The Kyudo Project Incorporated A California 501.3 (c) non-profit corporation dedicated to spreading timely and accurate information about Kyudo (Japanese Archery)

The Shiseikan Dojo Other Dojos Other Web Pages Articles Old News Items Email me Notes to Shiseikan Dojo Members Confirmed GII dates have been received thru June, 2008 and the schedule has been updated. Schedule Photos All pictures deleted for now. Testing? I created three example American test application forms in Microsoft Word format for a seminar in South Carolina. I also included a page of notes for each one explaining how to fill the fields out. Note these examples now use the current ANKF overseas forms and I've updated them for the 2006 seminar in South Carolina. Sample Mushitei Test Application Form Sample San Dan Test Application Form Sample Renshi Test Application Form And of course the ever popular: sample written test questions can be found by clicking here!

The Confusing Mushitei test! As Kyudo USA 2008 approaches those taking a Kyudo rank test for the first time always have the same question: what rank do I write in that “Dan Required” box on the test form? The answer is almost always “mushitei”, but exactly what IS the mushitei rank anyway? The best answer to that question was written by Steve Scott, president of the Northern California Kyudo Federation, as part of his excellent Kyudo USA 2005 Test Information instructions. His instructions were so good in fact that I’m going to quote the mushitei instructions here: (begin quote) Dan Required: (Explained below) The ANKF promotion test will be given according to the ANKF test regulations as explained in Chapter 6, Articles 20 thru 23 in the Zen Nippon Kyudo Renmei Test and Regulation Book (Shinsakite). The test will be given to the following categories of participants: 1) Mushitei Shinsa (Open Test): The Mushitei Test is given to those who do not have any rank (neither Kyu nor Dan) and who are taking a test for the first time in their Kyudo history. According to the result of the test, 5th kyu thru 1st kyu or Shodan may be awarded. THOSE APPLYING FOR THIS TEST SHOULD WRITE “MUSHITEI”ON THE TEST APPLICATION FORM IN THE SPACE AFTER “DAN REQUIRED”. 2) Shodan: No matter which kyu the test candidate may currently have, 5th kyu thru 1st kyu, the candidate may take the shodan test. This will be a pass/fail test for the shodan rank. Alternatively, the candidate may test for the next kyu rank by writing in the appropriate kyu. (e.g. Ikkyu) (end quote) Those two items are the best explanations on the subject I have ever seen in English. But another question then arises, what test fee does the mushitei candidate pay? If they are awarded ikkyu then they owe one amount but if they are awarded shodan then they will have to pay twice as much. So what is the test fee amount that should be sent in with the test application? The exact procedure and test amounts are, of course, up to the federation hosting the test. In the case where the NCKF hosted the test the mushitei candidate was asked to send in the test fee for ikkyu and if they were awarded shodan instead (congratulations!) then at the test site they were asked for the additional shodan test fee money as an adjustment. I cannot speak for NANKA of course as I am not the seminar coordinator for Kyudo USA 2008 but I would not be suriprised if this same procedure were being followed. As always, check with your federation president first if you have a question. Sharp eyed readers will note that one of the three sample, correctly filled out, test application forms listed on the left side of this page is a mushite test application example! Good luck to everyone testing in Kyudo USA 2008! The 2008 American Kyudo Seminar Is Official! Subject: Official 2008 Seminar Announcement Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:53:30 -0800 Hello Senseis, Board Members, and Representatives, We hope you are all well and that you have had a prosperous and healthy start to 2008. Please see the announcement from Sensei Doug Sakurai below. Thank you, Jannette Nanka Nanka Kyudo Renmei would like to officially announce the dates of the American Kyudo Seminar for 2008 to be held in Southern California. The seminar dates are July 16-18th and the test date is Saturday July 19th. The banquet will be held on Saturday night, so the seminar essentially goes from the 16th-20th. We will be celebrating Kyudo's 100 year history in Southern California. The location is at the University of California, Irvine in the heart of Orange County. The anticipated cost of the seminar will be in the $350.00 range. The nearest airport is John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, but we will provide transportation from LAX also. We can possibly arrange transportation from Long Beach Airport and Ontario Airport too. We are currently looking into scheduling dorm rooms before the seminar for those of