Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan by Oscar Ratti & Adele Westbrook

Author:Oscar Ratti & Adele Westbrook [Ratti, Oscar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9784805314050
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2011-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

Archery contests on horseback were especially admired by “effete” court nobles throughout the Heian period. It was during this period that the basic system of training in archery was developed and refined. Inevitably, this method was widely adopted by the ambitious warriors of the following age, their offspring often being presented with bamboo-grass horses and a bow in childhood (Kaigo, 21). The training program for archers was based upon repeated attempts to hit both fixed and mobile targets while on foot as well as on horseback. The major fixed targets were the large target (o-mato), the deer target (kusajishi), and the round target (marumono). The first, according to Kaigo, was set thirty-three bow-lengths and measured about sixty-two inches in diameter. The second consisted of a deer’s silhouette covered with deer skin and marked to indicate the vital spots to be hit; and the third consisted of a round board, stuffed and then covered with strong hide. There are indications that these targets were often hung from poles and set in motion in order to develop skill in hitting targets whose movement would render them more elusive and difficult to pierce from a distance.

Training on horseback, naturally, was obviously more aristocratic, in both nature and tradition, than training on foot. It demanded great coordination in controlling a galloping horse, while simultaneously releasing arrow after arrow against a series of different targets which might be either fixed or in motion. Among the popular forms of archery were: three-target shooting (yabusame), bamboo-hat target shooting (kasagake), dog shooting (inuoumono), dog hunt (inuoi), bird hunt (oitorigari), and the grand hunt for deer, bear, and so forth (makigari).

Three-target shooting (yabusame) involved launching the horse at a full gallop in a pre-set direction, while releasing arrows directed against three targets, each constructed of a three-inch square board set on a pole along the horse’s path. Bamboo-hat target shooting (kasagake) was performed within the confines of a course known as the arrow way (yado), properly fenced and with a shelf set at its end from which bamboo hats were hung. The rider was required to launch his steed at full gallop and begin to hit those hats, first from a distance (tokasagake) and then from close range (kokasagake). Dog-shooting (inuoumono) consisted of releasing a certain number of dogs into a closed arena and then chasing them around, while shooting at them from horseback. This particular training system developed into a ritualized contest in which thirty-six mounted archers were divided into three groups of twelve riders each. In turn, each group was allowed to enter the round, bamboo-fenced arena, seventy-two bow-lengths across, into which were then released fifty dogs for each group (Kaigo, 22). Revulsion at the sight of this pointless slaughter, prompted and deepened by the spreading of Buddhism’s civilizing influence throughout Japanese society, resulted in edicts which commanded that the archers use non-lethal arrows with large round arrowheads in these dog-shoots, while the dogs were to be outfitted with special, padded corselets. With only a few lapses, this modified form of training and competing lasted for centuries.

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