The use of archery in Japan as with most other countries dates back to pre-history. The first images of the asymmetric, distinctly Japanese bow come from the Yayoi period (ca. 500 BC–300 AD). The Chinese chronicle “Weishu” dated for before 297 AD states that the people from the Japanese isles used “a wooden bow that is short at the bottom and long at the top”. Around this time the bow began its use as a weapon of war and not simply for hunting. Japan later adopted the ceremonial use of the bow from China and continued to do so after China had ended its use.

Japan also adopted from China the technique for manufacturing composite bows by combining horn, wood and animal sinew which was then glued together providing greater strength and firing distance than standard bows.

As the Samurai class took power towards the end of the first millennium, a need for education in the art of archery was filled by the birth of the first ky?d? ry?ha (style).Called the Henmi-ryu by its founder Henmi Kiyomitsu in the 12th century.

Later Kiyomitsu’s desendents would found the Takeda- ry? and the mounted archery school Ogasawara-ry?. In the Genpei War (1180-1185) the need for skilled archers drastically grew. As a result of this, Ogasawara Nagakiyo the founder of Ogasawara-ry?, began more widespread teaching of yabusame (mounted archery).

In the 15th and leading into the 16th century Japan was ravaged by terrible and bloody civil war. Towards the latter part of the 15th century Heki Danjo Masatsugu revolutionized archery in Japanese warfare with his “hi, kan, chu” (fly, pierce, center) approach. Many of the schools that were formed at this time still remain today agmong them the Heki-ryu, Chikurin-ha, Sekka-ha and Insai-ha.

The begining of the end for the bow as a practical weapon of war coincided with the arrival of the first Europeans in Japan in 1542. The change was not instant and the bow was used along side the Arquebus for a long time as it was more accurate, had greater range and most importantly the reload time of a bow is significantly shorter.

But the simple fact is that the Arquebus required far less training for its use to be affective. An example of this would be when Oda Nobunaga’s army, which consisted mainly of farmers armed with arquebuses utterly devastated a traditional samurai archer Calvary in a single battle in 1575.