you that would like to come early and enjoy Southern California. Registration forms and all other information will be out in the next few weeks. We hope to see all of you there. Doug Sakurai President, Nanka Kyudo Renmei Web page for the South African Kyudo Federation. Mr. Ruszthy was kind enough to email me the URL for the web page of the Hungarian Kyudo-club 'Bukyukai'. He pointed out that it is maintained in Hungarian, English and German! Click here to see the Bukyukai web page! National American 2008 Seminar Dates Announced. Email received from Nanaka in Southern California: Sorry this is getting out so late. We have confirmed the dates for the kyudo seminar in Southern California for 2008. I hope that everyone will come out and join us in celebrating 100 years of kyudo in Southern Cal. We are excited to be hosting this event and look forward to seeing all of our friends in kyudo. The dates are July 16th-18th with the test on July 19th. The location is at the University of California, Irvine at the Bren Center. Yes, the dates are correct and the test is on Saturday. We are trying to alleviate the problem of arranging transportation immediately after taking the test and missing flights. We tried every combination of days to accommodate everyone, and this was the best way to do it. This will allow us to have our banquet on Saturday night after the seminar, so everyone can truly relax and enjoy the event. We are also working on having a couple of bow makers come out to give demonstrations on how bows are made and also how to take care of your bow. More information will be out shortly about airports, transfers, dorm arrangements, cost and such. For now, all we can confirm are the dates. Hope to see you all in July! Doug Sakurai President, Nanka Kyudo Renmei. IKYF 2009 World Championships Canceled. In a recent email sent to the European and American IKYF liason officers the IKYF canceled the 2009 World Championship event. The reasons given were not specific but the email mentioned that 2009 was the same year as a project to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the All Nippon Kyudo Federation. As a result of this, various factors caused the IKYF to cancel the World Championships for that year. One obvious problem of the newly formed International Kyudo Federation is a lack of almost any meaningful budget to finance events and immediately after the formation of the IKYF overseas seminars were cut in half. Again, likely due to budget considerations. It is reasonable to assume that the world championships and the 60th ANKF anniversary celebration would all take place at the yearly taikai in Kyoto and the IKYF just doesn’t have the resources, money or otherwise, to hold both events. Web page for the South African Kyudo Federation. Once a year or so I receive an inquiry about kyudo in South Africa. Well, now I have a web page to refer them to! Click here to see the South African Kyudo Federation web page! First Kyoshi In America? I’ve heard nothing official but if I’m reading this test result document correctly that has just been posted on the ANKF web page, Aaron Blackwell sensei of the South Carolina Kyudo Federation has just become the first kyudo kyoshi in America! Can anyone confirm this? Click here to see the Japanese document. Update: It is official! I’ve just received email from Mr. Phil Swain, the vice president of the American Kyudo Renmei, announcing that Blackwell sensei did indeed pass his kyoshi test in Japan. Congratulations to Blackwell sensei who passed his kyoshi exam while living and practicing in the kyudo wilderness of America. For those who may not know, Blackwell sensei is the president of the South Carolina Kyudo Renmei. Archers need (quickly!) for the Heroes TV show! Alex Reid, the Production Supervisor on the Heroes TV show, needs Japanese archers and he needs them fast. If you are in the Los Angeles area, or you’re going to be visiting there next week and you look Japanese and know kyudo he probably wants to hear from you immediately. Here is what he emailed to me today. I don’t feel safe posting his cell phone number but anyone interested can email me and I’ll send it to you. Good luck! I am looking for 6 male archers of Japanese decent that are proficient in archery who would be interested in working on our show. The first day of work would be this Monday, June 25th and they would be paid for their time. There would be additional work on upcoming episodes. They would need to come in for an interview and be fitted for traditional armor with our costume department. We are located at Sunset-Gower Studios in the middle of Hollywood. Time is running out and I have only heard back from one person so far. I can be contacted via email at axlereid@verizon.net or on my cell phone at (xxx) xxx-xxxx at any time. Thanks for any help you can give me. Alex Reid Production Supervisor "HEROES" The most absolutely