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弓道 kyūdō Kyudo

弓道 (kyūdō) is Japanese archery, and an archer's chart of 1675 already sets the schools of the bow under the word. In the period's martial texts the art itself was 弓術 (kyūjutsu). It follows how school clubs, the archers' society and the newspapers made 弓道 its name between 1909 and 1930, and how kyudo entered English.

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Japanese Scroll of Kyudo (kyūdō) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Kyudo弓道kyūdō

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

弓道 (kyūdō) is the name of Japanese archery as a martial art, and the word is far older than the name: in the Edo period it is a teacher's way, a house's secret transmission and, in an archer's chart of 1675, the heading over the schools of the bow, while the art itself, in the period's martial texts as a modern survey reads them and in Hepburn's Japanese-English dictionary of 1867, is 弓術 (kyūjutsu). A sword treatise of 1729 used 弓道 for the archer's way of practice and set it against the insight of a Zen monk who had not practiced, and from 1901 a Zen journal and then Zen books quoted the archer's sentence as a teaching of the mind. The modern name came from below: school clubs called themselves 弓道部 from 1909, the archers' society registered as 大日本弓道會 in June 1919, a motion to rename the Dai Nippon Butokukai's arts was put forward in July 1919, and the newspapers had made the change by 1930, though the dictionaries still give the two words as one and two university clubs keep the old name. In English, kyujutsu and archery named the art until kyudo appeared in the 1930s, and Eugen Herrigel, whose book introduced the art to the West, used 弓術, as Yamada Shōji reports.

Overview

The sense. A standard word, the name of a modern martial art. デジタル大辞泉 defines 弓道 as 《弓で矢を射る武道。また、その作法。明治以降一般に普及した。弓術。》, the martial art of shooting arrows with a bow; also its forms of conduct; it spread generally from Meiji on; 弓術, and 精選版 日本国語大辞典 as 《日本の武道の一つ。弓で矢を射る技術。古くから射芸として行なわれていたが、明治以後一般にも普及した。弓術。》, one of the Japanese martial arts; the technique of shooting arrows with a bow; long practiced as the art of shooting, it spread to the general public after Meiji; 弓術 [1]. Both end on 弓術: the two dictionaries give the old name as the same word. Under 弓術 they return the favor, デジタル大辞泉 《弓で矢を射る武術。弓道。》 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典 《武芸の一つ。弓を射る技術。また、その道。射術。弓道。》 [2]. 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 alone dates the name: 《なお〈弓道〉という用語は江戸時代に一部使用されているが，日本の弓射文化の総称として定着したのは昭和初期に入ってからである》, the term 弓道 was used in part in the Edo period, but it settled as the general name of Japanese archery only in the early Shōwa years [1]. JMdict gives kyūdō; kyudo; Japanese archery [3].

The words. 弓道 is read きゅうどう, in the old kana きうだう [4]. 弓 is the bow. 道 is a way: a road, and by extension the course of an art or a teaching, as in 柔道 and 剣道. The older name, 弓術, sets beside 弓 the character 術, a technique or art. The question this history follows is not what the two characters mean, which is plain, but when 弓道 stopped being one word for archery among several and became the art's name. Other words for it, in the sources read, are 射術, 射芸, 弓法 and 射道 [1][2][5][6].

The text in English. Brinkley's Japanese-English dictionary of 1896 enters Kyūdō, 弓道, n. Same as Kyūjutsu (弓術) [7]. JMdict keeps the borrowed word as the first English: kyūdō; kyudo; Japanese archery [3]. What English did with the word, and when it took it, is the subject of the English section below.

The historical record

The seventeenth century, Morikawa Kōzan 森川香山 (1631–1701). Two studies name him as an early user of 弓道 for the art. Inagaki Genshirō 稲垣源四郎, a teacher of the Waseda archery club, wrote in 1985: 《既に十七世紀の中頃森川香山秀一(1631–1701)は「弓道」と称していた》, already in the middle of the seventeenth century Morikawa Kōzan Hidekazu called it 弓道, and that he 《弓術なる言葉に対して「弓道」と言い大和流を樹てた》, said 弓道 against the word 弓術 and founded the Yamato school [8]. Goka Tomotsugu 五賀友継 and Matsuo Makinori 松尾牧則 give him, in his school's transmission documents, as the first known use [9]. His own books were not read for this history; the claim is theirs.

