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The Kyudo Project Incorporated: A California 501.3 (c) non-profit
corporation dedicated to spreading timely and accurate information about Kyudo
(Japanese Archery)
The Kyudo Project
Incorporated
A California
501.3 (c) non-profit corporation dedicated to spreading timely and accurate
information about Kyudo (Japanese Archery)
The
Shiseikan Dojo
Other Dojos
Other Web Pages
Articles
Old News Items
Email me
Notes to
Shiseikan Dojo
Members
Confirmed
GII dates have been received thru Sept., 2008 and the schedule has been
updated.
Schedule
Photos
All
pictures deleted for now.
Testing?
I
created three example American test application forms in Microsoft
Word format for a seminar in South
Carolina. I also included a page of notes
for each one explaining how to fill the fields out. Note these
examples now use the current ANKF overseas forms and I've updated
them for the 2006 seminar in South
Carolina.
Sample
Mushitei Test Application Form
Sample
San Dan Test Application Form
Sample
Renshi Test Application Form
And of course the
ever popular: sample written test questions can be found by
clicking here!
Pictures From A Dojo Biraki in Paju, Korea.
Feliks Hoff sensei in Germany is
attending MUCH more interesting dojo biraki (openings) than I am. He seems to travel the world visting
Kyudo dojo openings and one of his recent outings was to a dojo biraki in Paju, Korea,
a city North of Seoul. Hoff sensei
attended the opening with Mori sensei of Tsukuba University
who brought two of his students.
Mr. Daniel Seong studied
Kyudo at the Alster Dojo in Hamburg,
Germany,
last year. He was an experienced
archer in traditional Korean archery and after studying Kyudo in Germany he returned to Korea and
started a small dojo in a portion of land located in a city park. Tents were used as the city did not allow
permanent structures to be built and he constructed a three target dojo.
At the opening ceremony
there were traditional Japanese archery ceremonies which Hoff sensei described
as Meigen,
Shiho-zume, the 7-5-3-ceremony and Reisha/Yawatashi but there were also
demonstrations of different kinds of traditional archery and modern archery
too. In a news article published in
an online Korean archery magazine you can see some very interesting
pictures.
Click
here to see the dojo biraki pictures!.
Web Page for A Heki Ryu Insai Ha dojo in Italy.
Mr. Giuseppe Costa
emailed me recently to announce a web page for an independent School in Italy of
the Heki Ryu Insai Ha. Not all Kyudo
dojos, either inside Japan,
or outside Japan,
are affiliated with the International Kyudo Federation (IKYF) or the All
Nippon Kyudo Federation (ANKF).
There are still traditional schools of archery in existence and
there certainly does seem to be a growing interest in Kyudo in Italy
lately.
Click here to see the Scuola delle
quattro Foglie web page.
A New Kyoshi in the UK.
Liam O’Brien
sensei has emailed me news of a significant event. Ray Dolphin sensei of the UK passed the kyoshi exam this May in Kyoto. It is always news when someone passes
their kyoshi (senior instructor rank) test but even more so when it is
someone training primarily outside Japan with all the hardships
that implies. Congratulations to
Dolphin sensei! Formal awarding of
the rank will be upon acceptance of his thesis. For those not familiar with the kyoshi
exam, the candidate who successfully completes the shooting, written, oral
interview, and sharei portion of the
exam is then assigned a thesis to write and when that is submitted and
approved then the rank is formally awarded.
But there is certainly no problem in giving the congratulations now!
Also, in the email, O’Brien sensei informs me that the UKKA has received formal
government recognition through membership to the Central Council for
Physical Recreation (CCPR) as the governing body for IKYF Kyudo in the UK.
The Confusing Mushitei test!
As Kyudo USA 2008 approaches those taking a Kyudo rank
test for the first time always have the same question: what rank do I write
in that “Dan Required” box on the test form?
The answer is almost always “mushitei”, but exactly what IS the
mushitei rank anyway?
The best answer to that question was written by Steve
Scott, president of the Northern California Kyudo Federation, as part of
his excellent Kyudo USA 2005 Test
Information instructions. His
instructions were so good in fact that I’m going to quote the mushitei instructions here:
(begin quote)
Dan
Required: (Explained below)
The ANKF promotion test will be given according to the
ANKF test regulations as explained in Chapter 6, Articles 20 thru 23 in the
Zen Nippon Kyudo Renmei Test and Regulation Book (Shinsakite). The test will be given to the following
categories of participants:
1)
Mushitei Shinsa (Open
Test): The Mushitei Test is given to
those who do not have any rank (neither Kyu nor Dan) and who are taking a
test for the first time in their Kyudo history. According to the result of the test, 5th
kyu thru 1st kyu or Shodan may be awarded.
THOSE APPLYING FOR THIS TEST SHOULD WRITE “MUSHITEI”ON THE TEST APPLICATION FORM IN THE SPACE AFTER “DAN REQUIRED”.
2)
Shodan: No matter which
kyu the test candidate may currently have, 5th kyu thru 1st kyu, the
candidate may take the shodan test. This will be a pass/fail test for the shodan
rank. Alternatively, the candidate
may test for the next kyu rank by writing in the appropriate kyu. (e.g. Ikkyu)
(end quote)
Those two items are the best explanations on the subject
I have ever seen in English. But
another question then arises, what test fee does the mushitei candidate
pay? If they are awarded ikkyu then
they owe one amount but if they are awarded shodan then they will have to
pay twice as much. So what is the
test fee amount that should be sent in with the test application?
The exact procedure and test amounts are, of course, up
to the federation hosting the test.