breakable porcelain figurine ever!. The Lladro figurine company has just made the most fragile, most breakable figurine ever. No kidding. Click here to see it! Update: Okay, I finally saw one of these in the Matsuya department store in Asakusa, Tokyo, and the bow is actually made of metal so it is not as breakable as I thought from looking at the picture. The retail price was 64,000 yen I believe. Retirement of IKYF president Kamogawa sensei. Although I have not heard an official IKYF announcement yet, an observer at the IKYF board meeting on April 14th informs me that Kamogawa sensei officially stepped down as the president of the IKYF and Suzuki Mitsunari sensei, the current ANKF president, has assumed his duties as IKYF president. For those of you who, like myself, remember the decades of service to kyudo that Kamogawa sensei has given to the art this really is the passing of an era. I'm told he left the board meeting when his resignation was accepted so I'm sure this was all known in advance. Given the recent events in his personal life his desire to retire from public involvement in kyudo cannot come as a surprise but still, for many overseas kyudo practioners, Kamogawa sensei was the distinguished public face of the ANKF and the official representative of kyudo to the world. His retirement will be marked with a feeling of some sadness. I'm sure that many people wish him well as he retires from his official kyudo duties. Saving the world through Kyudo! Saving the world through Kyudo! Now I ask you, just how totally cool is that!!!!! Hello. We will held the 7th UNICEF Charity Kyudo Meeting(Taikai) in Fukui,Japan, on April 29, 2007. Please see our official homepage and we are happy if you will announce our activity in your homepage. Thank you. http://www.hokuriku.ed.jp/kyudo/unicef/english.htm Hiroto Nakamura Hokuriku Junior/Senior High School Kyudo Club 1-8-1 bunkyo, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, 910-0017 E-mail：h-nakamura<at>hokuriku.ed.jp New web page from the Enshin Dojo in the Netherlands. About 11 years ago Professor Naito retired from his job at Sapporo University and has traveled both to Europe and Asia studying both Japanese archery and Asian archery. Feliks Hoff sensei of Germany kindly emailed me pictures of the dojo biraki (dojo opening ceremonies) from Naito sensei's latest project in mainland China: a kyudo dojo in the city of Zhuhai in China's Guandong province! In addition to Hoff sensei from Germany, invited guests included Noro sensei from Sapporo who traveled there with several Japanese students. You can see Noro sensei performaing a Yawatashi with Hoff sensei and Naito sensei assisting. Traditional Chinese and Korean archers also demonstrated during the opening. The opening was held in December and you can tell from all the green plants in the pictures just how far south the city of Zhuhai really is. I believe this is actually Naito sensei's second dojo opening in China. If memory serves me correctly I saw pictures of Kamogawa sensei of the ANKF (at the time) visiting Naito sensei's kyudo dojo which he had just opened in Tientsin, China. Naito sensei had published a book on Japanese archery in Chinese and obviously the Chinese government must have been pleased with the results because he was invited to start kyudo classes at the Zhuhai Campus of Peking Normal University and this dojo is obviously the fruit of his labors. I often refer to America as a "kyudo wilderness" because of the lack of facitilies and equipment and all the other problems which always occur. It is inspiring to see a retired Japanese professor overcome what must have been considerable hurdles to establish a kyudo dojo in mainline China! You can view the pictures by clicking here. New web page from the Enshin Dojo in the Netherlands. A member of the Enshin Dojo, located in the city of Utrecht, emailed me to let me know of their dojo’s new web page where the letters fly faster than arrows! Note you will have to have Macromedia’s Flash Player installed on your computer to view the webpage. Navigating the site feels like playing a video game so I’m not giving you any hints! J The page can be seen by clicking here. Pictures from the 2007 NCKF New Year’s Tournament. The Northern California Kyudo Federation held a 2007 New Years’s Tournament on Jan. 7th and I took many pictures with my new digital camera of course. This year’s tournament was marked by an outstanding performance by the new Renshi Jon McAlister who hit 16 of 20 arrows (and received his big Renshi certificate as part of the awards ceremony). At one point Jon hit 12 arrows in a row and his last hits were distinguished with his second arrow striking the nock of his first arrow in the target! 