1675, Sugimori Kyūshin 杉森求身, 日本弓道大系圖, the great genealogy of the Japanese 弓道. A manuscript copy in the Shizuoka prefectural library carries the title on its cover, 日本弓道大系圖 全, heads its preface 日本弓道大系圖序, and dates the preface in its last column 《于時延宝三のとし春の半に》, in the middle of spring, Enpō 3, signed 杉森求身記 [10]. Its chart opens on the frames 日本流, 鹿嶋流, 弟彦公 (read オトヒコキミ, a man of Mino in the service of 日本武尊), 武内宿祢, 八幡流, 逸見流 and 日置流, in that order [10]. Here 弓道 is not one school's way but the heading over the lineages it charts; only its first canvases were read. The date is the preface's; when this copy was made was not read.

1712, 当世智恵鑑, a book of exemplary tales. In its section on the bow and horse, a pupil asks to join a master: 《より貴所の門につらなり、弓道のかたはしをもまなび得たし》, I would join your gate and learn even a corner of 弓道 [5]. The way one enters through a teacher.

1716, 倭漢武家名数, a book of warrior lists. After a list of quiver types the book cites its source as a title, 《○弓道私記》, private notes on 弓道, set as another book title is set above it [11]. A book called by the word existed by 1716; it was not found.

1729, Issai Chozan 佚斎樗山, 天狗藝術論, the goblin's discourse on the arts. A sword treatise, its preface dated the twelfth month of 享保 13 and its colophon 《享保十四歳次己酉孟春》, the first month of spring, 享保 14 [12]. Its first book argues that insight without practice is of no use. On one page: 《心體開悟したりとて禪僧に政を執しめ一方の大將として敵を攻むに豈よく其功をたてんや … 其事に熟せざるがゆへに用をなさず 且弓を引て矢を放つことは誰もしりたる事なり 然ども其道に由らず其事に熟せず みだりに弓を引矢を發するときは能く的にあたり堅きを貫くことあたはず》, though a Zen monk's mind be enlightened, could he win merit if made to govern, or to lead an army against an enemy? … he is of no use because he is not practiced in the thing. And everyone knows how to draw a bow and loose an arrow; but if one does not go by its way and is not practiced in it, and draws and looses at random, one cannot hit the target or pierce the hard [12]. On the facing page the archer who has practiced: 《弓と我と一體に成て精神天地に滿るがごとく引て彀にみつる時神定つて念を動ずることなく無心にして發す はなして後猶本の我なり 物に中て後靜に弓をおさむ 此弓道の習ひなり》, the bow and I become one body, the spirit as if filling heaven and earth; drawn to the full, the mind settles and no thought stirs; with no mind one looses; after the loosing one is still oneself; after the hit one quietly lowers the bow. This is the practice of 弓道 [12]. In the book, 弓道 is the way one learns by doing, and the archer is set against the monk.

1751, 道成寺岐柳, a tale. Of a warrior house in the fox story of Tamamo-no-mae: 《かれが家には弓道傳授の巻あり》, in his house there is a scroll of the transmission of 弓道, the ruby reading the word in its Sino-Japanese sound, きう and a voiced third kana [13]. A house's secret, handed down.

1788, Hirase Mitsuo 平瀬光雄, 射学要録. As Goka and Matsuo report it, the book lists 弓道 as one of six branches of the archer's learning and defines it as 《神代相承の秘訣，引目・鳴弦・一張弓等の深理を究め知るを云》, to know to the depths the secrets handed down from the age of the gods, the deep principles of the whistling arrow, the plucked string and the single bow, a ritual sense the authors set apart from the modern name [9]. The book was not read at the leaf.

1808, 武器考, a book on weapons. Its appendix is a chart headed 《△日本弓道之系圖》, the genealogy of the Japanese 弓道, over the lineages from 日本流, 鹿嶋流 and 弟彦公 through 日置流 and its branches to 小笠原流; and of one man it says 《弓道ヲ不傳メ矢人トナル … 後弓道ヲ習ヒ家ヲ興ス》, not receiving 弓道, he became an arrow maker … later he learned 弓道 and restored his house [14]. The chart opens in the frame and order of the 1675 genealogy [10][14]; whether it copied it was not read.