In the case where the NCKF hosted the test the mushitei candidate
was asked to send in the test fee for ikkyu and if they were awarded shodan
instead (congratulations!) then at the test site they were asked for the
additional shodan test fee money as an adjustment.
I cannot speak for NANKA of course as I am not the
seminar coordinator for Kyudo USA 2008 but I would not be suriprised if
this same procedure were being followed.
As always, check with your federation president first if you have a
question.
Sharp eyed readers will note that one of the three sample, correctly filled out, test application forms
listed on the left side of this page is a mushite test application example!
Good luck to everyone testing in Kyudo USA 2008!
The 2008 American Kyudo Seminar Is
Official!
Subject: Official 2008 Seminar Announcement
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:53:30 -0800
Hello Senseis, Board Members, and Representatives,
We hope you are
all well and that you have had a prosperous and
healthy
start to 2008.
Please see the
announcement from Sensei Doug Sakurai below.
Thank you,
Jannette
Nanka
Nanka Kyudo Renmei
would like to officially announce the dates of the
American Kyudo
Seminar for 2008 to be held in Southern California.
The
seminar
dates are July 16-18th and the test date is Saturday July 19th.
The banquet will
be held on Saturday night, so the seminar essentially
goes
from the 16th-20th. We will be celebrating Kyudo's 100 year
history
in Southern California.
The location is at
the University of California, Irvine
in the heart
of
Orange County. The anticipated cost of the
seminar will be in the
$350.00 range. The
nearest airport is John Wayne Airport
in Santa Ana,
but
we will provide transportation from LAX also. We can possibly arrange
transportation
from Long Beach Airport and Ontario Airport
too. We are
currently looking
into scheduling dorm rooms before the seminar for
those
of you that would like to come early and enjoy Southern
California.
Registration forms
and all other information will be out in the next
few
weeks. We hope to see all of you there.
Doug Sakurai
President, Nanka
Kyudo Renmei
Web page for the Bukyukai in Hungary.
Mr. Ruszthy was kind enough to email me the URL for the web page of
the Hungarian Kyudo-club 'Bukyukai'.
He pointed out that it is maintained in Hungarian, English and
German!
Click here to see the Bukyukai web
page!
National American 2008 Seminar Dates
Announced.
Email
received from Nanaka in Southern California:
Sorry this is getting out so late. We have
confirmed the dates for the kyudo seminar in Southern
California for 2008. I hope that everyone will come out and
join us in celebrating 100 years of kyudo in Southern
Cal. We are excited to be hosting this event and look forward
to seeing all of our friends in kyudo. The dates are July 16th-18th with
the test on July 19th.
The location is at the University of California,
Irvine at the Bren
Center. Yes, the
dates are correct and the test is on Saturday. We are trying to alleviate
the problem of arranging transportation immediately after taking the test
and missing flights. We tried every combination of days to accommodate
everyone, and this was the best way to do it. This will allow us to have
our banquet on Saturday night after the seminar, so everyone can truly
relax and enjoy the event. We are also working on having a couple of bow
makers come out to give demonstrations on how bows are made and also how to
take care of your bow.
More information will be out shortly about
airports, transfers, dorm arrangements, cost and such. For now, all we can
confirm are the dates.
Hope to see you all in July!
Doug Sakurai
President, Nanka Kyudo Renmei.
IKYF 2009 World Championships Canceled.
In
a recent email sent to the European and American IKYF liason officers the
IKYF canceled the 2009 World Championship event. The reasons given were not specific but
the email mentioned that 2009 was the same year as a project to celebrate
the 60th anniversary of the All Nippon Kyudo Federation. As a result of this, various factors
caused the IKYF to cancel the World Championships for that year.
One
obvious problem of the newly formed International Kyudo Federation is a
lack of almost any meaningful budget to finance events and immediately
after the formation of the IKYF overseas seminars were cut in half. Again, likely due to budget
considerations. It is reasonable to
assume that the world championships and the 60th ANKF anniversary
celebration would all take place at the yearly taikai in Kyoto and the IKYF
just doesn’t have the resources, money or otherwise, to hold both
events.
Web page for the South African Kyudo
Federation.
Once a year or so I receive an inquiry about kyudo in South Africa. Well, now I have a web page to refer them
to!
Click here to see the South
African Kyudo Federation web page!
First Kyoshi In America?
I’ve heard nothing official but if I’m reading this test result
document correctly that has just been posted on the ANKF web page, Aaron
Blackwell sensei of the South Carolina Kyudo Federation has just become the
first kyudo kyoshi in America! Can anyone confirm this?
Click here to see
the Japanese document.
Update: It is official! I’ve
just received email from Mr. Phil Swain, the vice president of the American
Kyudo Renmei, announcing that Blackwell sensei did indeed pass his kyoshi
test in Japan. Congratulations to Blackwell sensei who passed his kyoshi exam while living and practicing
in the kyudo wilderness of America. For those who may not know, Blackwell
sensei is the president of the South Carolina Kyudo Renmei.
Archers need (quickly!) for the Heroes TV
show!
Alex Reid, the Production Supervisor on the Heroes TV show, needs
Japanese archers and he needs them fast.
If you are in the Los
Angeles area, or you’re going to be visiting there
next week and you look Japanese and know kyudo he probably wants to hear
from you immediately. Here is what
he emailed to me today. I don’t feel
safe posting his cell phone number but anyone interested can email me and
I’ll send it to you.
Good luck!
I am looking for 6 male archers of Japanese
decent that are proficient in
archery who would be interested in working
on our show. The first day
of work would be this Monday, June 25th and
they would be paid for
their time.
