Before the Sword Came the Bow - Samurai article

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Exerpted

[b]Before the Sword Came the Bow
David Weber recounts early samurai history, when a bow and arrow was a weapon of honor, discipline[/b]

It has often been said: “The sword is the soul of the samurai.” Much has been written in Japan and around the world about the Japanese samurai sword and its nigh-mystical aspects.

The sword was an indispensable weapon of the samurai warrior, even when guns began to steadily come into use during the 16th century. A sword was a mark of samurai’s status and honor. They were heirlooms to be passed down generation after generation. Swords of exceptional make were often given as gifts of great honor.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=250676&no=222186&rel_no=1

Enjoy you history people.

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For god’s sake, when are western writers going to do some proper research and stop propogating this fallacy that Zen influenced everything in JMA.

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  1. Westerners ‘romanticize’ everything strange, and unattainable.

  2. Japanese also pushed this mis-information on the west, to conceal
    the debaseness, and perversions the elite of their culture could sink to.

  3. the buddhists also pushed this imagery, to gain converts

`~/

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I own several traditional Japanese yumi bows, and have shot kyujutsu for many years. Yabusame, shooting on horse back, is awesome.

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j416to, have you ever done Yabusame? I think that would be terribly fun, but horribly hard to practice unless you own a horse and adequate land to do so.

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We have a horse, and could make a long enough track if I knocked out a fence and borrowed my neighbor’s yard.

I might want to learn how to shoot a bow first.

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relytjj

I’ve only had the opportunity to try it once, at a friend’s farm. It was wild, we just shot at hay bales, and were lucky to even get remotely close to them. Shooting a yumi while standing is hard enough, trying to balance the draw on horseback, without falling off, is really difficult.

Shooting a traditional Japanese yumi is interesting, the total opposite to shooting a modern bow. It’s all technique and “feel”, there’s no technology to guide you, there’s nothing to sight and aim with. You can pretty well tell if you’re going to even have a chance to hit the target, just by the feel and balance of your initial draw. Sometimes I can even tell that it’s all over, that I have no chance of hitting the target, just by the way the arrows are hanging between my fingers.

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Hmm. . .take kyodo.
it doesn’t matter if you hit the target
that isn’t even the point
in fact, you could shoot for years without even getting to shoot at the target
or,
shoot for years at a target one foot away so you can’t miss,
and so stop trying to hit the target

`~/

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That’s cool. I used to shoot back when I was a teenager, not any japanese bows but your standard redneck compound bow. I’m pretty sure my laughable skill with the bow would decrease to a harmful level if I was put on the back of a moving horse.

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Until you can catch an arrow between your butt cheeks, you are NOT a true samurai.

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tears up “true samurai club” membership

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Bah !!
You weak like woman, you have no Ki !!

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A full contact samurai throwdown!

Who wants a fist?

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Full contact~suction cup arrow~throwdown?
I’m in.

Any of you guys been taught any horse forms?