Mastering Combat-Style Archery!

In the 1600s, founded by Yoshida Issuiken Insai as the school’s originator, serving three generations of the Tokugawa shogun family—Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu—and flourishing nationwide as the shogunal family’s archery style, the Heki-ryu Insai-ha archery school. This presentation covers, as ‘Kesho-mae’ (ceremonial preparation), the twelve movements for target shooting (ashibumi, dozukuri, torikake, te-no-uchi, yugamae, uchiokoshi, san-bun-no-ni, tsumeai, nobiai, hiki, hanare, zanshin) systematized by Master Uragami Sakae (10th dan) as the fundamental shooting principles, corresponding to the All Japan Kyudo Federation’s eight stages of shooting, along with the Koteki-mae Hitote Taihai (small target single-hand ceremony) and Makiwara-mae Yotsuya Taihai (straw target four-arrow ceremony). Additionally, as ‘Yozen’ (battlefield applications), it introduces gusoku-yumi shooting style (armored archery), rapid shooting (sashiya), distant arrows (tazuneya), penetrating hard objects, tube arrow techniques, and uchine techniques.

Instruction and Supervision: Ken Kurosu, Professor Emeritus at Tohoku Gakuin University. Director of the Date Insai-ha Archery Research Association. Master of the Heki-ryu Insai-ha Nashiwari Kyudo Dojo. Born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1956. Started kyudo in high school. From 1979, taught kyudo in Europe, serving as kyudo seminar instructor in Germany, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, and other countries. Recipient of the German Kyudo Federation Gold Pin Award. Co-author of ‘Encyclopedia of Archery Equipment Trivia’ (Nihon Bungeisha).