2nd place went to Earl Hartman sensei who won a shootoff with Rik Center who took 3rd. In the sandan and under category, Belinda Leung won 1st place and in a great shootoff, Sakura san from the Seishinkan dojo struck the center circle to take 2nd place over Keiko Franklin san who took 3rd place. The cute New Year’s hanamato was made by Yoshiko Buchanan sensei and featured a seasonal boar (Ino Shi Shi) among the maple leaves theme (it’s the year of the Boar). You can see the pictures . Note that clicking the smaller pictures only takes you to a slightly larger picture that is still quick to download. Clicking on that picture will bring up the original picture which is much higher resolution and will take much longer to download but it is the one you want if you are going to save the picture to your local hard disk and make a print from it. Also, those of you looking for Japanese specific clip art with a new year’s theme should bookmark the Little House web page. The New Year’s graphics are password protected but they give away the user name of “house” and the password of “sozai”. The New Year’s web page clipart is at: https://homepage1.nifty.com/kumamis/jan07.html Year after year they produce the best Japanese themed New Year’s clip art by far. Those of you looking to decorate New Year’s scoresheets, certificates, hanamatos, etc. should start there. Shinnen Omedeto Gozaimasu! Happy Year of the Boar! Kyudo Videos on YouTube! I occasionally scan photo sharing sites looking for good kyudo pictures but I had completely ignored video sharing sites like YouTube. A recent email from a reader pointed out some real gems. First is a clip of Awa Kenzo sensei shooting at what I believe is a New Year's Celebration (Shinnen kai) in Japan. You can see the video by clicking here And yes, Awa Kenzo was the instructor of Eugen Herrigel who wrote Zen And The Art of Archery. But remember: While kenshõ (see true nature; i.e., attain awakening) is a Zen term, it is practically impossible to detect any Zen elements in Awa’s teaching. Surprisingly, it appears that Awa never practiced Zen even once in his life. SAKURAI (1981, p. 223), who has conscientiously studied Awa’s life, wrote that “No evidence can be found that Kenzõ ever trained with a Zen priest.” - taken from The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery by YAMADA Shõji and excellently translated by Earl Hartman sensei. http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/586.pdf In most of the yabusame videos the camera bounces more than the horse but one podcast appears to have filmed inside a training hall (An Ogasawara dojo perhaps?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZHrAxArqWE And there are tourist videos that can be useful training. This makiwara sharei video shows what happens when you don't take a big enough step back after firing your first shot. You'll have to adjust your position after standing up for the second shot so students of taihai take note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3W7XTtGlY Finally, before being carried away with all the videos you should always have an appreciation for the well written kyudo web page The International Kyudo Federation Has A Webpage! Question for the day, what is so special about this percentage: 98.122175354022295872250677915035 % If you said that is the percentage of people in the International Kyudo Federation who are native speakers of Japanese then I would say...CORRECT! Which goes a long way to explaining why the new web page for the International Kyudo Federation is almost entirely in Japanese!. You can see the web page by clicking on this link: http://www.ikyf.org/ Extraordinary Special Test For Renshi Candidates. As most readers will know the ANKF shogo (instructor i.e. renshi and kyoshi) test consists of two shooting tests, if the candidate passes the first shooting test they attempt the second shooting test which is almost always a sharei form of some kind. What many overseas kyudo participants may not know is that once a year there is an 'Extraordinary Special Test' given in Japan for all those renshi and kyoshi candidates who passed the first part of their test but failed the second shooting test. Once a year, in Japan, a test is given for all such test candidates and this test has existed for many years but with more and more overseas test candidates taking (and failing!) their renshi tests this is a good chance to introduce the details of this special test to the non Japanese kyudo community. For example, at this year's American seminar there were three renshi test candidates who qualified for the second shooting test but then failed. So those three candidates are eligable for this year's Extraordinary Special Test in Japan. I know for a fact that at least one European passed his kyoshi test and one American passed his renshi test in years past at this special test. The test is only given once at the end of the year and is a one time test open only to those renshi and kyoshi test candidates who failed their second shooting test during the current year. And you only have once chance to take the test. If you fail it you are back to zero and have to take the renshi or kyoshi test from the beginning. Here are the details of the renshi test translated into English. If anyone out there needs the details of the kyoshi(!) test just email me and I'll forward those too. Good luck to all the test candidates for this year! The renshi test information is as follows: 1. Date: Sunday December 24, 2006 . 2. Place: Shiseikan Dojo, Meiji Shrine Budojo, 1-1 Kamizonocho, Yoyogi, Shibuya ku, Tokyo. 03-5302-5865. Closest station is Yoyogi station by JR line Yamanote line or subway Uedo line. Alternative route is Sangubashi station by Odakyu line. 3. Test Schedule: Test begins at 9 AM (registration begins at 8 AM). 4. Test Eligibility: Those who passed the renshi first test during 2006 (Heisei 18). 5. Test details. (1) Shooting test, written test, and interview test will be given. Pass/no pass decided by total score. Shooting test will be the 2nd part of the Renshi test (no sharei information given - Yoshiko). (2) Interview test will be on instructional ability and general kyudo knowledge will be examined. (3) Written test will be given. 6. How to apply: (1) Application form - The offical test application form must be used (In my opinon this means the green ANKF form - Yoshiko). The test fee of 6000 (six thousand) yen must be attached. (2) Deadline: The application must arrive by the 11th of December. (3) Application should be sent to: Attention to Tokyo Tokubetsu Renji Shinsa Gakkari. ZNKR/Kishi Memorial Hall 1-1-1 Jinnan Shibuya, Tokyo Japan 03-3481-2387 tel 03-3481-2398 fax 7. Notes: (1) Deadline is strict. (2) Print application clearly. (3) Application contents must be true and accurate. Any false information may cause failure. (4) Candidates must be at the test site on time. (5) Testing candidates must wear wafuku and wear an ANKF pin. (6) Failure to respond to the test assembly call may be considered abandoment of the test. (7) In the case of rissha the rissha must be wirtten in red on the application form. A doctor's letter must be attached. The letter should be dated within one year. The federation president must approve the rissha request. (8) Parking will be in the Meiji Jingu Bunkachushajo. 8. Misc: Personal information on the application form may be used for the following purposes: 1) Publishing in the test candidate list and related materials such as names, renmei, age, title, date title obtained and so on. 2) The test candidate list and time announcement with identifying number. 3) The announcement of test results to official publications such as the kyudo magazine (name, renmei, title and dan). End of test information. Passing Percentages From Kyudo USA 2006! Many thanks to Carly Born for passing on this information. And big congratulations to the new renshis! Howdy, If you are interested, here are the passing stats for this year's shinsa. Please feel free to forward to anyone else who you think may be interested. Mudan 7/15 got Shodan (47%) 4/15 got 1 kyu (27%) 2/15 got 2 kyu (13%) Kyu 9/9 got Shodan (100%) [1 from 2 kyu, all others from 1 kyu] Shodan 14/14 got Nidan (100%) Nidan 6/12 got Sandan (50%) Sandan 1/4 got Yondan (25%) Yondan 2/10 got Godan (20%) Our new godan are Bill Reid (NCKR) and Rick Beal (NANKA) Godan 6/12 proceeded to the interview and second test (50%) 3 passed Renshi (25%) Our new Renshi are Douglas Sakurai (NANKA), Jon McAllister (NCKF) and Tomio Kato (GKR). -- Carly Born Minnesota Kyudo Renmei http://www.mnkyudo.org Dojo Biraki at the Alster Dojo in Hamburg, Germany! A recent email from Hoff Sensei announced the opening of a second shajo in the Alster Dojo in Hamburg, Germany, and the email came with pictures! The amount of work necessary for such a large dojo must have been considerable. The interior picture shows the windows that can be raised to allow shooting and I suspect the boxes at the bottom of the windows are heaters. Winters are VERY cold in Hamburg. Exterior pictures show how the windows are raised on the outside. Note the size of the fences! The Alster Dojo clearly belives in a good neighbor policy. I have made a slide show of the pictures but if you have the bandwidth, try clicking on the pictures to see details of the handsome arrows being used in the meigen ceremony. Dear EClay, last weekend we had the dojo biraki for the second hall in the Alster Dojo Hamburg. I performed it according to the tradition of the Heki-To ryu (Meigen, Shiho zume, Yawatashi, 7-5-3, after this everybody did a hitote). Some pictures of it are in the attachment. The indoor picture of the dojo was taken in March but now the yamichi is green. We can now offer 12 mato and can serve bigger seminars but first of all our own members much better. Luckily the number of memberships of the kyudo branch in the Alster Dojo has increased to 130! Kind regards Feliks You can see the pictures by by clicking here