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.