Yabusame mounted archery demonstration

Yabusame is a traditional form of horseback archery practised in Japan with roots back to the Kamakura Period. Today, it is mainly performed as a ritual at Shinto shrines. A couple of weeks ago, a random ad showed up in my social media feed advertising a yabusame demonstration in Kamakura City. The venue wasn't really far from where I live so I decided to make a trip down to see yabusame in person.

 

The venue itself, as I later found out, is a practice ground that was actually on lease from Kamakura City to this yabusame association called 大日本弓馬会 or Japan Equestrian Archery Association, which is also based in the same city. The lease is expiring at the end of the month and so this event was organised as a final demonstration at this place. It was quite a bit piece of land, with space allocated for parking for those who drove (or like me, rode) here.

The event itself featured three broad sections. The first section is the "ritual" part of the event. A total of nine archers, split into a group of five and a group of four, would ride down in turn down the track, firing at three targets in succession. The first round featured a bigger coloured target, while the second round was a smaller piece of board. The five archers who scored the most hits during this section moved onto the second section.

The second section is the "competitive" part of the event. The top five archers from the first section would again ride down in turn down the track, firing again at three targets in succession. This time, the target is smaller: two ceramic plates glue together to hold confetti between the plates, such that the confetti is dispersed when an archer hits the target and shatters the plates.

This was then followed by an interlude, where the audience mingled with the archers, fed the horses, and kids could even ride on the horses. There were also booths introducing traditional Japanese arts, like Noh.

The final section was a demonstration of horseback archery in full samurai armour. The target used was the same small target made of ceramic plates. The archer rode down the track twice, firing each time at three targets in succession. It was truly impressive to see a person decked out in full samurai armour charging down at you, firing his bow away.

It is a pity that they have to relocate to some other place for their practice sessions. Hopefully, their new place would still be in Kamakura City and they continue to organise such demonstrations in the future.