Archery.

I have a question relating to Differences between Western archery and Japanese archery.My son gets a question every week at his Jujitsu class and this week it is "What is/are the differences between western archery and japanese archery?"
Thanks for your help,
Cathy.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi

I have studied som ewestern archery with a local club
on and off for a few years now.

In western archery today the (in the UK) there are
basically two types. Field archery and Taget archery.

Target archery is what you see at the olympics. You
see the guys with the outstanding bow's all those
weights and stabilisers. These stop the shudder of the
bow when you release the arrow. The main emphasis is
that you get as close to the centre of the target as
possible. each arrow that hitsone fo them coloured
circles gets points.

Field archery is where they set up tagets or animal
cut outs, you are in wood land and you look for the
targets. You shoot from a distance and hope to get
points that would in some cases represent a kill.

One of my students did Japanese archery (kyudo) in
Japan. He told me that the main emphasis on kyudo was
the purity of the shot, hitting the target was not
that important.Its a zen related thing.

Maybe someone on the list had studied Kyudo.

This site http://www.kyudo.com/ has some great info
they also wrote a book o the history and development
of Kyudo which most libraries can obtain

Paul




--- cathy hills <cathy@...>
wrote:

---------------------------------
I have a question relating to Differences between
Western archery and Japanese archery.My son gets a
question every week at his Jujitsu class and this week
it is "What is/are the differences between western
archery and japanese archery?"
Thanks for your help,
Cathy.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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Cathy-
I am sure the teacher wants your son to research the
questions himself. The answer I think is a simple one "The difference
between western and eastern archery is that in the west the focus is
on the target in the east the focus is on the shooter..."

-t

Im sincerely sorry Tom,



but the message you sent me concerning the difference in eastern and western archery was mailed to me, not cathy. please notify Cathy about this immeadiatly, im shure she'll want a response soon. I would do it myself but i do not have her adress. Again i am sorry for the misshap.

Iemitsu

tom helm <junkmail@...> wrote:
Cathy-
I am sure the teacher wants your son to research the
questions himself. The answer I think is a simple one "The difference
between western and eastern archery is that in the west the focus is
on the target in the east the focus is on the shooter..."

-t

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> I have a question relating to Differences between
> Western archery and Japanese archery.My son gets a
> question every week at his Jujitsu class and this week
> it is "What is/are the differences between western
> archery and japanese archery?"
> Thanks for your help,
> Cathy.

This article from Japanese Journal of Religious Studies might be
useful. It doesn't answer the question straight away, but might give
some insight on Japanese archery :)
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/586.pdf

-Mikko Vilenius

On the technical side -

Japanese archers draw back to the ear - as did the Greeks -
other styles, inclusing European, draw back to the nose.

The composite Japanese bow, with a hand-grip a third of the way
up, is significantly taller than its European counterparts.

The Japanese archer was expected to draw the bow and hold it.
European archers, notably the British yeomen who in their
heyday made such a mess of the French aristocracy, nock the
arrow pointing to the ground. As they draw they swing up and
back until the right angle is arrived at to rain arrows on
their foe.

They do not hold the arrow at full draw, but release at the top
of the arc.

There are some studies of exhumed bones from the period (when I
think all able-bodied men were obliged to do archery practice)
that suggest they suffered back injuries from the way they
trained and handled the bow.

Apart from Robin Hood (?) I don't think the bow ever became an
heroic weapon, or rather I don't know of an English hero who
was an archer.

The samurai were, of course, followers of the 'Way of Horse and
Bow'. They can hold the arrow at full draw, and they developed
techniques that worked with the physiology rather than against
it.

[Even though the bow was rapidly superceded by firearms in the
West, there was still strong support and even after Waterloo
(1815) it was proposed that companies of archers could support
the muskets by continuing to fire whilst there was a pause in
the firing to reload after a volley.

The Brits however mastered the art of rapid load and fire,
achieving (I believe) the fastest rate of fire in its day, and
even up to WWI, the traditional 'five rounds rapid' from bolt-action
rifles convinced the Germans that the Brits were using light
machine guns.]

Thomas

Thankyou to everyone for their help on this matter.
Cathy.

----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Davidson
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 10:07 AM
Subject: [samuraihistory] Re: Archery.


On the technical side -

Japanese archers draw back to the ear - as did the Greeks -
other styles, inclusing European, draw back to the nose.

The composite Japanese bow, with a hand-grip a third of the way
up, is significantly taller than its European counterparts.

The Japanese archer was expected to draw the bow and hold it.
European archers, notably the British yeomen who in their
heyday made such a mess of the French aristocracy, nock the
arrow pointing to the ground. As they draw they swing up and
back until the right angle is arrived at to rain arrows on
their foe.

They do not hold the arrow at full draw, but release at the top
of the arc.

There are some studies of exhumed bones from the period (when I
think all able-bodied men were obliged to do archery practice)
that suggest they suffered back injuries from the way they
trained and handled the bow.

Apart from Robin Hood (?) I don't think the bow ever became an
heroic weapon, or rather I don't know of an English hero who
was an archer.

The samurai were, of course, followers of the 'Way of Horse and
Bow'. They can hold the arrow at full draw, and they developed
techniques that worked with the physiology rather than against
it.

[Even though the bow was rapidly superceded by firearms in the
West, there was still strong support and even after Waterloo
(1815) it was proposed that companies of archers could support
the muskets by continuing to fire whilst there was a pause in
the firing to reload after a volley.

The Brits however mastered the art of rapid load and fire,
achieving (I believe) the fastest rate of fire in its day, and
even up to WWI, the traditional 'five rounds rapid' from bolt-action
rifles convinced the Germans that the Brits were using light
machine guns.]

Thomas


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