Gako-Kyūdōjō 

Shibata Sensei holds two people in the highest regard: the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who invited him to teach manners, and kyudo, to his dharma students in 1980, and the nineteenth Kanjuro Shibata, Muneshige Shibata, his grandfather. (Sensei's father, who married into the Shibata family, did not inherit the Kanjuro Shibata title, but acted as his father-in-law's secretary, running the family bow-making business.) At the age of eight, Sensei began learning kyudo and bowmaking from his grandfather, who, in addition to carrying the title onyumishi, was the official bowmaker to the Imperial family, a commission bestowed on the eighteenth Kanjuro Shibata by the Meiji Emperor in 1889. As the Imperial bowmaker, he was responsible for making the Goshinpo Yumi, a sacred bow used for the purification and consecration of the shrine at Ise, the main shrine of the Shinto religion, every twenty years.

Sensei's relationship with his grandfather was a severe one. There was great love between them, but in Sensei's words, his grandfather was "completely harsh," and was not averse to hitting or slapping the boy when necessary. According to Sensei, the many lessons he received from his grandfather were never verbal - he simply manifested, commanding that Sensei "watch with the heart, not the eyes." In this way, Sensei received "all of the jewels of his [grandfather's] heart and mind." Although some of these jewels may be passed on to students, others are the secret teachings of the Shibata family, and will remain secret. At this time he also became familiar with Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure, written circa 1716, and perhaps the most important piece of samurai literature. Consisting mostly of brief anecdotes and maxims, Hagakure, says Sensei, contains the samurai's supreme lessons. Chief among them are loyalty to one's master, readiness for death and detachment from this life, compassion for others, and an anti-intellectual bias that favours "first thought" action over deliberation.

Even though these principles have survived in printed form, Sensei says people's understanding of the samurai way is "watered down." "In the old days," he states, "it was possible to manifest as master or subject. Now, even in Japan, it's 'me first' in everything." He then enumerates five important samurai principles: have loyalty to the emperor; behave properly with all, no matter who they are; a life of extravagance is fruitless, therefore do not develop it; develop trust between yourself and your fellow warriors; and carry a heart of courage, otherwise life is fruitless.

Sensei adds that the pride of the bushi, or warrior, 450 years ago was seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment; and proof of one's loyalty, bravery and selflessness). "In the present age," he continues, "there are no samurai living, so it is impractical to cut one's belly open." Asked if he himself weren't a samurai, Sensei retorts, "To be reasonable is to have a modest heart when replying to such a question. You know, this is not a difficult situation, to be pondered over."

At the age of twenty, after attending military school and university, Sensei was drafted into the army and sent first to Korea, then Manchuria, where he served in a horse-drawn artillery unit.  At the end of the war, his unit was captured by the Russians in August, 1945 and sent to a Central Asian prisoner-of-war camp near Samarkand, just north of Afghanistan. The trip across Russia in cattle cars took a month, and conditions at the camp were worse. The men worked in a coal mine, and ate cabbage soup and a small piece of black bread twice a day; the evening meal's soup was fortified with a little camel liver. Only one in ten survived, according to Sensei.

In the fall of 1948, he was released and returned to Japan. Two years later, he married in a wedding arranged by his grandfather, and the marriage produced two daughters: In 1959, Kanjuro Shibata Muneshige died, and Sensei assumed the title of Kanjuro Shibata XX., Onyumishi, with full responsibility for bow-making, kyudo teaching, and the making of the Goshinpo Yurni (which last took place in 1974). When his daughter Hiromi married her high-school sweetheart Nobuhiro, Sensei asked him to assume the Shibata name and lineage, not an unusual event - the l8th Kanjuro Shibata had also married into the family. Sensei began training Nobuhiro in the arts of kyudo and bowmaking much as his grandfather had' taught him.

Sensei was increasingly disturbed by changes in Japanese society - a turn toward materialism that was rapidly changing kyudo from a meditative art into a sport. Rather than practicing kyudo as a way of "cleaning the mind," many students, especially those he taught at a local university, were intent on hitting the target. To this day, Sensei constantly exhorts his students to practice "mind kyudo, not sports kyudo," and to give up hope and fear regarding hitting the target. The emphasis on winning prevalent in Japan led him to accept an invitation by Trungpa Rinpoche in 1980 to teach in the West.

It was an unusual step for someone of Sensei's stature, and an unpopular one in Japan. Trungpa Rinpoche had been looking for genuine teachers of Japanese contemplative arts, and heard of Sensei through Kobun Chino Roshi, a Zen master living in the U.S. and a long time student of Sensei's. The fresh outlook and non-competitiveness Sensei found in many of Rinpoche's students inspired him to return year after year for extended teaching stays. In 1985, Sensei moved to the U.S. permanently.

Now, after more than ten years of teaching, the quality of Sensei's instruction is deepening in accord with the growing understanding of his students. Moving emphasis away from shake, or form (the term can refer to any kind of meditative practice-in this case, kyudo), he is increasingly pointing out how students can mix mind with meditation, which he calls shashin. "It might be possible to enter kyudo through technique alone, but this is not what I believe," he declares. "If you shoot the arrow mu - shin-no heart - that is correct heart.' This is Zen."

Sensei is often asked what "mu" is. "That's like asking `what is air? "' he says, "Mu is something scholars try to explain with words. It must be experienced through meditation." At instructor trainings, last year, Sensei gave a detailed critique of each participant's practice. Most were older students, and the comments, which ranged from politely revealing to devastating, went far beyond the usual corrections to form. During classes and intensives, Sensei criticizes proficient archers for thinking too much, and praises beginners who release the arrow with little ambition.

The result of practicing shake and shashin thoroughly, says Sensei, is shahin-dignity. "At the end, you are actually manifesting supreme dignity," he continues. In a 1987 talk to kyudo students at Rocky Mountain Dharma Centre, Kobun Chino Roshi said this: "As Shibata Sensei has stated, you do not achieve shahin. What is polished out naturally unfolds as characteristics of the archer's own life itself. These characteristics are seen not only during shooting but in a person's appearance and how one's life is manifested from day to day." According to Sensei, "When you have accomplished shahin to the ultimate, you are perhaps an enlightened being - but this is difficult."

If Shibata Sensei's plans for the future are clear, he's not making them obvious, preferring instead to let his students take the initiative. Kyudo intensives and instructor trainings will continue; improvements to the Boulder dojo are ongoing, and two other construction projects, a kami (shinto) shrine at RMDC, and an azuchi at Karme-Choling are due to be completed this summer.

The larger question of how Sensei's lineage will continue, is only beginning to come into focus. Nobuhiro Shibata, who for many years has made all of the Shibata family bows, will carry the Kanjuro Shibata, onyumishi, and imperial bowmaker lineages in the next generation, but has expressed little desire to be a kyudo master. Whether Sensei's teachings will live on in the West remains to be seen: "It's up to each individual to see if they can do that," They do understand [kyndo] intellectually, but whether they understand it in their hearts remains to be seen." If students are capable enough, Sensei says, the next ten years is when the lineage will be transmitted.

In his 1987 talk, Kobun Chino Roshi expressed confidence in both master and disciples: "Sensei opens up to you, and there's no stinginess of teaching to you. His whole mind and body - his presence - is like an arrow arriving from ancient times."