The Edo name of the art was 弓術. Hepburn's Japanese-English dictionary of 1867 enters KIU-JUTSZ, キウジユツ, 弓術, n. The rules of archery, with no 弓道 [15]. G. Cameron Hurst, reading the martial texts of the period, found that archery was commonly called kyujutsu, and the term kyudo was almost unknown, and that references to any do form, kendo, judo, kyudo, are extremely rare [16]. In the witnesses read, 弓道 in the Edo period is a teacher's way, a lineage's transmission, a book's title and, twice, the heading over all the schools; the art in plain words is 弓術.

1857, Iosif Goshkevich, 和魯通言比考, a Japanese-Russian dictionary. It enters 《キウダウ 弓道》 and glosses it область стрѣлянія изъ лука: все относящееся къ этому занятію, the domain of shooting with the bow: everything that belongs to that occupation [17]. A foreign lexicographer heard the word as the field as a whole.

1889–1902, Honda Toshizane 本多利實. The archery master of the Tokyo university published in August 1889 a book titled 弓道保存教授及演説主意, the first modern book with 弓道 in its title, which uses the word once in its body; two months later he founded the 弓術保存継続会, whose rules use 弓術 throughout, and his 弓道大意 of 1902 has the word in its title only [18]. Goka reads him as not meaning to rename the art: 弓道, 弓術, 射道 and the plain 弓 may have been all one to him [18].

1892, Yamada Bimyō 山田美妙, 日本大辞書, a dictionary of Japanese. 《きうだう … 名。{弓道} 字音。弓矢ノミチ。—「きうだう修業」》, kyūdō, noun, 弓道, a Sino-Japanese word: the way of bow and arrow; as in "training in kyūdō" [4]. Goka's table of Japanese dictionaries lists this one as having no entry and dates the first to 1907 [18]; the 1892 volume has it. The word was known and defined a generation before the art took it as its name.

The Meiji decline, and the ranges. After the samurai lost the bow, Kurosu Ken 黒須憲 wrote in 1993, archery for amusement flourished in the bow shops and ranges of early Meiji and turned toward gambling: 《弓といえば町矢場の事を指し弓引きと言えば遊び人を連想するようになった》, the bow came to mean the town ranges, and an archer brought to mind an idler; reformers blamed the decline on hitting the target, raised the spirit instead, and changed the name to mark the new thing: 《意図的に呼称変更されたと理解できる》, the name, it can be understood, was changed on purpose, not excluding that they followed 柔道 [19].

1901, the 1729 sentence in the Zen books. The archer's sentence of 天狗藝術論, ending on 弓道, was printed in the journal 『禅宗』 in 1901 and in five books of 1907 to 1915 on Zen and the warrior, as a teaching of the mind; the snippet windows read show the archer's sentence and cannot show whether the monk's page came with it [20]. In the typeset collection of martial texts of 1915 the passage stands in the treatise whole [21].

1909, school clubs and a syllabus. The Hiroshima Higher Normal School reported in the gazette of 5 April 1909, among the tasks of its gymnastics study group, 《本校體操科教授要項中柔道弓道及泗水術教授要旨取調》, a review of the teaching aims for judo, 弓道 and swimming in the school's gymnastics syllabus [22]. The yearbook of the Shibata middle school in Niigata records under 1909, 《○同廿三日弓道部創立發會式ヲ行フ》, on the 23rd of the same month the 弓道 club held its founding ceremony, the entry falling between June 17 and September 18 [23]. A survey of May 1909 lists 弓道部 among the clubs of the Fukuoka prefectural technical school [24]. These clubs took the name at their founding; the first club in the studies read to rename itself from 弓術部 to 弓道部 was that of the Eighth Higher School, in 1911 [9][18].

1913–1914, the petitions. Neya Kaji 根矢鹿兒 and Awa Kenzō 阿波研造, then archery master of the Tōhoku Imperial University club in Sendai, petitioned the Ministry of Education in December 1913 to make 弓術 a regular school subject [25]. In 1914 Nishikubo Hiromichi 西久保弘道, later vice-president of the Dai Nippon Butokukai, argued for dropping from the names of the martial arts 《術と云ふ無意義な語》, the meaningless word 術 [9].

1915, the Second Higher School. A member writing in the club notes: 《弓は術ではない．道だ．剣柔が道と言うと同じ意味で弓も亦立派な道である．それで僕はこれまでの弓術部を敢て弓道部と呼ぶ》, the bow is not a technique. It is a way. In the same sense in which the sword and judo are called ways, the bow too is a fine way. So I dare to call the 弓術 club, as it has been, the 弓道 club, its teacher then being Awa [9].

