Yabusame Competition

I’m back! This time around, I’ve got a rare treat for you. Yabusame or what I would call badass horseback archery. This is not something you can just find in some tourist guidebook on the internet. If it weren’t for Toshi’s many contacts and their good will, we wouldn’t have even heard of yabusame in our sad lives. So what is it exactly? It’s a branch of Kyuudou (Japanese Archery), that involves riding a horse in a straight line while exceeding a given minimal speed and shooting at circular wooden targets around 5 meters away from the track. While there is a variety of different competitions with changing rules (target count, etc.), this particular competition had three targets spaced equally apart. Let’s check out some pictures.

Gabin and Arata Excited for some Action

My new Irish friend, Gabin, and my new hungover friend, Arata, were spontaneous enough to just join me the day after I met them. We got up early and drove through forests on gravel path serpentine roads to eventually get out the other end and arrive in Narnia. There must have been around 25 spectators in total – definitely undeserving for what awaited us there. The whole event took place over the course of around three hours, starting with registration and practice runs from around 10 am.

Yabusame Training Run

As you can see, this young contestant was on her practice run, meaning she had to ride her horse down the track without shooting. Once everyone had done that, the first of three groups began their first attempt. The reason for the three group split is simply the lack of suitable horses. Thus, each horse was shared by three contestants, while they still competed in the same bracket. Another fun note, the contest had a grandpa announcer. Being a competitor himself, he gave directions, commentary, and dropped some jokes here and there – great guy! What’s more, at one point he said something like this in Japanese “Ah, I see this time around we have some foreign spectators. I know that I should also provide some English commentary. But I can’t speak any English, sorry!” x)

The video above shows a late run of Gregory, a long time expat and archery legend from Australia. Gabin actually spoke to him afterwards, so I found out a few things about kyuudou and yabusame through him, but just seeing Gregory work his magic was enjoyable enough. There is also an interesting point regarding his archery style. Contrary to the popular low speed approach to yabusame, which gives archers a bigger timing window to aim and shoot while passing the target, he actually rides across the track with incredible speed. Apparently, the reason for that is that, despite the difficult timing, the horse becomes more steady which translates into better aim.

Badass Return After Getting in Some Perfect Hits

After every round (one practice + two counted), all contestants will gracefully ride back to the starting line in chronological order. You might be curious why there is two counted runs and how the scoring works in general. Every contestant gets two runs, which count together towards an end score. The targets have 5 rings, allotting 0 points for a missed target and 5 for a bullseye shot. Thus over the course of two runs, with 3 targets each and a maximum of 5 points per target, we get a maximum score of 30 points. In the case of a draw of end scores the faster time decides. For the sake of efficiency and since the track is quite long, point guards are positioned directly opposite each target, which report back the respective sub score to the leader board.

Style On Point | Dom’s Fashion Contest #1

This amazing contestant completely blew my mind. I don’t think the picture does her any justice but she had a certain atmosphere around her. Akin to some kind of legendary archer clan tracing their blood line back to the gods of war, she rode her horse like Pocahontas or something, idk. Her look is dope. Her horse is dope. Her archery is dope. Alright everyone, application is over, we got a winner of hearts already.

Traditional Yabusame Attire

Of course, I had to ask for a picture to document this rare sight. I don’t know what the name of this kind of traditional archery wear is, but somebody from the future will figure it out. I mainly wanted to share the style with you. Maybe I just have a weakness for the color black. Whatever it is, I live for that!

Scoring and Award Ceremony

At roughly 1 pm, the event was slowly coming to a close. The contestants, probably sweating in their thick clothing on this sunny day, were waiting for the final results with smiles on their faces. What do you know, Gregory won first place, followed closely by our beloved Commentator-san, who actually organized this awesome event. Sorry for forgetting your name and thank you for organizing such a memorable event! While the cicada were still going strong, we were hungover and tired and decided to drive back and take a rest. Overall, the event was a blast and I would have never found out about it if it weren’t for the nice people around me. Thanks also to you for joining me on my blog. If hearing and seeing some yabusame sparked joy in your heart, by all means check it out. After all, you have the benefit of knowing about it, so surely you can find a venue somewhere! I certainly became a yabusame fan c:

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One Comment

  1. Dein Schreibstil ist wie “Brief an den Freund” zieht mich in dein Leben ein, weiter so!
    Werde deinen Buchstabenspuren gern folgen 🙂

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