Gako-Kyūdōjō Kyudo Wien Vienna V ienne google-site-verification: googleae8935229a34332a.html

von links nach rechts:

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (Sohn und Nachfolger der Shambala Linie von),

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche,

Kanjuro Shibata XX. Sendai und

Kanjuro Shibata XXI.

Chikurinbo Josei

started about 1580 to teach the vassals of lord Matsudaira Tadaiyoshi of the castle Kiyosu the art of archery. Chikurinbo later became Buddist priest of the Shingon school.

The style of Chikurin belongs to the tradition of Iga Heki, which is not related to the famous Heki Danjo Masatsugo (1444-1502) but goes back to Heki Yazaemon Noritsugu, who probably descended from the same family. The supplement Bishu refers to the province in the neighbourhood of Nagoya, where this style originally spreaded out.

Sadasugu

Was the second oldest son of Chikurinbo. He was in duty of the 9th son of Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa and followed him to Nagoya. This was the begin of a close relationship of Chikurin-ha to the Tokugawa family. He completed a work of four volumes, which has been started by his father.

The Shibata Family

The first Kanjuro Shibata, Munekazu Shibata, lived in the 16th century on the island of Tanegashima south of Kyushu and he served as bow maker for the Shimazu-Clan. About in 1570 the Shibata familiy moved to Kyoto and started to build bows on behalf of the Tokugawa Shoguns. The Shogun conferred the title "Onyumishi" (royal bow manufacturer and archer) on the respective head of the family.

1877 the XVIII. Shibata was appointed the official bow maker of the Tenno, the Japanese emperor. To his duties belonged the production of the Goshimpo-yumi, which are needed for the consecration of the Ise shrein every 20 years. In 1883 the Shibata family founded their own Dojo in Kyoto – the Taiyusha Dojo – which existed for more than 100 years.

Toshija
(literally: the shot that hits) was a specific Kyudo discipline practiced since about 1600 which was closely related with Chikurin-ha. This was a 24 hour lasting event of rapid shooting to a target at 120 m distance, which took place at the west side of the Sanjusangendo temple within a corridor of 5.6 m height and 2.2 m width. The record was set in 1686 when the then 18 year old samurai Daihachiro Wasa shot 13.053 arrows in 24 hours of which 8.133 hit the target. This is an average of 544 arrows per hour or 9 per minute.
 

Shibatas Sendai XX.
was born at 1921 and started to practice Kyudo when he was 8 years old. He learned the art of bow making from his grandfather Shibata XIX. 1959 he was officially appointed successor as royal bow maker. For many years he was master of the Taiyusha-Dojo in Kyoto. In 1980 he followed an invitation of the Tibetan meditation teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche with whom he was tied in close friendship to Boulder (Co.) in the US. Since then he lives half of the year in the US. In Boulder is also the headquarter of the umbrella organization “Zenko international”.
In 1994 his son Kanjuro Shibata Sensei XXI was conferred the title “royal bowmaker” and he took over the bowmaker workshop in Kyoto from his father.
Both masters conduct regularly Kyudo seminars in Europe.

Further reading about the Shibata family:
Stefan Biedermann: Im Land der aufgehenden Sonne - meine Zeit in Japan. Munich 1988
A.S.