There would be additional work on upcoming episodes. They
would need to come in for an interview and
be fitted for traditional
armor with our costume department. We are located at Sunset-Gower
Studios in the middle of Hollywood. Time is running out and I have
only heard back from one person so far.
I can be contacted via email at axlereid@verizon.net
or on my cell phone at (xxx) xxx-xxxx at
any time.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Alex Reid
Production Supervisor
"HEROES"
The most absolutely breakable porcelain
figurine ever!.
The Lladro figurine company has just made the most fragile, most
breakable figurine ever. No kidding.
Click
here to see it!
Update: Okay, I finally saw
one of these in the Matsuya department store in Asakusa, Tokyo, and the bow is actually made of
metal so it is not as breakable as I thought from looking at the
picture. The retail price was 64,000
yen I believe.
Retirement of IKYF president Kamogawa
sensei.
Although I have not heard an official IKYF announcement yet, an
observer at the IKYF board meeting on April 14th informs me that Kamogawa
sensei officially stepped down as the president of the IKYF and Suzuki
Mitsunari sensei, the current ANKF president, has assumed his duties as
IKYF president.
For those of you who, like myself,
remember the decades of service to kyudo that Kamogawa sensei has given to
the art this really is the passing of an era. I'm told he left the board meeting when
his resignation was accepted so I'm sure this was all known in
advance. Given the recent events in
his personal life his desire to retire from public involvement in kyudo
cannot come as a surprise but still, for many overseas kyudo practioners,
Kamogawa sensei was the distinguished public face of the ANKF and the
official representative of kyudo to the world. His retirement will be marked with a
feeling of some sadness. I'm sure
that many people wish him well as he retires from his official kyudo
duties.
Saving the world through Kyudo!
Saving the world through Kyudo! Now I ask you, just how totally cool is
that!!!!!
Hello.
We will held the 7th
UNICEF Charity Kyudo Meeting(Taikai) in Fukui,Japan,
on April 29, 2007. Please see our official homepage and we are happy if you
will announce our activity in your homepage.
Thank you.
http://www.hokuriku.ed.jp/kyudo/unicef/english.htm
Hiroto Nakamura
Hokuriku Junior/Senior
High School Kyudo Club
1-8-1 bunkyo, Fukui City,
Fukui Prefecture, Japan, 910-0017
E-mail：h-nakamura<at>hokuriku.ed.jp
New web page from the Enshin Dojo in the Netherlands.
About 11 years ago Professor Naito retired
from his job at Sapporo University and has traveled both to Europe and Asia studying both Japanese archery and Asian
archery. Feliks Hoff sensei of Germany kindly emailed me pictures of the
dojo biraki (dojo opening ceremonies) from Naito sensei's latest project in
mainland China: a kyudo
dojo in the city of Zhuhai in China's
Guandong province!
In addition to Hoff sensei from Germany, invited guests included Noro sensei
from Sapporo
who traveled there with several Japanese students. You can see Noro sensei performaing a
Yawatashi with Hoff sensei and Naito sensei assisting. Traditional Chinese and Korean archers
also demonstrated during the opening.
The opening was held in December and you can tell from all the green
plants in the pictures just how far south the city of Zhuhai really is.
I believe this is actually Naito
sensei's second dojo opening in China. If memory serves me correctly I saw
pictures of Kamogawa sensei of the ANKF (at the time) visiting Naito
sensei's kyudo dojo which he had just opened in Tientsin, China. Naito sensei had published a book on
Japanese archery in Chinese and obviously the Chinese government must have
been pleased with the results because he was invited to start kyudo classes
at the Zhuhai Campus of Peking
Normal University
and this dojo is obviously the fruit of his labors.
I often refer to America as a "kyudo
wilderness" because of the lack of facitilies and equipment and all
the other problems which always occur.
It is inspiring to see a retired Japanese professor overcome what
must have been considerable hurdles to establish a kyudo dojo in mainline China!
You can view the pictures by clicking here.
New web page from the Enshin Dojo in the Netherlands.
A member of the Enshin Dojo, located in
the city of Utrecht,
emailed me to let me know of their dojo’s new web page where the letters
fly faster than arrows!
Note you will have to have Macromedia’s
Flash Player installed on your computer to view the webpage. Navigating the site feels like playing a
video game so I’m not giving you any hints! J
The page can be seen by clicking here.
Pictures from the 2007 NCKF New Year’s
Tournament.
The Northern California Kyudo
Federation held a 2007 New Years’s Tournament on Jan. 7th and I took many
pictures with my new digital camera of course. This year’s tournament was
marked by an outstanding performance by the new Renshi Jon McAlister who
hit 16 of 20 arrows (and received his big Renshi certificate as part of
the awards ceremony). At one point Jon hit 12 arrows in a row and his
last hits were distinguished with his second arrow striking the nock of
his first arrow in the target! 2nd
place went to Earl Hartman sensei who won a shootoff with Rik Center who took 3rd. In the sandan and under category,
Belinda Leung won 1st place and in a great shootoff, Sakura san from the
Seishinkan dojo struck the center circle to take 2nd place over Keiko
Franklin san who took 3rd place.
The cute New Year’s hanamato was made
by Yoshiko Buchanan sensei and featured a seasonal boar (Ino Shi Shi)
among the maple leaves theme (it’s the year of the Boar).
You can see the pictures . Note that clicking the smaller pictures
only takes you to a slightly larger picture that is still quick to
download. Clicking on that picture
will bring up the original picture which is much higher resolution and
will take much longer to download but it is the one you want if you are
going to save the picture to your local hard disk and make a print from
it.
