The Japan Page

Update: President Bush attended a display of Yabusame during his visit to Japan in February 2002.

Horseback archer in costume

This is traditionally what one wears when practicing horseback archery. Although from this angle it is hard to tell, he is wearing a hakama, which many people practicing martial arts in the west know as the "bottom half" of Karate uniform.

This picture was taken in front of the main hall of the shrine, shortly before the opening ceremony.

Here you can see two of the officials at what is actually the very end of the course. The dirt track is about 100 yards long and about 3 yards wide, with a metal pole and rope barrier. On the left side the audience is visible. On the right side (not visible) are three evenly spaced targets mounted on bails of hay.

Both of these officials are also wearing hakama.

Referee

Here the referee is standing at the end of the course. He is holding a small wooden rod with paper streamers on it. He will hold it over his head and then with a quick signal the archer on his horse at the other end will charge down the course and try to hit all three targets.

With a horse charging at full gallop, just trying not to fall off is in itself challenging. Add to that trying to hit a small target and it's harder. In fact, the hardest part for the archers appears to be stringing a new arrow on the bow while bouncing up and down and trying not to fall off the horse, as the picture to the right shows.

Five archers participated this day, and each had three chances to make the run. Four of the five were University students, and members of an archery club. All of them were able to hit the first target, but not one managed to hit the second.

Here one of the handlers is stopping the horse after the run. The bow is the same as used in kyudo (traditional Japanese archery), made of wood it is more than six feet in length.

The fifth archer (not pictured) was older and much more experienced. Even so, he only managed to hit all three targets once.