Kyujutsu (Martial Archery)
弓術Older name for Japanese archery, now called kyudo. Schools such as Heki-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu, foot and mounted shooting, toshiya contests at Sanjusangendo.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Kyujutsu (Martial Archery)
Kyujutsu is the older name of Japanese archery, which is now called kyudo. The dictionaries Daijisen and Nikkoku define it as the martial art of bow shooting and give kyudo as a synonym, and the encyclopedias Heibonsha, Maypedia and Nipponica refer from the kyujutsu article straight to kyudo. According to Heibonsha, Japanese bow-shooting culture was formerly called kyujutsu, and the word kyudo became established as the collective name only at the beginning of the Showa period. Green states that after 1919 the publications of the Dainippon Butokukai replaced the term kyujutsu with the term kyudo. Japanese Wikipedia adds that the word kyujutsu is used today mainly for the old martial art before the renaming and that some schools are still so called.
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According to Nipponica, from the late Heian period into the Kamakura period archery was regarded as the most important martial weapon, and the warriors of Kamakura practised three arts of shooting from horseback: yabusame, kasagake and inuoumono. According to Nipponica, shooting is divided into hosha on foot and kisha on horseback. In the fifteenth century Heki Danjo Masatsugu introduced a new technique of shooting on foot, he is called the reviver of Japanese archery, and according to Nipponica his Heki-ryu branched into the Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai, Okura and Chikurin branches. According to Heibonsha, in the Muromachi period the Ogasawara family was accepted as teacher of the ceremonial side of archery and riding to the shogun family. In the Edo period, according to Nipponica, shooting with the bow lost its practical use, joined Zen and was cultivated as a pastime of upper and middle warriors, especially shooting at a small target. A popular discipline became dosha, also called toshiya, shooting along the edge of the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, where in 1686 Wasa Daihachiro of Kii achieved 8133 hits from 13053 shots, and it has not been surpassed. Kyujutsu belonged to the official arts of the han schools: a study by Sato Tamaki from 2010 states that the Kodokan school in Mito, opened in 1841, adopted four archery schools, Yamato-ryu, Heki-ryu and its branches Sekka and Insai. At the end of the Bakumatsu the military school Kobusho introduced archery for a time, but soon dropped it. From 1895, after the founding of the Dainippon Butokukai, it was supported according to Nipponica again with judo and kendo, and in the early Showa period it reached its peak. Of the old archery schools, both Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai list only one, Ogasawara-ryu kyubajutsu reiho.
History
Nipponica states that from the late Heian period into Kamakura archery was regarded as the most important martial weapon, that warriors were called those who take up bow and arrow, and their way of life the way of the bow and arrow. The warriors of Kamakura practised three arts of shooting from horseback: yabusame, kasagake and inuoumono. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that Ogasawara Nagakiyo became the teacher of Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1187 and with his father compiled new warrior ceremonies, including yabusame. Heibonsha, in the article by Futaki Ken'ichi, however, calls the traditions that Nagakiyo taught Yoritomo a late claim of the Ogasawara family from the Edo period, and Nipponica states that the first documented archery teacher of a shogun from this family was only Mochinaga in 1430.
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Green writes that the use of the bow reached its peak in the sixteenth century shortly before the introduction of firearms and that its decline began in 1575, when Oda Nobunaga used firearms in a major battle. According to Nipponica, in the fifteenth century Heki Danjo Masatsugu introduced a new technique of shooting on foot and is called the reviver of Japanese archery, but there are many theories about his origin and reliable sources are few. According to Heibonsha, his school was taken over by Yoshida Shigekata and branched into the Izumo, Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Okura branches, and the Chikurin branch flourished in the han of Owari and Kii. The dating of the origin of Heki-ryu differs in encyclopedias from mid-Muromachi to the Meio years 1492 to 1501. In the Edo period, according to Nipponica, archery lost its practical use, joined Zen and care of the mind, and was cultivated mainly as shooting on foot at a small target, a pastime of upper and middle warriors. A 1994 study by Kikumoto Tomoyuki states that in the Kansei years kyujutsu's usefulness fell markedly and that Matsudaira Sadanobu regarded it as ineffective against foreign countries, yet founded a new school. At the end of the Bakumatsu, according to Nipponica, the military school Kobusho introduced archery for a time, but soon dropped it. In the Meiji period archery declined for a time, and from 1895, after the founding of the Dainippon Butokukai, it was supported with judo and kendo, and in the early Showa period it reached its peak. According to Green, after 1919 the publications of the Butokukai replaced the term kyujutsu with the term kyudo. In 1936, according to Nipponica, archery was accepted as a regular school subject, and after the Second World War the Butokukai was dissolved and martial arts banned in schools.
How it differs
According to the dictionaries Daijisen and Nikkoku, kyujutsu and kyudo are synonyms, and the encyclopedias Heibonsha, Maypedia and Nipponica refer from the kyujutsu article to kyudo. The difference is temporal: according to Heibonsha, kyudo was used only in part in the Edo period and became the collective name only at the start of the Showa period, and Green places the change of term in Butokukai publications after 1919. Japanese Wikipedia states that some schools are still called kyujutsu while others keep the old style under the name kyudo, and that the boundary between the words is unclear. According to Nipponica, the national organisation of today's kyudo was founded in 1949 and since 1957 works as the foundation Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei, which according to Green runs kyudo as a mental, physical and spiritual discipline not a competitive sport. Ogasawara-ryu today passes on mounted shooting yabusame at shrine ceremonies, and according to Japanese Wikipedia Takeda-ryu also focuses on mounted shooting.
