi the title of kyoshi. The title of hanshi and the ninth and tenth dan are awarded not by examination but by board selection. The eighth and seventh dan are decided by assessment of shooting and an essay, the sixth to first dan by assessment of shooting and a written test, and kyu by the shooting result. Dan are gained one grade at a time, kyu can be skipped. Up to fifth dan inclusive a five-month wait after the previous grade is required, from sixth dan one year, for renshi one year from fifth dan and for kyoshi two years from renshi or one year from sixth dan. The periods can be shortened by examination date.
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The regulations give criteria such as, for first dan, that the form of shooting and taihai correspond to the rules and the hits are not scattered, for fourth dan a firm form, calm taihai, correct breathing, sharp hanare and reliable hits, for sixth dan outstanding form, technique and taihai, for eighth dan mature mastery. The federation's unified criteria state that for second dan the hit is not assessed, for third dan a somewhat secure hit and for fourth dan a hit within the area of certainty, and for fifth dan taihai requires Japanese clothing and the prescribed arrangement of clothing when shooting seated. The federation holds examinations as central (for kyoshi and sixth to eighth dan), overseas, associated (up to fifth dan) and local (up to fourth dan, at least twice a year). Under the regulations a title or grade holder is to preserve dignity, and for disgraceful conduct the grade can be withdrawn. According to English Wikipedia, coloured belts are not worn in kyudo, and the year 1923, which it gives for the introduction of grades by the Dainippon Butokukai, we have not verified from the federation's sources. Its regulations date their origin to 25 September 1953.
Competition
The competition rules of the Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei were first laid down on 1 September 1949 and last revised in 2025. The disciplines are kinteki and enteki, for individuals and for teams of three or more shooters. Kinteki is shot from 28 m, as a rule seated, each shooter has their own target, one position has at most five shooters, the kasumi or hoshi target is 36 cm across, or the hoshi 24 cm, the centre is 27 cm above the floor and the face is tilted back 5 degrees. Enteki is shot from 60 m standing at a kasumi target with a diameter of 100, 79 or 50 cm or at a scoring target of 100 cm, the centre is 97 cm above the floor with a tilt of 15 degrees. Heibonsha also gives 50 m for enteki and Britannica mentions a contest at maximum range.
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The result is determined under the rules by the number of hits, by points for the place of the hit on a circular target, or by judges' scoring of the shooting as a whole by special criteria including the hit, and the methods can be combined. Nipponica states that the number of hits is the most common, scoring by judges is used in the qualification for the Japan championship, and when hits are tied shooting is sometimes repeated. On the enteki scoring target yellow is 10 points, red 9, blue 7, black 5 and white 3. A hit means that the arrowhead pierced the face of the target and stayed inside the frame, an arrow that slides along the ground, a bounce or an arrow that fell from the string after nocking are invalid. For 2026 the federation lists among its national competitions the 77th Zen Nihon Kyudo Taikai in May, the 77th men's and 59th women's Japan championship in September, the 77th enteki championship in October and the 151st tournament dedicated to the Meiji jingu shrine on 3 November. Britannica states that the all-Japan tournament has been held since 1950.
Today
The Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei (All Nippon Kyudo Federation) is a public-interest foundation authorised since 1 November 2011, based in the Japan Sport Olympic Square building in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and its members are the prefectural federations. According to its statutes it trains leaders, raises the competitive level, awards titles, assesses grades and spreads kyudo in Japan and abroad, and Nipponica lists coach training, examinations for titles and grades, and organising competitions. For 2026 the federation announces several national competitions, including the Japan men's and women's championships and the enteki championship. Nipponica states that kyudo spread postwar mainly in Europe, that a European federation arose in 1972 and in May 2006 the International Kyudo Federation, which had 28 countries and regions in January 2019, and Heibonsha names a larger number of practitioners in Germany, Italy and France. Since 1967 kyudo has been, according to Nipponica, a regular physical education subject in Japanese secondary schools. Japanese Wikipedia states that most practitioners belong to no school and practise according to the federation's way.
Did you know
Eugen Herrigel's book Zen in der Kunst des Bogenschiessens (1948) is read as an account of Japanese culture, but Yamada Shoji shows in two studies (1999, 2001) how the myth of Zen in archery arose: Herrigel's teacher Awa Kenzo (1880 to 1939) built his own doctrine on a mystical experience, had no Zen experience himself, and the central enigmatic episodes of the book took place, according to Yamada, without an interpreter or through a deliberately loose translation. According to Yamada the link between kyudo and Zen took hold in Japan only after the book's Japanese translation in 1956, and those who practise kyudo as part of Zen training are extremely rare there, whereas in a 1983 University of Tsukuba survey 61.1% of West German practitioners stated an interest in Zen. According to Yamada, Awa Kenzo practised first Heki-ryu of the Sekka branch and then of the Chikurin branch under Honda Toshizane, both lines specialising in toshiya, and reportedly hit the target almost a hundred times out of a hundred. Toshiya, shooting along the veranda of the Sanjusangendo temple for 66 ken (about 120 m), became according to Daijisen an Edo-period contest for best results in arrow count, and Nipponica gives a list of 41 shooters and an unsurpassed 1686 performance, 8133 arrows shot through out of 13053.
Styles & Branches
Japanese mounted archery: a rider at the gallop shoots at three wooden targets along a track. Today it is held mainly as a Shinto ceremony, for example at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura.
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.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the Japanese bow and why is the grip low?
Per Nipponica and the Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei the basic length is 7 shaku 3 sun (221 cm), and by draw length bows of 227 and 212 cm are also used. The grip sits about a third from the bottom, which Heibonsha says increases rebound and protects the bow from breaking, and it says this length was settled already in the Nara period.
What grades and titles are awarded in kyudo?
The Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei awards five kyu grades, ten dan grades and the titles renshi, kyoshi and hanshi. Dan are taken one grade at a time, kyu can be skipped, and hanshi and the ninth and tenth dan are awarded by board selection. According to English Wikipedia, coloured belts are not worn in kyudo.
Is kyudo connected with Zen?
The sources differ. Nipponica and Heibonsha write about a connection with Zen and Confucianism in the Edo period, but Yamada 2001 shows that prewar texts on archery hardly mention Zen and that the connection spread only after the Japanese translation of Herrigel's book in 1956.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.