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“Kyudo” is a Japanese word which translates as “The Way of the Bow”. To many, the art of archery is the purest of all the martial arts. In ancient times in Japan, the bow was used for ceremonies, warfare, hunting, contests, and games. “Kyujutsu” is what kyudo was formally called in Japanese, a word which translates as “bow technique”. This name encompassed all of the skills of the warrior archer. Some of the ancient schools of teaching archery still survive into modern times in Japan as do some of the ancient ceremonies and games, but the days when the bow was used as a weapon by Japanese soldiers are needless to say far gone. So, modern kyudo is practiced for the sake of discipline, mental development, spiritual development, and personal satisfaction.

It is unknown exactly when the term “kyudo” first came into usage, but by the time of the late 19th century, when the art of archery had come to be exclusively practiced for individual development, the word had come into acceptance. There are three objectives of the archery student in Japan in modern times. These are to acquire the intimate knowledge of truth, beauty, and The Good.

Truth in the art of archery in Japan is made manifest by shooting which is right-minded and pure. In such shooting, the three elements of movement, attitude, and technique are brought into oneness in a state of perfect harmoniousness. In kyudo, a shot that is pure or perfect is said to be one that does not strike the target’s bull’s eye; instead, it is a shot that existed in the bull’s eye before the release of the arrow.

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In the art of archery in Japan, beauty is found in the exquisite artistry and grace of the Japanese bow and in the exquisiteness of the traditional archer’s garb, while at once being present in the refined etiquette that envelops the kyudo ceremony. Etiquette-the profound respect for others and for life itself-is a central practice of kyudo as well as the archery techniques. Beauty stimulates the mind and the spirit and makes life worth living. Archery practiced rightly brings about a great expression of beauty.

The Good, or goodness, comprises qualities like compassion, morality, courtesy, and peaceableness. In the Japanese art of archery, goodness is made manifest by the archer displaying correct behavior and attitude in every situation. A master kyudo archer is an individual who maintains her composure and is graceful even in times of great stress or terrible conflict.

Kyudo is not a religion by any means, but two Japanese religions have impacted it. One of these is Zen, which is a form of Buddhism that came from India through China and melded with Taoism. With Zen, it is understood that the key to understanding kyudo is to keep an open mind and realize that archery is just one small part of the great Whole that is life, the universe, and everything. Each individual archer’s one of a kind style is a further reflectance of this fact. The other religion of influence is Shintoism. This is where the ritual of the use of the bow and archery comes from. A great deal of the kyudo ceremony, archer’s garb, and the ritual of using the equipment and practice area stem from Shinto tradition.

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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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The compound bow in archery was a revolutionary invention that has changed the sport forevermore. The compound bow in archery was invented in the mid 1960s by an American engineer named Howless Wibur Allen. In 1961 he got inspired by the then launching of Hoyt Pro Medalist Bow. This bow was one of the very first to have vertical stabilizers on it, and Allen had another idea to add to it-the wheel. He harnessed the principle of the block and tackle pulley to the bow and felt (correctly) that this would enhance a bow’s performance. The mechanics of the pulley system would, he reasoned, allow a heavier weight to be drawn. After continued experimentation he found that round pulleys and cam-shaped wheels worked best and they were riding on off-set axles called “eccentrics”. The compound bow reaches its peak weight in the middle of the draw; beyond this point as the archer continues to draw back the weight of the draw is significantly reduced, allowing an average-sized archer to comfortably hold a very heavy weight. The compound bow in archery gives an amazing flat trajectory to an arrow’s flight.

It actually took several years for Allen to get anyone to manufacture his new invention, the compound bow. American laws prohibited the use of mechanical devices attached to bows. So, the compound bow could not be used for hunting nor in competitions. Allen began making his own bows, sure that they would catch on so strongly that the laws would be rewritten (and he was once again correct). However, when he was making his own compound bows he realized that he had a design flaw, as he kept on stripping the fletching off his arrows. The crossing cables in the center of the bow were interfering with the arrow’s flight. By 1967 Allen had figured out that he needed to add an extra set of “idle” wheels that got mounted at the center of each limb. These idle wheels were set at 90 degree angles to the limb-tip, and this allowed the cables to now cross to one side of the center line so that they no longer interfered with the arrows’ flight path. With more research, Allen added riser-mounted adjusters so that the archer could use different cable lengths to attain different weights. These adjusters were gear-driven and acted very much like the machine heads for tuning a guitar.

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By this time, the compound bow or “Allen bow” was a superior instrument. The flatter and faster trajectory that an arrow could be given due to the increase in stored potential energy meant that now a heavy hunting arrow would be able to find its mark more often and would fly with greater speed. The lighter weight as compared to a recurve bow of the same draw weight meant that this bow was more comfortable to use, as well. However, the sport’s governing body still would have nothing to do with it.

However, the famous American archer and archery magazine editor Tom Jennings love the idea and he used his pull to get the governing body to begin reconsidering its stance. Jennings published an article titled “A Bow with a Compound Interest”. From there, the compound bow found its way into archery.

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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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Down through the ages different countries have done experiments with steel for a bow-making material. It is said that the Indians were the first people to have overcome the obstacles presented by steel and made a weapon that, although it did not have the cast and range of its predecessor (the composite bow) was all the same a real and workable bow.

India is a nation that is highly inventive with weapons, and was especially so during the era from about 269 to 237 BCE. During this period, many of the weapons the nation produced were entirely made of metal. There was also an all-metal arrow with the name “Naraca”. So it’s not surprising that the metal bow should eventually come about in that nation. Why were they made in the first place? India at a very early date had a well organized and large army with large, well-maintained armories. The steel bow would have made a highly desirable weapon. Dutifully greased, it would have stored better than any other type of bow, and could have been used right away.

V. R. Dikshitar has written that “steel was the new invention and the old things were cast aside for the new”. He is assuredly talking about the Mughal period, which is when the steel bow was used quite a lot.. The composite bow went out of favor at the time of Shah Jehan in 1650 AD. The Mughal period began around 1526 AD, making this period the one where the transition from composite bows to steel bows took place according to many historians.

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But, digging deeper into history, we read in the Indian work the Visnudharmottara that bows are made of bamboo, horn, and metal. The Agnipurana also mentions wood, horn, and steel as bow materials and tells us of the steel bow that “It must have a small grip, and its middle portion is said to resemble the eyebrow of a lady. It is usually made in parts, or together, and inlaid with gold”. There is a pretty good amount of evidence that steel bows were extensively used in the waging of war. There’s really nothing else that they would have been good for anyway. A good number of the Mughal miniature paintings depict archers on horseback in battle scenes using steel bows.

Whether the final form and all of its variations on the theme was purely Indian we may never discover. There were Persian craftsmen and armorers who worked at the Mughal Court. It is said that the Persians used a straight steel bow for exercising. So, the concept would not have been new to them at all. However, we have no records of their having used steel bows in war.

The steel bow was a close copy of the composite bow. However, certain unique features can be seen right away. The steel bow never had the extreme recurvature that the composite did in its original state Instead it has the shape and form of a composite that has “opened out” to a certain degree. In addition, the recurvature is mainly of a design which could not be reproduced in an amalgamation of horn, sinew, and wood.

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About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO