| As you may know, Kyudo is the traditional art of Japanese Archery. It resembles archery in that both involve an archer, a target, a bow, and an arrow. The similarities end there. For one thing, in archery you stand facing the target, pick up a bow, knock the arrow and *twang* you're done. You hit the target or you didn't. In Kyudo, you walk a certain way, sit a certain (painful) way, hold the bow with the bottom of your left wrist making a perfect right angle from the bowgrip, stand in mimicry of Leonardo DaVinci's anatomy drawing, the name of which I can't remember, your body is facing right as you am straight down the green. You move slowly, all of your movements are calculated and a certain way. Is both enjoyable to watch and teeth-grinding to learn in a different language.this is my sempai, Inoue san. |
So, the practice dojo is near Green Arena, the concert hall near Pacela and Sogo (shopping plaza). This area is right next to other dojos, one for Kendo and one I couldn't read the kanji for, possibly Aikido. The Kyudo dojo is a two story building, the upper area is the entrance where you take off your shoes (no shoes in dojo), and the changing rooms where everyone gets out of their school/kaisha clothes and gets into their wafuku. I, having just got off the boat so to speak, did not have the kyudo fuku, or anything else, so had to buy a pair of jogging pants and a teeshirt. Being American and wearing Western-style clothing I could not have looked more out of place. But I went, Monday and Thursday each week. Not really catching most of what was said, just going off of what was shown to me. Luckily, my very kind sensei speaks a bit of english, and sometimes I understood the directional phrases (in hindsight, I believe I mostly didn't). Unfortunately, my small vocabulary has made me miss out on the history of it a bit, and I do feel that is a loss.
The Kyudo clothing consists of several pieces: 1the keiko-gi, the kimono-looking shirt thing with elbow-length sleeves that have usually found to be white; 2the hakata which is a long pillowy pants (but looks like a skirt) and has mostly been black, but there are colors too; 3the obi, a belt-like thing that is wrapped around the waist; 4the tabi, the socks with a seperation between big toe and the other toes and a bottom that is a little hard; 5the yugake, the archer's glove, which is deerskin I believe, is three fingered (two and thumb), tied around the wrist, and has a hard covering inside the thumb piece, (by the way, you must wear an underglove so as not to damage it by sweat, etc); 6the muneate, the chest guard, is kind of plastic-y, women have to use it for obvious reasons, I dont know what else to say about that.
The Kyudo Equipment is, obviously, a bow and arrow, yumi and ya respectively. You string the bow yourself before use, and unstring it when before you leave. The practice targets are dried something or rather, some sort of hay-like, maybe a bamboo material. The actual practice target is small and far away (unless I really try with my weak little eyes, I can only make out the blur of black-white-black-white rings). The practice green is outdoors. How is that possible in a building? That part of the building is on the first floor, and is like a courtyard, the sky is open. From the second floor you can overlook the targets and green but you cant see the archer.
When one enters the dojo, you must greet everyone. When you leave, you have to say the equivalent of good work, in very polite Japanese (keigo). In the dojo, wearing your hakama, you must sit in seizan, on your knees. This really hurts if you're a beginner, and if you're not it still hurts after a few minutes. Perhaps the lesson in that is don't sit idle too long. The lower floor of the dojo has chairs but I try not to use them, because I must practice sitting. This area is carpeted, thankfully. The practice area is seperated by sliding doors, and is that shiny wood floor you see in television dojos. It is really friggin cold. You must go through the dojo to get to the bow room, which looks like a bakufu armory, with maybe four-score bows on racks, but wrapped in fabric or in vinyl cases (humidity is bad for them I think). Is like stepping back into the Tokugawa Shogunate, except there is a lightswitch.
