With one end of the bow
the shooter touches the heaven
with the other the earth

Streched between both the string shoots
the arrow into the heart of the target
the visible as well as the invisible.

Kyudo is therefore – expressed in the shortest possible formula -
the attempt to achieve the idea of “tao” by practising the art of archery.

Kyudo means literally „The way of the bow“. The way of the bow follows the idea of the Japanese term „do“ in the same sense as other traditional Japanese arts – KEN-DO (the way of the sword), JU-DO (the gentle way), KA-DO (the way of flowers), SA-DO (the way of tea), SHO-DO (calligraphy), etc.

The Japanese syllable „do“ has rich semantic resonances with its Chinese root „tao“, the central term of the philosophy of Laotse. The term “tao” arises already in the 6th century B.C. in the book “Tao te King” which is ascribed to him.

Kyudo is therefore – expressed in the shortest possible formula - the attempt to achieve the idea of “tao” by practising the art of archery.

This tight conceptual link between Kyu and do/tao – namely the term Kyudo – was introduced later at about 1660 by the Kyudomaster Morikawa Kosan, the founder of the Yamato Kyudoschool.

But already at Laotse’s times the ceremonial practice of archery was common within circles of the Chinese  aristocracy.

Confucius, who lived at the same time as Lao-tse, mentioned archery as an excellent means to develop the character.  For example it is described in detail in section 43 of the “Classic of Rites”, one of the five classic books of the Confucian canon.

The ceremonial practice of archery – named “Rei-sha” in Japanese – arrived about in the 5th century from China to Japan and at this time the first Kyudo schooles have been founded.

Of cause the bow was as well a military weapon. Beginning with the Kamakura era, so from the 13th century Kyu-jutsu – the technique of archery – became the central martial discipline of “Bushi-do”, the way of the warrior. Only higher ranking samurai were allowed to wear the bow as a weapon. This military tradition of the samurai has little meaning for our present Kyudo practice and it ended abruptly with the rise of the fireams in Japan since 1575.

The other tradition, the spiritual aspect of Kyudo remained untouched from this decline. In the long period of peace in the era of Tokugawa (1600-1867) Kyudo was practiced even in Buddhist monasteries

Since the famous book of Eugen Herrigel “Zen in the Art of Archery” (1948) Kyudo attains increasing support in the West.

The technical sequence of movements of Kyudo can be learned whithin a few weeks.

The increasing competence in controling the form, its deepening and refinement opens a exiting development and confrontation with the own personality.

Kyudo may be practiced by women as well as by men beginning with the age of about 16 and without upper limit.