On behalf of Mike Loades, his vintage Samurai bow has arrived here in my collection. I took a lesson regarding the basics of Heki Ryu (日置流) style of Japanese archery designed for military use.

The bowyer Edward (Ted) McEwen was from the UK, and was formerly the editor of the Society of Archer Antiquaries Journal for many years and one of the foremost archery scholars of his generation. He was pioneering horse-archery in the UK in the early 1980s.
Edward was also world-renowned as a composite bow maker, turkish bows being his specialty.
However, he also made bows of all kinds including an Egyptian angular bow, an English longbow, a Carib longbow, and this yumi.

Special thanks to Redwood Kyudojo and Mr. Loades. The bow was made by Mr. McEwen for Mike in around 1995/1996 from mulberry and bamboo laminations with rattan bindings and shellac lacquer. 85 inches long, full-size yumi. Organic materials. Lacquered finish with Japanese military warbow paint. This is heavy draw weight for modern Kyudo standards but was a light draw weight for samurai during the sengoku jidai period. Prehaps a hunting weight.

Early Japanese used bows of various sizes but the majority were short with a center grip. This bow was called the maruki yumi and was constructed from a small sapling or tree limb. It is unknown when the asymmetrical yumi came into use, but the first written record is in the Book of Wei, a Chinese historical manuscript from the 3rd century AD, which describes the people of the Japanese islands using "spears, shields, and wooden bows for arms; the wooden bows are made with the lower limbs short and the upper limbs long; and bamboo arrows with points of either iron or bone." The oldest asymmetrical yumi found to date was discovered in Nara and is estimated to be from the 5th century.

During the Heian period (794–1185) the length of the yumi was fixed at a little over two meters and the use of laminated construction was adopted from the Chinese. By the end of the 10th century, the Japanese developed a two-piece bamboo and wood laminated yumi. Over the next several hundred years the bow's construction evolved and by the 16th century, the design was considered to be nearly perfect. The modern bamboo yumi is based on the yumi of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Also showcased in the video is a yumi made by Jaap Koppedrayer around 40lbs.

#弓道 #japanese

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