Thursday, March 6, 2014

Zen in Japanese Traditional Archery



  • For most people, maybe especially in Japan, kyudo is not associated directly with Zen. There are only a few schools of actual Zen Archery. But, as we have discussed, whether an individual practices in one of these schools, or in one that does more of a sport, or dan ranking emphasis, or one of those that has a focus on simply the Japanese Tradition itself... it's all kyudo. The only exception I make to this, if they like, the schools that have retained just the jitsu portion of the practice, and have an interest only in technique itself... these may wish not to use the term kyudo, and also retain the kyujitsu term to describe their practice; and that's fine.

  • There were no actual Zen Archery schools per se, until Umeji Kenran Roshi and followers of Awa Kenzo Sensei, Like Suhara Roshi and his predecessor's created them. But what they borrowed from to do this, was not schools of Zen Archery, but of Zen Schools that had archers. Primarily these two schools were not born out of Zen, but out of these archers own personal spiritual revelation. They were not the first to do this, but this practice too was not common in Zen, we are still talking about a miniscule portion of the yumi community, and few Zen Archers. Technically speaking only those of us under one of these strains of the practice are doing Zen Archery.

  •  99.9% of the kyudo practitioners are simply doing modern Japanese archery, and this is called kyudo, just like we do. So we are all doing kyudo. The term Kyudo came from yumi no michi, in fact the same kanji are used for both, so only our oral history tells us which one was actually used.

  • The term yumi no michi was used when the yumi was used in sacred rituals, and exists in the earliest writings of the Japanese people, and the practice of using the yumi as a ritual implement goes back to the origination of its asymmetrical design.
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  • These rituals were often performed by Shaman with a yumi, but could have just as likely been done by a warrior at the direction of Shamen. This was not Zen Archery, Zen, and even Buddhism had not arrived in Japan yet.

  • When buddhism arrived, the practice continued much like this. Though Prince Tashi and his court used the principles they were learning from the mainland to codify the practices, including the first kyujitsu school Tashi-ryu. These principles, coming from the mainland were all based on jyukyo. Jyukyo is basically the combination of Confucianist, Buddhist, and Taoist thought. But as always in Japan, these began to meld often with the existing Shamistic ideas, and what we now call Shinto was beginning to form, and yumi no michi was part of this.

  • This is exactly the portion of Zen that the warrior class in Japan embraced, whether they retired into 'monkhood' or not.

    From the time of Prince Taishi tthe process of jyukyo incorporating itself into Japanese Culture began.
  • Kukai, or Koboh Daishi, the founder of Japanese Shingon Buddhism, was another catalyst for this process. Coming from Tendai Buddhism, as all the founders of Japanese Buddhist sects began there. But Tendai Buddhism is little changed from its mainland roots, Koboh Daishi allowed much more integration with indigenous ideas, and Buddhism became much more 'Japanese'.
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  • A main catalyst for warriors and Jukyo to mix was with the Ogasawara Family who used jukyo, and what they term as in/yo theory for their Ogasawara-ryu. Jyukyo, though it includes all three Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, is often translated as Confucianism. And indeed, the etiquette of Ogasawara-ryu is steeped in Confucianism, and is the core of their teaching. Their yumi no michi based on what we now call Shinto, the in/yo theory is the Japanese version of Tao, and the the Taoist thought was minor in jyukyo. But major in Chan and Zen Buddhism. It is from here that they brought in for their tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy, and the other geido arts.

  • From the beginning, jukyo and indigenous ideas began to mix into everything the Japanese did. This was true for all classes of society to one degree or another. But the mixture was not the same for every class. Nobility, warriors, peasants, merchants... for each the mixture was different.

  • As it is in Japan, the Ogasawara-ryu emphasized the mixture in all the practices, no matter what implement a person had in their hand, these principles that had now become 'Japanese' principles were the way to conduct oneself. This is what was then, and what is now Japanese Culture. This same thing, at the same time happened in Zen. And Zen became infused with exactly the same mixture, but of course from a primarily Buddhist emphasis. This mixture is the fine distinction between Chan in China, and Zen in Japan.

  • The traditional Japanese Culture we have today is very much like the Japanese Culture that the Ogasawara Family gave us. Zen simply evolved at the same time along similar ideas, and this is why they are sometimes used synonymously. It is simply that they both embody what has become Japanese Culture. So although all Zen Practitioners embody Japanese Culture, not all those who embody Japanese Culture are doing Zen.
  • Perhaps only those of us doing Zen, may really be doing Zen Archery. But all of us doing kyudo, definitely embody Japanese Culture.
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