1917, the Tokyo Higher Commercial School. The motion to rename its club gives the reason: 《坊間矢場の所謂弓術と劃然区別し》, to set it clearly apart from the so-called 弓術 of the town's ranges, which Goka and Matsuo identify as the gambling ranges [9].

1918, the first book. Neya's 現代の弓道 of March 1918 is, in Goka and Matsuo's catalogue of archery books of 1868 to 1945, the first to make the move, with 弓道 in the title and 弓術 still in its body [9].

1919, the society and the Butokukai. The archers' society Neya had founded in 1909 as 青年弓術会 [9] was registered as a foundation on 23 June 1919 under the name 財團法人大日本弓道會, its purpose 《本邦固有ノ弓道ヲ講究シ之カ改良普及ヲ圖リ以テ德性ノ涵養及身體ノ鍛錬ニ資スルヲ以テ目的トス》, its purpose is to study the 弓道 native to this country and work for its improvement and spread, so as to serve the cultivation of virtue and the training of the body [26]. Its journal 『射道』 announced in August that the society would be called 大日本弓道会 from 1 September, because for five or six years some had objected 《弓術会にては範囲が狭過ぎる》, that a 弓術 society was too narrow; and in November Neya explained the difference: 《弓術と弓道との区別は、恰も東京と日本帝国とを比較するやうなものである》 … 《即ち弓術は弓道の一部分であると同時に，弓道が弓術と同一のものでないことも明かである》, the difference between 弓術 and 弓道 is like that between Tokyo and the Empire of Japan … 弓術 is a part of 弓道, and at the same time it is plain that 弓道 is not the same as 弓術 [18]. The Dai Nippon Butokukai, the national association of the martial arts, had put to it on 7 July 1919 a motion to rename all it had called 武術 as 武道, which was passed after an exchange of views, 柔術, 剣術 and 弓術 becoming 柔道, 剣道 and 弓道, because, as its record puts it, 《術の字を以てしては形而下の技術に遍し最も尊重すへき斯道の真髄たる其の精神を逸するの處ありとし剣道柔道弓道，其の総合の場合には武道と改称することに決したる》, the character 術 leans to physical technique and misses the spirit, the very heart of this way, which is most to be honored; so it was decided to rename them 剣道, 柔道, 弓道, and together 武道 [18]. The Ministry of Education's notice approving the renaming of the Butokukai's school, from 武術専門学校 to 武道専門学校, was dated and gazetted on 2 August 1919 [27]. Goka adds that for archery the change was at first one of name only: within the Butokukai it stayed an old art below the sword and judo [18].

1920–1933, the spread. In the Asahi the word 弓道 appears steadily from 1920 and in the Yomiuri from 1924; across both papers together it held more than half the archery articles from 1927 (69 percent; a single year, 1924, had reached 57) and reached 92 percent in 1930, and from 1933 on 弓術 is in 30 of 993 articles [18]. Among school clubs 弓道部 were the majority from 1923, with two to four renamings a year from 1919 to 1932 and no pattern by region, kind of school, teacher or lineage [18]. In 1923 Honda's lectures of 1909, 弓術講義録, were reissued as 弓道講義; the first 弓道 Goka and Matsuo found in the Ministry's ordinances and notices is the revised school gymnastics syllabus of 27 May 1926, after most clubs had changed; and the last books in Goka and Matsuo's catalogue to use 弓術 are of 1933 [9]. For most writers 弓術 was kept as a part of 弓道, its means, not rejected; Goka and Matsuo set this against judo and the Butokukai, which defined 術 against 道 [9].

1927, Awa's 大射道教. Awa Kenzō had begun to call 弓術 a kind of hereditary disease (遺伝病) and to preach his own 射道, the way of shooting, at a time when Kanō Jigorō's 柔道 was in high regard [6]. In 1927 he founded an organization named 大射道教, which the English of 1953 calls the Great Doctrine, over the objections of his students [6].

1936–1957, the school subject, the war and the federation. 弓道 became a regular school subject in 1936 [1][25]. After the war the Butokukai was dissolved, and the martial arts, 弓道 among them, were barred from the schools; 弓道 was allowed back in schools in 1951; a national federation was founded in 1949 and refounded as a foundation, 全日本弓道連盟, in 1957 [1].