Also, those of you looking for Japanese specific clip
art with a new year’s theme should bookmark the Little House web
page. The New Year’s graphics are
password protected but they give away the user name of “house” and the password of “sozai”. The New Year’s web page clipart is at:
https://homepage1.nifty.com/kumamis/jan07.html
Year after year they produce the best Japanese themed
New Year’s clip art by far. Those
of you looking to decorate New Year’s scoresheets, certificates,
hanamatos, etc. should start there.
Shinnen Omedeto Gozaimasu!
Happy Year of the Boar!
Kyudo Videos on YouTube!
I occasionally scan photo sharing
sites looking for good kyudo pictures but I had completely ignored video
sharing sites like YouTube. A recent email from a reader pointed out some
real gems.
First is a clip of Awa Kenzo sensei shooting at what
I believe is a New Year's Celebration (Shinnen kai) in Japan. You can see the video by clicking here
And yes, Awa Kenzo was the instructor of Eugen
Herrigel who wrote Zen And The Art of Archery. But remember:
While kenshõ (see true nature; i.e., attain awakening) is a Zen term, itis practically impossible to detect any Zen elements in Awa’s teaching.Surprisingly, it appears that Awa never practiced Zen even once in hislife. SAKURAI (1981, p. 223), who has conscientiously studied Awa’s life,wrote that “No evidence can be found that Kenzõ ever trained with aZen priest.”
- taken from The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery by YAMADA
Shõji and excellently translated by Earl Hartman sensei.
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/586.pdf
In most of the yabusame videos the camera bounces more than
the horse but one podcast appears to have filmed inside a training hall
(An Ogasawara dojo perhaps?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZHrAxArqWE
And there are tourist videos that can be useful training. This
makiwara sharei video shows what happens when you don't take a big enough
step back after firing your first shot. You'll have to adjust your
position after standing up for the second shot so students of taihai take
note:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3W7XTtGlY
Finally, before being carried away with all the videos you
should always have an appreciation for the well
written kyudo web page
 The
International Kyudo Federation Has A Webpage!
Question for the day, what is so special about this
percentage:
98.122175354022295872250677915035 %
If you said that is the percentage of people in the
International Kyudo Federation who are native speakers of Japanese then I
would say...CORRECT!
Which goes a long way to explaining why the new web page for
the International Kyudo Federation is almost entirely in Japanese!.
You can see the web page by clicking on this link: http://www.ikyf.org/
Extraordinary
Special Test For Renshi Candidates.
As most readers will know the ANKF shogo (instructor i.e.
renshi and kyoshi) test consists of two shooting tests, if the candidate
passes the first shooting test they attempt the second shooting test
which is almost always a sharei form of some kind.
What many overseas kyudo participants may not know is that
once a year there is an 'Extraordinary Special Test' given in Japan
for all those renshi and kyoshi candidates who passed the first part of
their test but failed the second shooting test. Once a year, in Japan, a
test is given for all such test candidates and this test has existed for
many years but with more and more overseas test candidates taking (and
failing!) their renshi tests this is a good chance to introduce the
details of this special test to the non Japanese kyudo community. For
example, at this year's American seminar there were three renshi test
candidates who qualified for the second shooting test but then failed. So
those three candidates are eligable for this year's Extraordinary Special
Test in Japan.
I know for a fact that at least one European passed his kyoshi test and
one American passed his renshi test in years past at this special test.
The test is only given once at the end of the year and is a
one time test open only to those renshi and kyoshi test candidates who
failed their second shooting test during the current year. And you only
have once chance to take the test. If you fail it you are back to zero
and have to take the renshi or kyoshi test from the beginning.
Here are the details of the renshi test translated into
English. If anyone out there needs the details of the kyoshi(!)
test just email me and I'll forward those too.
Good luck to all the test candidates for this year!
The renshi test information is as follows: 1. Date: Sunday December 24, 2006 . 2. Place: Shiseikan Dojo, Meiji Shrine Budojo, 1-1 Kamizonocho, Yoyogi, Shibuya ku, Tokyo. 03-5302-5865. Closest station is Yoyogi station by JR line Yamanote line or subway Uedo line. Alternative route is Sangubashi station by Odakyu line. 3. Test Schedule: Test begins at 9 AM (registration begins at 8 AM). 4. Test Eligibility: Those who passed the renshi first test during 2006 (Heisei 18). 5. Test details. (1) Shooting test, written test, and interview test will be given. Pass/no pass decided by total score.Shooting test will be the 2nd part of the Renshi test (no sharei information given - Yoshiko).(2) Interview test will be on instructional ability and general kyudo knowledge will be examined.(3) Written test will be given. 6. How to apply: (1) Application form - The offical test application form must be used (In my opinon this means the green ANKF form - Yoshiko). The test fee of 6000 (six thousand) yen must be attached.(2) Deadline: The application must arrive by the 11th of December.(3) Application should be sent to: Attention to Tokyo Tokubetsu Renji Shinsa Gakkari. ZNKR/Kishi Memorial Hall1-1-1 Jinnan Shibuya, TokyoJapan03-3481-2387 tel03-3481-2398 fax 7. Notes: (1) Deadline is strict.(2) Print application clearly.(3) Application contents must be true and accurate. Any false information may cause failure.(4) Candidates must be at the test site on time.(5) Testing candidates must wear wafuku and wear an ANKF pin.(6) Failure to respond to the test assembly call may be considered abandoment of the test.(7) In the case of rissha the rissha must be wirtten in red on the application form. A doctor's letter must be attached. The letter should be dated within one year. The federation president must approve the rissha request.(8) Parking will be in the Meiji Jingu Bunkachushajo. 8. Misc: Personal information on the application form may be used for the following purposes:1) Publishing in the test candidate list and related materials such as names, renmei, age, title, date title obtained and so on.2) The test candidate list and time announcement with identifying number.3) The announcement of test results to official publications such as the kyudo magazine (name, renmei, title and dan). End of test information.
