Kyudo at a Working Dojo Outside Nagoya: Three Hours of Japanese Archery

Kyudo is the least accommodating of Japan's martial arts to visitors, and this session does not soften it. Chokushi Kyudojo in Toyoake, about thirty minutes from central Nagoya, is a working hall where local archers practise, and you enter it the way they do — with a bow at the threshold, in silence.

The first hour has no arrow in it. In kyudo, posture and breathing are the practice and the arrow is only the result, so you spend that hour standing, breathing and learning hassetsu, the eight stages of shooting, one movement at a time. Most people find this the hardest part precisely because nothing appears to be happening.

Then you shoot at the makiwara, the straw target set two metres away that exists so a beginner can work on form without any question of aim. The bow is asymmetric — the grip sits a third of the way up a two-metre yumi, which is unlike any other archery tradition in the world — and the draw is taken above the head and brought down. It is stranger to do than it looks.

Instruction is by a practising kyudo archer or a senior instructor from the same dojo, in English, with direct correction for every person in a group capped at six.

The bow, arrows and protective equipment are provided along with use of the hall. Wear something you can move in; the dojo has a dress standard and your instructor will explain what is expected before you arrive.

Transport to Toyoake is your own — around thirty minutes by train or car from central Nagoya, with the dojo inside Chokushi Park.