1985, a dissent from inside. Inagaki, the Waseda teacher, wrote: 《現今「弓道」と特に意識して言われ始めたのは明確ではないが，大正に入ってから精神作興を称える風潮に乗じ，殊さらに弓術を弓道と呼び，精神第一主義を宣伝し，その中の或る人々によっては何々教と称したり何々射道などと称した。しかも精神を強調する余り射術を二次的に扱い》, it is not clear when 弓道 began to be said with this particular intent, but in the Taishō years, riding the fashion for the uplift of the spirit, people made a point of calling 弓術 弓道, preached the spirit first, and some called it a religion or this or that 射道; and stressing the spirit they treated the technique of shooting as secondary [8]. His title is 弓道の中の弓術について, on the 弓術 within 弓道 [8].

Today. The dictionaries read here give 弓道 and 弓術 as the same word [1][2], and Goka finds the same in 新明解国語辞典 (seventh edition, 2012), which defines 柔道 and 剣道 against 柔術 and 剣術 but not 弓道 against 弓術 [18]. The archery clubs of the University of Tokyo and Keiō still call themselves 弓術部 [9].

The word in English

1867, Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary. KIU-JUTSZ, キウジユツ, 弓術, n. The rules of archery; no headword for 弓道 [15]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典's only example for 弓術 is the third edition of the same dictionary, 1886 [2].

1896, Brinkley, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary. Kyūdō, 弓道, n. Same as Kyūjutsu (弓術), the line after Kyūdō, 舊道, An old road [7].

1913, Harrison, The Fighting Spirit of Japan. Among the samurai's accomplishments, kyujutsu (archery) [28].

1931, Inoue Tetsujirō 井上哲次郎, in The Golden Book of Tagore. Judo, the 'way of suppleness,' Kendo, the 'way of fencing,' Kyudo, the 'way of archery,' Sumodo, the 'way of wrestling': the word in a list of dos, in an essay in English signed from Tokyo [29].

1933–1935, the word arrives. An article titled Kyu-do, "The Way of Archery" in Japan, by an author the journal's index of 1933 names Ichikawa, Shoichi and a German bibliography of 1937 Ichikawa, Sanki, appeared in the American Museum's Natural History of March–April 1933 [30]. Stone's glossary of arms and armor, first published in 1934, enters KYU-DO. Japan. The art and practice of archery beside KYUJUTSU. Archery, Japan [31]. The Pocket Guide to Japan of 1935 lists Kyudo or Archery among the native sports [32]. The society Neya led published an English Introduction to Japanese Archery by Neya, Kumakichi, its publisher given as Nippon-kyudo-kwai; the booklet bears no date, and the catalogues give it 1924, in the cataloguer's brackets, and 1938 [33][34].

1945, the Occupation. The headquarters' Summation of November 1945 lists among the activities stopped in schools kendo, judo, naginata and kyudo [35].

1953, Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery. The book that made the art known abroad, translated from the German of 1948, uses neither kyujutsu nor kyudo: it says archery, and calls Awa's teaching the Great Doctrine [36]. Herrigel's essay of 1936 was published in Japanese, in Shibata Jisaburō's translation, the same year as 弓術に就いて, on 弓術, and in 1941 by Iwanami as 日本の弓術 [6]. Yamada Shōji 山田奨治, in 2001, uses kyujutsu in his study since it is the term actually used by Herrigel, and declines kyudo as a word which has modern connotations [6].

1953–2005, the federation and the scholars. Donn F. Draeger, in 1973, left the bow out of his history of the classical ways because kyudo, the "way of the bow," was not established as a definite budo entity until the twentieth century [37]. The All Nippon Kyudo Federation's Kyudo Manual, first published in 1953, in its revised English edition of 1971 dates the gradual disappearance of the words Kyujitsu … or Shajitsu … after the middle of the Meiji period [38]. Onuma Hideharu (1910–1990), in a book written with Dan and Jackie DeProspero and published in 1993, after his death, places the change two centuries before the clubs, the society and the press made it: it is generally thought that the word kyudo (the Way of the Bow) was first used in place of the word kyujutsu (the technique of the bow) in the seventeenth or eighteenth century [39]. Hurst, in 1998, on the Tokugawa texts: the term kyudo was almost unknown, and the change from jutsu to do in the names is a distinctly modern one [16]. Heinrich Dumoulin's history of Zen, in the English of James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter, puts it earlier and gives it a cause: Up to the Meiji period, the common expression for archery was kyūjutsu … The term kyudo … became common only during the Meiji period, probably promoted by Confucians, a cause no witness read here names [40]. The clubs, the society and the newspapers read here make it common between 1909 and 1930, the last Meiji year being 1912 [22][23][26][18].

