Japanese combat archery?

[Hiroyuki]

Was wondering how many of you out there do CA? I use to hunt with a bow and would like to get back into shooting.

Where is a good place to buy a bow, or will I have to get one made?

I'm also guessing you have to use those special tip things right? Is there a jappanese bow(kyudo?) that has a 35 pound draw weight?I assume there isn't, am I correct?

Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks! ;D

[Mykaru]

Don't know about CA usage. ( I consider it BS for the SCA, I'd rather do IKAC), but my yon sun nobi yumi is 18 kilos (a hair under 40 lbs.)
16 kilo are the standard and would be about right.

[Saionji Shonagon]

If memory serves, Jaap Koppendreyer (YUMI) used to make SCA-combat-legal yumi. The most recent contact info I've seen for him is: [e-mail]

Be sure to check your kingdom's combat archery standards in terms of what they require for arrows, helmets, eye protection and other armor, etc.

Makiwara

[Hiroyuki]

I know there was a post here on the use of crossbows in Japan...

So... could one who is Japanese in persona use one to do CA?

And does anyone have any pics/patterns of said Japanese crossbow?

Thanks... or the Japanese quivalent...

Always looking to shoot something...
Hiro

[Nobuhide]

Hiroyuki said:

I know there was a post here on the use of crossbows in Japan...

So... could one who is Japanese in persona use one to do CA?

And does anyone have any pics/patterns of said Japanese crossbow?

Thanks... or the Japanese quivalent...

Always looking to shoot something...
Hiro

i dont think the japanese were ever very big with crossbows. the western nations influence under emperor meiji made guns hot shit with the japanese to the point where the bow was totally obsolete, the samurai always had matchlocks since the 1500s or so, but with the introduction of lever action and bolt action rifles, it pretty much made the japanese skip the crossbow phase and go right to rifles.
i could also be wrong with all of this, check with tony or someone smart

[Please Delete]

Actually, it seems that crossbows may have made it over from China early on (China has had them for a LONG time), but they don't appear to have caught on. There is some speculation that the 'Ooyumi' described in some places may have been a type of crossbow or a ballista, but my understanding is that nothing has really survived that we can point to as a definite fact.

-Ii

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

See this thread about crossbows:
tousando.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=arms&action=display&thread=1110344529


My sense from what I have read and seen is that
(1) The Japanese knew about crossbows
(2) Crossbows could be part of a Heian era fortification
(3) Crossbows might be part of the equipment brought to besiege such a fort.

This is not a weapon that Heian-era warriors are normally depicted using and few people know that they were around. It is the yumi/longbow that is the weapon of nobility.

(And I was outbid for a simple 3-layer laminated bow last night. Grrr...)

I do have some simple black 40" bows for archer loaner gear. I have a 6' fiberglass longbow I use for combat archery.

[Hiroyuki]

you know what the draw weight is on said bows, Otagiri-dono?

Are they longbows, or recurve?

Fancy being a moving target? ;D

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

Currently there are roughly about 13 of the Yama Kaminari who shoot combat archery with the wonderful bows made by Jaap Koppedrayer.

We have probably, as a clan, about 300 fiberglass combat arrows with apd's. Each of us has a combat ebira that holds 6-8 rounds, and we have non-combat loaders who follow us into the field and load our quivers and who take our bows from our hands when we switch over to heavy weapons.

This Pennsic we will have tate!
Lots and lots of tate!

As for moving targets - Ogami-Sensei's newest squire candidate, Odzu Kintarou tends to be an arrow magnate, frequently getting shot in the chichi, just south and to the east or west of his mune ita. We like to put him in the front of any given formation (shhhh...don't tell him that! ;-) )



(Kintarou is kidding here - normally we give him a kabuto and gloves!)

Date

[Saionji Shonagon]

(Kintarou is kidding here - normally we give him a kabuto and gloves!)

Hmmm, camo patterned sode. You sure HE's not a ninja BOD spy? ;->

Makiwara

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Hiroyuki said:

you know what the draw weight is on said bows, Otagiri-dono?

I believe they are in the 30-35# range.

Are they longbows, or recurve?

Simple? Not recurves. Not longbows.

Fancy being a moving target? ;D

I have practiced yadome-jutsu. Have you?

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

Hmmm....I knew somebody would say that about the fabric...it is not a camo pattern...but i see your point...it "looks" like one in this pic...

As for kintarou-dono being a BOD spy...I believe that Canadians such as he have a natural disdain for parlamentary procedure, and he would be one of the last people I would suspect as being with the BOD SS.
(Board of Directors Shultz Stafeln)

Me being a student of Sun Zi, however, makes me question his motives...I shall have to pepper him with ya till he speaks...and then I shall try various hojojutsu techniques till his hara is empty of secrets...too bad he is one of my best friends...
Sigh...

(Secretly, I think Kintarou-dono likes getting hit with arrows...but who am I to judge?! :-))
Date

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Date said:

We have probably, as a clan, about 300 fiberglass combat arrows with apd's.

Date-dono! I first read this as 300 fiberglass bows and was wondering if the bafuku's weapons inspection team knew about so many ...

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

Otagiri-dono
How nice to speak in nearly real-time! No - we have a rikshaw full of combat arrows, and perhaps a dozen bows...that seems a better ratio!
I really look forward to meeting you in person some day - it will be a hoot!

If you can ever make it to Pennsic, you may share my humble tent, and all the tea and sake I can offer...
date

Date

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks kindly everyone...

I have practiced yadome-jutsu. Have you?

umm... no... I haven't... as I know not what it is...