Results from the 2nd Open German Kyudo Enteki Taikai We have just received this email from Feliks Hoff sensei if the Alster Dojo in Hamburg giving the results of their recent enteki taikai (long distance competition). And what is more, two pictures came with the email. These are very interesting pictures as they show in some detail the very cleverly constructed outdoor shooting area. The pictures are large but the detail is worth seeing. You can see the first picture by by clicking here And the second by by clicking here *** On Sunday, 18.06.06, the Alster Dojo Hamburg held the 2nd Open German Kyudo Enteki Taikai . The winner was Mr. Boris Proppe from Berlin after winning two rounds of a tiebreaker against Mr. Jan Graaf from Stockholm. Third place went to the winner from last year, Mr. Peter Knipper from North Rhine-Westphalia. The Kyudoka of the guest dojo had to be content with 4th and 5th place. Feliks F. Hoff *** Isshou (single pine tree) Opening Ceremony D. Mark Gabel emailed me recently with a link to pictures of the opening ceremony of his dojo: Isshou which means single pine tree. In the kyudo wilderness of America a kyudo dojo can be a one person shooting platform and that is what Mark has constructed on his property in North Carolina. He asked his teacher, Dan DeProspero sensei, to perform a dojo biraki (dojo opening ceremony) for the dojo and you can see scenes from that in the pictures. I'm also told that DeProspero sensei made the handsome carved wood sign as an opening gift for the dojo too. You can see the pictures by by clicking here Planning to Test In Japan? With the canceling of overseas seminars and tests in the year there is an International Kyudo Federation event it is likely more people will travel to Japan to test. I'm assuming that the IKYF will still allow overseas members to test in local promotion tests in Japan. If so then it helps to understand how the All Nippon Kyudo Federation (ANKF) organizes tests in Japan. Strictly speaking the ANKF only offers tests for renshi candidates and higher. Tests for kyu through 4th dan are the responsibility of local federations, usually one federation per prefecture. To test in one of these local federation tests you'll have to obtain the schedule either directly from the local federation or request the schedule from the ANKF who will refer you to a local official if they don't have that federation's testing schedule at hand. You'll have to meet the local federation's test application deadline and don't assume there will be someone there who can translate the written test questions from Japanese into English. Try to verify as many things ahead of time as possible because you will definitely be the odd person out and your attitude should be one of trying to cause as little disruption to the local test as possible. Godan tests are usually administered by several local federations joining together to jointly administer the test such as Tokyo + Yamanashi pref., Southern Kyushuu (Kagoshima+Miyazaki+Kumamoto) and so forth. Finding the dates of these is the same process as finding kyu thru 4th dan tests, you'll have to contact one of the local federations. Renshi tests and higher. Ah, now we get to the so-called "central" tests i.e. tests administered directly by the ANKF. There are two types of central test: the Teiki Chuoh Shinsa ("fixed" tests) and the Rinji Chuoh Shinsa ("special" tests). The Teiki Chuoh Shinsa tests are called "fixed" because there are four and their locations and months are "fixed" with the exact date falling on a particular weekend of the month. The four tests are given in Kyoto (May), Sendai (July), Fukuoka (Sept), and Tokyo (Nov). Of the four, the most well known to overseas participants is the Kyoto Taikai in May. Overseas Kyudo students frequently just say "Kyoto Taikai" when they refer to the archery competition always given in Kyoto but the Japanese word "Taikai" (Great Gathering) can be taken literally here. The archery competition is only one of many events which take place in Kyoto. There are several divisions of tournament available (starting with yondan and up) and typically there are archery demonstrations, and so-called "enbu" or demonstration tournaments. For example, hanshi are not expected to compete in regular tournaments so there is a hanshi enbu where each hanshi shoots two arrows and judges award an excellent performance award to a select few. There are so many ANKF officials and sensei attending this annual event that usually several overseas Kyudo students can be found in Kyoto meeting old friends and teachers and making new relationships as well. This popularity has a price. The Kyoto promotion tests are huge, typically over 400 people testing just for one rank alone in a single day. Finding space just to sit and string your bow can be hard. Taking a promotion test at the Kyoto Taikai is definitely a Kyudo character building experience.