2002 and 2026, the English Wikipedia. The article's first revision, of 13 December 2002, opens Kyudo is the Japanese art of archery [41]. The current one says In 1919, the name of kyūjutsu was officially changed to kyūdō, citing a web page of a Nagoya sword museum, and that the name was gradually replaced with "kyūjutsu" disappearing completely by 1933, citing Goka and Matsuo [42]. Their 1933 is the last book to use 弓術; their own pages record newspaper uses after it and two university clubs that keep the name today [9][18].

Today. The design is sold as Kyudo, the Japanese word as English took it in the 1930s. This history's gloss, Japanese archery, the martial art of the bow, gives what the dictionaries say the word names. The way of the bow is what its two characters say; English glossed the word the way of archery in 1931 and 1933, and the way of the bow is in Draeger's English of 1973 [29][30][37]; it is true to the name the clubs chose, but no dictionary read here gives it as the sense.

A reading

The renaming has been told as a decree: the Butokukai in 1919 turned 弓術 into 弓道, as it turned 柔術 and 剣術 into 柔道 and 剣道. The sources read tell it the other way round. The schools had the word on their transmission documents since at least the seventeenth century, in a sense of their own: the way a pupil enters, a house keeps secret, and that a genealogy sets over the lineages [10][5][13][14]. The clubs took it first, from 1909, and a student wrote down why in 1915 [22][23][9]. The archers' society registered the name on 23 June 1919, two weeks before the motion to rename was put to the Butokukai on 7 July, and some of its members had been asking for it for five or six years [26][18]. The Butokukai followed a change already under way, and the newspapers took ten more years to make it [18]. I read the name as one the archers chose for themselves, out of their own old vocabulary, and the association as confirming it.

What the name meant to them was not one thing. For the Butokukai the character 術 missed the spirit, and 道 replaced it; for Neya, 弓術 was Tokyo and 弓道 the empire, a part within a whole, kept rather than rejected [18]; for Awa, 弓術 was a disease and his own way a religion [6]; for the students of 1917, the word set them apart from the gambling ranges [9]. Inagaki's dissent of 1985 is the same history read from inside: the name was right, and riding it, some forgot to hit the target [8]. The dictionaries, which still give the two words as one [1][2], record the archers' own view better than the Butokukai's.

The sword treatise of 1729 has the oldest argument for the name in the sources read, and it is an argument about practice. Its 弓道 is the way one learns by doing, set against the Zen monk who has insight without practice [12]. A Zen journal of 1901 and Zen books to 1915 quoted the archer's sentence as a teaching of the mind, a generation before Herrigel [20]. A buyer who hangs these two characters hangs the name a generation of archers chose between 1909 and 1930, standing on a word their schools had written for three centuries.

