HISTORY

Kyūdō is the Japanese martial art of archery. Experts in kyūdō are referred to as kyūdōka (弓道家). Kyūdō is based on kyūjutsu ("art of archery"), which originated with the samurai class of feudal Japan. During the changes to Japan brought by opening up to the outside world at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868–1912), the samurai lost their status. Therefore, all martial arts, including kyūdō, saw a significant decrease in instruction and appreciation. In 1896, a group of kyūdō masters gathered to save traditional archery. Honda Toshizane, the kyūdō teacher for the Imperial University of Tokyo, merged the war and ceremonial shooting styles, creating a hybrid called Honda-ryū. However, it took until 1949 before the All Japanese Kyudo Federation (ANKF; Japanese: Zen Nihon Kyūdō Renmei) was formed. Guidelines published in the 1953 kyūdō kyohon define how, in a competition or graduation, archers from different schools can shoot together in unified form.

Kyūdō is practised in many different schools, some of which descend from military shooting and others that descend from ceremonial or contemplative practice. Therefore, the emphasis is different. Some emphasise aesthetics and others efficiency. Contemplative schools teach the form as a meditation in action. In certain schools, to shoot correctly will result inevitably in hitting the desired target. For this a phrase seisha hitchū, "true shooting, certain hitting", is used. According to the Nippon Kyūdō Federation the supreme goal of kyūdō is the state of shin-zen-bi, roughly "truth-goodness-beauty", which can be approximated as: when archers shoot correctly (i.e. truthfully) with virtuous spirit and attitude toward all persons and all things which relate to kyūdō (i.e. with goodness), beautiful shooting is realised naturally.