Passing
Percentages From Kyudo USA 2006!
Many thanks to Carly Born for passing on this information. And
big congratulations to the new renshis!
Howdy, If you are interested, here are the passing stats for this year's shinsa. Please feel free to forward to anyone else who you think may be interested. Mudan 7/15 got Shodan (47%) 4/15 got 1 kyu (27%) 2/15 got 2 kyu (13%) Kyu 9/9 got Shodan (100%) [1 from 2 kyu, all others from 1 kyu] Shodan 14/14 got Nidan (100%) Nidan 6/12 got Sandan (50%) Sandan 1/4 got Yondan (25%) Yondan 2/10 got Godan (20%) Our new godan are Bill Reid (NCKR) and Rick Beal (NANKA) Godan 6/12 proceeded to the interview and second test (50%) 3 passed Renshi (25%) Our new Renshi are Douglas Sakurai (NANKA), Jon McAllister (NCKF) and Tomio Kato (GKR). -- Carly BornMinnesota Kyudo Renmeihttp://www.mnkyudo.org
Dojo
Biraki at the Alster Dojo in Hamburg,
Germany!
A recent email from Hoff Sensei announced the opening of a
second shajo in the Alster Dojo in Hamburg,
Germany,
and the email came with pictures! The amount of work necessary for such a
large dojo must have been considerable. The interior picture shows the
windows that can be raised to allow shooting and I suspect the boxes at
the bottom of the windows are heaters. Winters are VERY cold in Hamburg. Exterior
pictures show how the windows are raised on the outside. Note the size of
the fences! The Alster Dojo clearly belives in a good neighbor policy. I
have made a slide show of the pictures but if you have the bandwidth, try
clicking on the pictures to see details of the handsome arrows being used
in the meigen ceremony.
Dear EClay,last weekend we had the dojo biraki for the second hall in the Alster Dojo Hamburg. I performed it according to the tradition of the Heki-To ryu (Meigen, Shiho zume, Yawatashi, 7-5-3, after this everybody did a hitote).Some pictures of it are in the attachment.The indoor picture of the dojo was taken in March but now the yamichi is green. We can now offer 12 mato and can serve bigger seminars but first of all our own members much better. Luckily the number of memberships of the kyudo branch in the Alster Dojo has increased to 130! Kind regardsFeliks
You can see the pictures by by
clicking here
Results
from the 2nd Open German Kyudo Enteki Taikai
We have just received this email from Feliks Hoff sensei if
the Alster Dojo in Hamburg
giving the results of their recent enteki taikai (long distance
competition). And what is more, two pictures came with the email. These
are very interesting pictures as they show in some detail the very
cleverly constructed outdoor shooting area. The pictures are large but
the detail is worth seeing.
You can see the first picture by by clicking here
And the second by by
clicking here
***
On Sunday, 18.06.06, the Alster Dojo Hamburg held the 2nd Open German Kyudo
Enteki Taikai . The winner was Mr. Boris Proppe
from Berlin after winning two rounds of
a tiebreaker against Mr. Jan Graaf from Stockholm.
Third place went to the winner from last year, Mr. Peter
Knipper from North Rhine-Westphalia. The Kyudoka of the guest dojo had to
be content with 4th and 5th place.
Feliks F. Hoff
***
Isshou
(single pine tree) Opening Ceremony
D. Mark Gabel emailed me recently with a link to pictures of
the opening ceremony of his dojo: Isshou which means single pine tree. In
the kyudo wilderness of America
a kyudo dojo can be a one person shooting platform and that is what Mark
has constructed on his property in North
Carolina. He asked his teacher, Dan DeProspero sensei, to perform a dojo biraki (dojo opening
ceremony) for the dojo and you can see scenes from that in the pictures.
I'm also told that DeProspero sensei made the handsome carved wood sign
as an opening gift for the dojo too.
You can see the pictures by by
clicking here
Planning
to Test In Japan?
With the canceling of overseas seminars and tests in the year
there is an International Kyudo Federation event it is likely more people
will travel to Japan
to test. I'm assuming that the IKYF will still allow overseas members to
test in local promotion tests in Japan.
If so then it helps to understand how the All Nippon Kyudo
Federation (ANKF) organizes tests in Japan. Strictly speaking the
ANKF only offers tests for renshi candidates and higher. Tests for kyu
through 4th dan are the responsibility of local federations, usually one
federation per prefecture. To test in one of these local federation tests
you'll have to obtain the schedule either directly from the local
federation or request the schedule from the ANKF who will refer you to a
local official if they don't have that federation's testing schedule at
hand. You'll have to meet the local federation's test application deadline
and don't assume there will be someone there who can translate the
written test questions from Japanese into English. Try to verify as many
things ahead of time as possible because you will definitely be the odd
person out and your attitude should be one of trying to cause as little
disruption to the local test as possible.
Godan tests are usually administered by several local
federations joining together to jointly administer the test such as Tokyo + Yamanashi pref., Southern Kyushuu (Kagoshima+Miyazaki+Kumamoto) and so
forth. Finding the dates of these is the same process as finding kyu thru
4th dan tests, you'll have to contact one of the
local federations.
Renshi tests and higher. Ah, now we get to the so-called
"central" tests i.e. tests administered directly by the ANKF.
