The Feature of Japanese Archery

I think Japanese archery is very unique. In some points, Japanese archery has difference with other way of using bow.

First, in the point of instrument, Japanese archery has a lot of difference with archery.
I think that almost all of people who don't know Japanese archery are amazed at how bow of Japanese archery is long. And the position of handle is not the center of the bow. This comes from many reasons. The main reason is that the bow of Japanese archery is made of wood.

The bow of archery and Japanese archery.

Second, Japanese archery attach great importance to manners.
This manner is not for the fair play, but for the respect for the god of bow and teacher of oneself.  Japanese archery has some roles that how we should do archery and what we should think with Japanese archery.  This is because Japanese archery is originally the way of training the body and mind of "samurai".  So Japanese archery has the aspect of how the people called "samurai" live, what is important for them.  In other point, Japanese archery used to show doing archery for the god, shogun, and emperor. So Japanese archery has the aspect of ceremony.  I think this is the most difference between archery and Japanese archery.

form(http://vicky1957.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/cat11255455/index.html)

History of Japanese Archery

Japanese archery, which is called  "Kyudo" in Japanese now, is born in 1919. Before then, Japanese archery is called "Kyujutsu", which mean the technique of archery. The history of Kyujutsu is very long and a lot of  features of Kyudo is similar to that of Kyujutsu, so I'd like to mainly tell about the history of Kyujutsu as the history of Kyudo.

The beginning of Kyujutsu is same with the archery of the other countries, bow as the hunting tool. Until about 900 A.D, there is not many records of the detail about Japanese archery, but even then, we can see the evidence that Japanese people believe that bow and arrow have mysterious power and that the main features of Japanese archery, such as Japanese bow, are born. In Japan, people who work as army, called "Bushi" at about 1000 A.D.　And then, the technique of fight, the bese of "Budo", such as Kendo, Judo and Kyudo. It is until the coming of matchlock that the Budo is important in the combat. But after the crisis of the exist of Kyudo, it does not disappear.