Policemen escort parade participants dressed as samurai warriors during a parade at the Yabusame festival in Tokyo April 21, 2007. Yabusame is a traditional form of archery performed on horseback. (Reuters)
Posted on 04/22/2007 5:50:39 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Policemen escort parade participants dressed as samurai warriors during a parade at the Yabusame festival in Tokyo April 21, 2007. Yabusame is a traditional form of archery performed on horseback. (Reuters) |
Ping!
That so cool Tiger rack ittt
I can’t be the only one who thinks this, but the traditional asymmetrical bow of the samurai just looks so awkward and badly adapted to mounted use.
They should have adopted the bow of their Mongol foes for horse archery.
“On a horseback” -There is a 12th century Japanese shunga print “Fart battle” where the pursued equestrian samurai knocked his mounted pursuer clean out of the saddle by a sudden but powerful blast at point-blank.
I wonder why Japanese stop using the composite bow. After all, a lot of warrior class people moved to Japan from ancient Korea, no doubt carrying with them the composite bows, and the knowhow to make them.
Apparently the archery ritual survives but their bows had changed along the way to a more available local model.
The Mongol bows used glue that worked well in deserts. In the rain the glue weakened.
The reason for the assymetry is to provide relief (room to move) for the lower bow vs. the horse.
Another approach would be the cams associated with modern compound bows, but the technology for that was not available until firearms became prevalent.
A friend went to one of these spring festivals in Japan several years ago. His photos were fascinating.
Here’s the flickr photo stream of this years festivals:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Yabusame&s=rec
Wasn’t aware of Yabusame in Tokyo, but I’ve been to the one in Kamakura.
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