There are two types of central test: the Teiki Chuoh Shinsa
("fixed" tests) and the Rinji Chuoh Shinsa ("special"
tests). The Teiki Chuoh Shinsa tests are called "fixed" because
there are four and their locations and months are "fixed" with
the exact date falling on a particular weekend of the month. The four
tests are given in Kyoto (May), Sendai (July), Fukuoka
(Sept), and Tokyo
(Nov). Of the four, the most well known to overseas participants is the
Kyoto Taikai in May. Overseas Kyudo students frequently just say
"Kyoto Taikai" when they refer to the archery competition
always given in Kyoto
but the Japanese word "Taikai" (Great Gathering) can be taken
literally here. The archery competition is only one of many events which
take place in Kyoto.
There are several divisions of tournament available (starting with yondan
and up) and typically there are archery demonstrations, and so-called
"enbu" or demonstration tournaments. For example, hanshi are
not expected to compete in regular tournaments so there is a hanshi enbu
where each hanshi shoots two arrows and judges award an excellent
performance award to a select few. There are so many ANKF officials and
sensei attending this annual event that usually several overseas Kyudo
students can be found in Kyoto
meeting old friends and teachers and making new relationships as well.
This popularity has a price. The Kyoto
promotion tests are huge, typically over 400 people testing just for one
rank alone in a single day. Finding space just to sit and string your bow
can be hard. Taking a promotion test at the Kyoto Taikai is definitely a
Kyudo character building experience.
The Rinji Chuoh Shinsa vary by time
and place and there are more than a dozen of them. Their schedule is
usually printed several months in advance in the Kyudo magazine but
fortunately the ANKF now has a web page where all of the events in a
fiscal year are listed.
You can see the ANKF event schedule by clicking here
The ANKF has thoughtfully labeled the promotion tests with
little triangles. For example, on May 6th and 7th we see a promotion
test. The location is given in parens in the fourth column which is Kyoto. Note the
kanji following Kyoto.
Those kanji are for "Teiki Chuoh Shinsa" in other words this is
the fixed test held in Kyoto
every year. In the fifth column we see that on the 6th the Kyoshi and 8th
dan tests will be given. On the 7th is the 6th dan and 7th dan tests.
Note the absence of a renshi test. Picking another date we see a renshi
only test on May 28th in Kinki (Osaka
vicinity). The test is called a Renshi Rinji Chuoh Shinsa, i.e. one of
the renshi only tests whose date and location are not fixed from year to
year.
Hopefully this quick overview of the ANKF's test scheduling
practices will help you in planning your Japan trips. And good luck on
your promotion test!
Pictues
of the 2006 Kyoto
Taikai Overseas Enbu medals.
As part of the inaugural events of the International Kyudo
Federation a special overseas members "enbu" was added to this
year's Kyoto Taikai. All overseas IKYF members who registered could shoot
two arrows in a demonstration tournament. All those hitting both arrows
received a small medal. But there were judges for the enbu and six people
were choosen to receive a special "excellent performance" award
which was a rather hefty medal with ribbon and certificate. The face on
the medal was a Japanese archery from mythology. Yoshiko Buchanan from
the Shiseikan dojo was one of the six and showed the dojo members her
awards at the last dojo practice.
And of couse I have pictures which you can see by clicking
here.
Here is a link to the ANKF page listing the other winners of
the overseas enbu. Scroll to the bottom of the page which you can see by clicking here.
Highlights
of the inaugural meetings of the International Kyudo Federation.
The inaugural meetings of the International Kyudo Federation (IKYF)
took place at the Hotel New Kyoto, Kyoto-Shi,
Japan on
the 2nd of May, 2006. The IKYF was approved as an organization so there
is now an official international organization in charge of kyudo
worldwide.
Highlights of the meetings are:
There were 17 member countries of the IKYF: Japan , Austria,
Belgium, Finland, France,
Germany, UK, Iceland,
Italy, Luxemburg, The
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Switzerland, Sweden and the USA. Of those 17 countries, Portugal and Norway were absent and
appointed proxies ahead of time.
There were minor changes to the IKYF bylaws:
(1) Honorary officers have been added. In particular, Takamado
no Miya Hisako Denka (Her Imperial Highness princess Hisako Takamado) has
been accepted to be the honorary president of the IKYF. Another two
honorary officers are Yoshiro Mori (former prime minister) and Mayumi
Moriyama (member of the House of Representatives).
(2) The numbers of vice chairman has been changed from "two" to
"within three".
(3) The number of auditors has been changed from two to three.
The new IKYF officers are:
Chairman - Nobuyuki Kamogawa,
Vice Chairman - Ichiro Uozumi, Munenaga-Seki and Liam O'Brien (UK) IKYF
Board members: Mitsunari Suzuki (ANKF president), Sadao-Suda, Shouichiro
Nakatsuka, Kiyosada Ogasawara (Head of Ogasawara School), Kohei Irie
(Honorary Professor, Tsukuba Univ.), Yoshikuni Yamada, Masashi Koyama,
Takeo Ishikawa, Tooru Miyata, Yoshimitsu Usami, Masao Iijima, Shunichiro
Ooe, Felix Hoff (Germany), Tryggvi Sigurdsson (Iceland), Oriou Charles-Louis
(France), Dan DeProspero (USA) and Aaron Blackwell (USA).
IKYF Auditors: Jin Okamoto, Tadao Yoshiwara and William Reid (USA).
The Board of Director's meeting presented business plans and a
budget for fiscal year 2006 and 2007. As IKYF general meetings are every
two years, budgets and events are planned two years ahead. This is
something overseas member countries will have to adjust to as events
should be planned for up to two years ahead, not one year as was
previously done in dealing with the ANKF.
The fiscal year 2006 business was the inauguration meeting of
the IKYF and related events such as the Celebration Dinner and the 57th
All Nippon Kyudo Taikai "Kaigai Kyuyu no bu in Kyoto with
participation by Her Imperial Highness Princess Hisako Takamado.
