Kyudo

A week after my arrival, I was passing by the little dojo near here when I saw that someone was in there. With my very limited Japanese, and much pointing, I managed to understand that something was happening that Sunday.

I arrived on Sunday just as they were finishing up a dojo competition. There were a dozen people there. The winner of the day received a trophy and a box of laundry detergent. Everyone else received a box of laundry detergent. Then there was tea and snacks. I was made very welcome. Only one man spoke a little english but I managed to answer most of their questions and let them know that I had practiced Kyudo and had a ranking. At this dojo, I am one of the younger ones. Few are below fifty. One of the regulars is eighty-three. He shoots very well. The woman on the right and below is sixty-five and very fit and alive.



While most everyone was leaving, the president of the dojo asked if I would like to shoot. I didn't have any of my equipment with me and so I zipped home and got my bow and arrows and glove. With Japanese archery, you wear a leather glove with a large thumb lined with wood and a nock at the base. There are either two or three fingers as well. When you are learning or warming up, you shoot at a round bale of rice straw approximately two metres away. That way you can concentrate on your form. I shot a few arrows as the few people still present watched. I was pleased with how quickly most of it came back to me. I actually did my previous teachers proud that day.


I began going regularly the next day. My first strike of the target was a bulls eye! (The targets are paper stretched across a wooden hoop and set four inches above the ground in a sand bank at 28 metres from where one shoots.) The most difficult thing in the early days was putting on my obi (sash) and hakama (the lower part of the outfit). There are special ways to wrap and tie everything.

Progress in my shooting was swift and there was rarely a round when I wasn't hitting the target at least one out of four arrows. The Kyudo form has eight steps. The form in a test is begun from a kneeling position. Returning to a kneeling position between each shot. In practice we sometimes make the first set of two arrows with the full ceremonial entry and the kneeling beginning. The rest of the time, we just start from a standing position. When you are shooting, you line up in a row and take turns. Our dojo accommodates three people shooting.

Each of the eight steps of the form has a purpose. I practice with all eight steps. However, in many cases, during practice many people will skip one or more of the steps. This is their choice but they tend to miss some of the benefits of the art on both and outer and inner level. The form establishes grounding, and balance with coordiantion of the musculature and the breath. My own experience is that when practiced correctly, I reach a state of body/mind that is relaxed and strong and 'in the zone'. Several times, I have released the arrow knowing that it was going to hit the target because I could feel it to be so.

In an exam, the form is the most important part. Some competitions, they give prizes for best form as well as how many hits of the target as I remember. I have seen people with very bad forms who hit the target time and again. I witnessed one former professor who chattered away and shot in a slip shod way and hit the outer target regularly.


So, for a few weeks, I was practicing six days a week. My fellow members of the dojo had me lined up for the next exam in September and I was quite certain that I could pass easily. Then, my shoulder started aching. And, aching more. This is from an injury I accumulated almost twenty years ago when a ladder slipped out from under me and I landed on my side cracking my skull. The shoulder was not given any attention at the time as it didn't dislocate and the doctors didn't notice that it was riding higher in spasm. It took a body worker to point it out to me. It only started to bother me a year ago and acupuncture treatments have helped immensely to relieve the aching feeling. Well, by the time that I realised that I needed to stop shooting, the shoulder was getting very painful.

I went to an acupuncturist for a couple of treatments and took three weeks off from the archery. I have returned to the dojo. However, I only go two or three times a week for shorter periods of shooting. My fellow archers missed my presence and I missed their company. The shoulder is doing ok though I have to be aware and stop shooting when it tires.

The first day back from my break, I was introduced to a man I hadn't seen before. He is referred to as the 'Sensei'. (He is in the top two photos) He is very friendly and has given me instructions which at first changed my form so that I wasn't hitting the target but eventually made for a better form. Additonally, my shoulder is not bothered so much.

So, I shoot on.