Technique
Nipponica divides shooting into hosha on foot and kisha on horseback. Shooting on foot is divided by purpose into matomae, toyamae, sashiyamae and tekimae, and in modern times dosha was added, also called toshiya or domae. According to Nipponica, Heki-ryu arose during the Sengoku wars as an innovative method of shooting on foot built on practical use, unlike the earlier formalised approach based on ceremonial customs. Green sums up Heki Danjo's approach in the words hi, kan, chu, that is, fly, pierce and hit the centre. Japanese Wikipedia divides schools into schools of ceremonial customs and shooting from horseback, such as Ogasawara-ryu and Takeda-ryu, and schools focused on the manner of shooting, such as Heki-ryu and Yamato-ryu, and recalls the saying about the ceremony of the Ogasawara and the shooting of the Heki. Green describes the Japanese bow yumi as about seven feet long, made of laminated bamboo, with the grip a third from the bottom, which allows shooting from horseback, and states that the modern glove with a stiffened thumb developed only after the Onin wars. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that Ogasawara-ryu requires mastery of three things: ceremonial etiquette reiho, archery kyujutsu and shooting from horseback kyubajutsu.
Training
Kyujutsu belonged to the official arts of the han schools. A study by Sato Tamaki from 2010 states that the Kodokan school in Mito, opened in 1841, adopted four archery schools, Yamato-ryu, Heki-ryu and its branches Sekka and Insai, that each was led by one teacher with several assistants, that archery was practised in winter and spring and shooting with firearms in summer and autumn, and that in autumn 1842 seventy of the 222 pupils of nine archery dojo took part in a great examination before the lord. A conference paper by Kurosu Ken from 1998 states that in the han of Morioka archery was taught in the han school from the Horeki years to the end of the Bakumatsu, mainly the Insai branch, and that a document from 1835 to 1836 names fifty-five recognised martial arts schools for Morioka. Green describes present-day training: a beginner learns eight stages of shooting without a target using blunt arrows, and the correct attitude and zanshin are considered more important than accuracy. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that Ogasawara-ryu practises shooting from horseback at the shrines Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura, Omiya Hachimangu in Suginami, Shimogamo in Kyoto and Kasuga Taisha in Nara, and shooting on foot in local pupils' associations.
Ranks and progression
A conference paper by Kurosu Ken and Sato Akira from 1982 deals with newly found licences and mokuroku scrolls of the Sekka branch in the han of Sendai, and a study by Sato Tamaki states that Tokugawa Nariaki himself held an inka licence of Yamato-ryu. In present-day kyudo, the federation Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei awards the titles hanshi, kyoshi and renshi and assesses the grades dan and kyu.
Today
Of the old archery schools, both Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai list only one, Ogasawara-ryu kyubajutsu reiho, headed by its thirty-first representative Ogasawara Kiyotada. The yabusame ceremony at Tadasu no mori by the Shimogamo shrine in Kyoto, where the school serves, is according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai registered as an intangible cultural property of Kyoto Prefecture, and in 2008 the school founded a non-profit organisation to support its tradition. Japanese Wikipedia states that there are schools that are still called kyujutsu today and strictly maintain the old style. Modern kyudo is governed by Zen Nihon Kyudo Renmei and, according to Green, is taught at secondary schools and universities and practised in private kyudojo.
Did you know
According to Nipponica, the toshiya mark of 1686, 8133 hits from 13053 shots in one day and night, achieved at Sanjusangendo by Wasa Daihachiro of Kii, has never been surpassed. A study by Sato Tamaki states that Tokugawa Nariaki devised a mounted shooting art in which firearms were fired from horseback, and that according to Ishikawa Ken such a way of fighting was his invention. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai website on Ogasawara-ryu lists, in the section on transmitted scrolls, titles of the school Jigen-ryu, which evidently do not belong to archery.
Styles & Branches
The mainstream of Japanese archery per the Daijisen dictionary: a Muromachi-period school attributed to Heki Danjo Masatsugu, per Nipponica a school of shooting on foot with many branches.
Ogasawara family school of archery, mounted archery and etiquette. It places its origin in 1187 with Minamoto no Yoritomo, historians date the documented shogun's teacher only to 1430.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between kyujutsu and kyudo?
The same art under an older and a newer name. According to Heibonsha, kyudo became the collective name only at the beginning of the Showa period, and Green states that after 1919 Butokukai publications replaced the term kyujutsu with kyudo.
Who is Heki Danjo Masatsugu?
Founder of Heki-ryu, according to Nipponica the reviver of Japanese archery, who in the fifteenth century introduced a new technique of shooting on foot. Many theories exist about his origin and, according to Nipponica, reliable sources are few.
What is toshiya?
A shooting contest along the edge of the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, very popular in the Edo period. The top score, 8133 hits from 13053 shots, was set according to Nipponica in 1686 by Wasa Daihachiro of Kii and has not been surpassed.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.