The IKYF event in 2007 will be the first IKYF International
Seminar and related events. This event takes place from April 10th to the
15th of 2007. The detailed information will be distributed in June, 2006.
The current draft of the event is as follows:
4/10 - 12, 2007 Seminar at the ANKF Central Kyudojo, Meiji Shrine, Tokyo4/12/2006 Reception for the Taikai to commemorate the inauguration of the International Kyudo Federation Welcome party for participants of the Taikai at the Hotel New Otani, Tokyo.4/13 - 14, 2007 A Taikai to commemorate the inauguration of the International Kyudo Federation which will be held at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo.4/15, 2007 All Nippon Kyudo Federation Special Examination. The location will be at the "Chuoh Dojo" (Central Kyudojo of the All Nippon Kyudo Federation, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo). More details will be available in June, 2006.
The eligibility of overseas participants will require them to
be members of one of the registered country federations. But there will
be no limit on ranks, nationalities or numbers of participants from the
registered countries.
The World Kyudo Championship in 2009 is still being planned
and its preparatory committee will be established. The event location
will be in Tokyo, Japan.
Kyudo
and the Olympics.
Kyudo as an Olympic sport is a straw man which arises every so
often in discussions of the art. After all, if tug-of-war and croquet
used to be Olympic sports then why not kyudo? (I am not making this up.
The picture at the top of the web page is wonderful and be sure to click
on the smaller pictures at the bottom to see
pictures of some old Olympic games.
Alas the requirements for a sport to be included in the modern
Olympics are somewhat stricter:
1.1 only sports widely practiced by men in at least seventy fivecountries and on four continents, and by women inat least forty countries and on three continents, may beincluded in the programme of the Games of theOlympiad; 1.2 only sports widely practised in at least twenty-fivecountries and on three continents may be included in theprogramme of the Olympic Winter Games;
From the above requirements you can see that few people living
today have to worry about kyudo being included in the Olympics unless
there is stunning growth in kyudo overseas in the very near future. There
is one requirement however which is about to be met:
3.2 To be included in the programme of the Olympic Games,events must have a recognised international standingboth numerically and geographically, and have beenincluded at least twice in world or continentalchampionships.
Country representatives are now gathering in Japan for ratification of the
bylaws and other administrative procedures to form the new International
Kyudo Federation. One of the major activities of the new IKYF will be the
holding of a world kyudo championship every few years with the first one
to be held 2009 if all goes well. In theory that would satisfy the world
championship requirements. But there is yet another requirement for
Olympic sport:
1.3 only sports that adopt and implement the World Anti-Doping Code can be included and remain in theprogramme of the Olympic Games;
Ah yes, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and the
indignity of urine testing. I must confess that before and after kyudo
tests and tournaments I have indeed spent much time peeing into urinals
but the idea of someone actually collecting my urine, taking its
temperature to be sure it's mine and not someone else's and then
analyzing it just makes me want to say eeeEEEEWWWWWW! Where kyudo begins
with a bow and ends with a bow, sport kyudo will now end with...well, you
get the idea. For those interested in Olympic sport requirements you can click
here.
There is one exception of course to Olympic eligibility rules.
Host countries can nominate so-called exhibition sports. And sure enough,
that is exactly what Japan
attempted for the 1940 Olympics. Judo, kendo and kyudo were added to the
Olympic games and had the games not been canceled kyudo would finally
have made it to the Olympics. Who knows what would have happened but I
have visions of crash courses in kyudo being given to every gaijin in Japan
to keep the event from being 100% Japanese.
In researching kyudo and the Olympics I did find a very
interesting article on the Olympics and Judo. The article is about issues
surrounding the Olympics, Judo and the effect of TV and funding. But if
you substitute the word "kyudo" for "judo" in the
article I suspect it may well reflect the state of sport kyudo in a few
years. I especially like the opening:
In 1922 judo founder Jigoro Kano resigned from his position as head of the Japan Amateur Athletic Association because he disagreed with its policy of encouraging professionals to enter international competition in hope of inflating Japanese medal counts. [EN1] A few years later, Kano told Olympic leader Pierre de Coubertin that judo was inappropriate for inclusion in the Olympics because it was not a sport but a school of life: judo, said Kano, was not a game, but instead it was "like a church, it teaches a man a moral sense." [EN2] In 1933, Kano told the young British judoka Trevor Leggett that, while he had nothing against competition, he was against championships; to his thinking, championships degraded people by placing too much emphasis on winning. [EN3] Finally, during a luncheon speech given at the Pan-Pacific Club in Tokyo on June 14, 1935, Kano complained that "competition sometimes makes men go to extremes and results in their doing themselves serious internal injury."[EN4] So, despite the International Olympic Committee announcing on March 16, 1938 that judo, kendo, and kyudo (Japanese archery) would be demonstration sports featured at the 1940 Olympics, [EN5] it seems clear that in his time, Jigoro Kano never wanted judo in the Olympics.
You can find the article by clicking here.
Suzuki
Mitsunari sensei president of the ANKF.
This month's kyudo magazine has announced that Suzuki
Mitsunari sensei, will be the new president of
the ANKF starting in May, 2006. Presumably the current president,
Kamogawa sensei, is making plans to head the new International Kyudo
Federation when it is created.
The
2007 American and European Kyudo seminars have been canceled as
expected.
The American Kyudo Renmei has been officially notified of the
canceling of next year's national seminar in America
and Europe. This was mentioned in
previous IKYF meetings but is now official. The IKYF is thinking of
having an international seminar in Japan in 2007 during the
second week of April but no official announcement has been made on that
yet. Obviously, just because there is no official ANKF seminar next year
in America or Europe doesn't prevent the various national
federations from organizing their own seminars in 2007.
Sample
test application forms are back!
I've finally gotten around to updating the sample ANKF
overseas test application forms. The new examples are MUCH smaller than
the old and are based on the new form (which has been used for two years
now so that shows you how out of date my examples were.) I created kyudo
histories for three people: a mudan testing for the first time, a nidan
going for their san dan test and someone going for their renshi test.
Then I attempted to correctly fill out a test application form for each
person. Please note the "notes" I've appended to the end of
each form. Every year there are some very poorly filled out test
application forms so I've tried to make these as current as possible by
assuming that each person will be testing in the American 2006 seminar in
Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The hyperlinks to the forms are on the left side of this
webpage.
Kyudo
Photos on Flickr
Several people have uploaded their kyudo pictures to the
Flickr photo sharing service owned by Yahoo. I recently did a search on
the tag "kyudo" and was presented with a nice slideshow of
photos. You can see the slideshow yourself by clicking here!
Applications
for the 2006 American Seminar available
Applications for Kyudo USA 2006 have been posted on the South
Carolina Kyudo Renmei web page. The page can be found by clicking here!
Note: although the direction says to mail the paperwork directly to South Carolina,
Shiseikan dojo members should NOT do that. Experience has shown that
previous applications, especially the test applications, are almost never
filled out correctly. Completed applications for Shiseikan dojo members
should be given to Yoshiko who will review them before mailing to South Carolina.
Missing
Australians Found...In Austria!
Sharp eyed Austrian kyudo practitioner Robert Ruszthy has
solved the mystery of the 68 missing members of the Australian Kyudo
Federation after noting that Austria was missing from the list and had,
you guessed it, 68 members!
Checking with my wife who read the table to me in Japanese I
discovered that indeed she had said Austrian and not Australian but my
gaijin ears were not sophisicated enough to understand the difference.
Now that Yoshiko has boxed my ears with the November 2005 edition of the
Kyudo magazine I know even more Japanese words, like "baka".
The correctly translated table appears below.
An interesting table of membership totals, by rank and by
country, was published in the November 2005 Kyudo magazine which I am
reprinting here.
Dan andCountry Hanshi Kyoshi Renshi Mudan Total------- ------ ------ ------ ------- -------Japan 107 1,794 4,361 124,005 130,267USA 9 233 242Austria 68 68Belgium 1 81 82Finland 58 58France 1 12 345 358Germany 1 5 1,126 1,132UK 1 2 77 80Iceland 1 0 13 14Italy 1 4 146 151Luxemburg 1 13 14Holland 1 2 67 70Norway 25 25Portugal 15 15Spain 52 52Swiss 2 109 111Sweden 21 21----------------------------------------------------------------------Totals 107 1,800 4,399 126,454 132,760
Nihon
Kogi by Masatomo Takagi for sale.
I was recently contacted by Ms. Lynne Hadley who has a antique Japanese book on archery for sale. As I have
no expertise at all on antique books I will post her description of the
book as emailed to me:
Dear Mrs. Buchanan, I have in my possession, a copy of Nihon Kogi by Masatomo Takagi. This book is extremely rare, and I believe that there are only twelve copies in Japanese libraries. It is my intention to sell this book, and I would be very grateful to you if you could advise your membership of this, in case any of them may be interested in purchasing it? It really is a beautiful book, and is in excellent condition for its age. I can provide scans, should anybody be interested. A full description follows. Thank you. Warmest regards, Lynne Hadley. Australia. five maki bound in one volume in traditional fukuro-toji style, 262 x 185 mm. 105 full page and 22 double page woodcuts and numerous smaller illustrations. Original orange wrappers with title slip in black and red. Published by Tamiya Raneido of Osaka and dated ninth year of Tempo (1838). This work has been regarded as a classic on the history of archery in Japan and has been used as an essential textbook by students of bushido, the way of the samurai. It covers many aspects of this traditional martial art that it constitutes an encyclopaedia on the subject . Various headings include: ceremonial etiquette, philosophy, antiquities and legends, making of bows and arrows, the annual festival of competitions and equipment, costumes and other accessories. There are numerous line drawings faithfully copied from old paintings or from life. The illustrator, Shitomi Kangyu, was a painter from Osaka. The Kokusho Somokuroku records twelve other copies as being preserved in various libraries in Japan. This copy has the library seal of Bujutsu Semmon Gakko,the Special College of Martial Arts, Tokyo. There is minor worming in a few blank margins, in a few page it extends just into the woodcut frame touching a few letters
Ms. Hadley can be reached at prowse@hotmail.com
Shiseikan
2006 Shinnen Shakai.
New Year, new software! I've updated my photo album software
to the latest JAlbum freeware version and I'm now displaying the photos
in a slide show so that the current slideshow picture doesn't blow
everything off the user's browswer screen. I've uploaded pictures of the
Shiseikan 2006 Shinnen Shakai practice and tournament. 2006 is the year
of the dog so the prizes (and the prize wrappings) were a clever mix of
western and Japanese dog images and dog squeeze toys. Some were very cute
and there is one picture of Shiseikan members holding their just
delivered dan certificates which just arrived from Japan.
You can see the pictures by clicking
here!
Now for those of you who want to view and perhaps save individual full
size pictures you still can. At the bottom right of the picture being
displayed is a blue down arrow. Clicking on that will bring up the full
size photo JPEG file which can be saved locally to your computer.
Pictures
from the Seattle
Kyudo Kai. p://www.sports.topsites2007.com/">Sports -
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