Notes

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Kyudo (kyūdō) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
弓道VB3CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Kyudo (kyūdō) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
弓道VC3BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Kyudo (kyūdō) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
弓道VD3BJiun
Japanese Scroll of Kyudo (kyūdō) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
弓道VS3CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「弓道」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ, 入江康平), 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (入江康平), 百科事典マイペディア, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/弓道-52153
  2. 「弓術」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/弓術-476951
  3. 弓道, JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/弓道
  4. 山田美妙『日本大辞書』, 明治25 (1892) volume, p. 415, scan 15. National Diet Library pid 992946. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992946/1/15
  5. 『当世智恵鑑』, 正徳2 (1712), scan 10. National Diet Library pid 2554462. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554462/1/10
  6. Yamada Shōji 山田奨治, "The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 28(1–2), 2001, pp. 1–30, at pp. 3, 9–11 and 29. https://doi.org/10.18874/jjrs.28.1-2.2001.1-30
  7. F. Brinkley and others, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896, p. 851. Internet Archive cu31924082117288. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288/page/n882
  8. 稲垣源四郎「弓道の中の弓術について」, 『武道学研究』 18(1), 1985, pp. 1–4, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.11214/budo1968.18.1_1
  9. 五賀友継, 松尾牧則「「弓術」から「弓道」への移行時期とその理由に関する史的考察：学校弓道部の名称と出版物における語彙使用状況に着目して」, 『武道学研究』 52(2), 2020, pp. 57–72, at pp. 58–67. https://doi.org/10.11214/budo.52.57
  10. 杉森求身『日本弓道大系圖』, preface dated 延宝3 (1675), a manuscript copy, 静岡県立中央図書館 葵文庫, canvases 2–6, 国書データベース, 国文学研究資料館. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100065024/4
  11. 『倭漢武家名数』, 正徳6 (1716), scan 7. National Diet Library pid 11446120. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11446120/1/7
  12. 佚斎樗山『天狗藝術論』, 享保14 (1729), the copy of 筑波大学附属図書館, 卷一, canvas 14 (leaves 7–8), with the preface on canvas 7 and the colophon on canvas 87, 国書データベース, 国文学研究資料館. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100305147/14
  13. 『道成寺岐柳』, preface 寛延4 (1751), scan 15. National Diet Library pid 2554428. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554428/1/15
  14. 『武器考』, preface 文化5 (1808), scans 43 and 46. National Diet Library pid 2540393. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2540393/1/43
  15. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary, 1867, p. 211, scan 114. National Diet Library pid 1735285. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1735285/1/114
  16. G. Cameron Hurst III, Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, pp. 11 and 77.
  17. Iosif Goshkevich, 『和魯通言比考』, 1857, p. 333, scan 179. National Diet Library pid 3464024. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3464024/1/179
  18. 五賀友継『近代における弓道の形成に関する歴史的研究』, doctoral dissertation, 筑波大学, 2021, pp. 95–98, 117–120, 155–160 and 174–181. https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2002662
  19. 黒須憲「弓術から弓道への名辞の変化について：改称理由と意義に付いて」, 『武道学研究』 26 (supplement), 1993, p. 24. https://doi.org/10.11214/budo1968.26.Supplement_24
  20. 『禅宗』, 1901-06, National Diet Library pid 11006063, and five books of 1907 to 1915 on Zen and the warrior, known from the full-text search's snippets. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11006063
  21. 『武術叢書』, 1915, 天狗藝術論 卷一, known from the full-text search's snippets. National Diet Library pid 945805. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945805
  22. 『官報』 7729, 5 April 1909, p. 115, scan 19. National Diet Library pid 2951079. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2951079/1/19
  23. 『新潟県立新発田中学校一覧』, 明治44 (1911), p. 8, scan 10. National Diet Library pid 813320. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/813320/1/10
  24. 『関西十県教育視察管見』, May 1909, National Diet Library pid 808303, served to readers in Japan only; known from the full-text search's snippets. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/808303
  25. 五賀友継, 李燦雨「大日本弓道会の成立・展開と組織形態」, 『体育学研究』 63(1), 2018, pp. 121–137, at pp. 124 and 134. https://doi.org/10.5432/jjpehss.17005
  26. 『官報』 2116, 附録, 23 August 1919, p. 13, scan 20. National Diet Library pid 2954229. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2954229/1/20
  27. 『官報』 2098, 2 August 1919, p. 34, scan 2. National Diet Library pid 2954211. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2954211/1/2
  28. E. J. Harrison, The Fighting Spirit of Japan and Other Studies, 1913, read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive india.history.resource.91404. https://archive.org/details/india.history.resource.91404
  29. Tetsujiro Inoue, "The Gods' Own Way and World Peace", in The Golden Book of Tagore, Calcutta, 1931, p. 114. Internet Archive dli.csl.8463. https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.8463
  30. S. Ichikawa (Shoichi in the journal's index, Sanki in the Bibliographie von Japan, 1937), "Kyu-do, 'The Way of Archery' in Japan", Natural History 33(2), March–April 1933, known from the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive sim_natural-history_march-april-1933_33_2. https://archive.org/details/sim_natural-history_march-april-1933_33_2
  31. Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor, first published 1934, s.v. Kyu-do and Kyujutsu, read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive glossaryofconstr0000geor. https://archive.org/details/glossaryofconstr0000geor
  32. Pocket Guide to Japan, 1935, read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive in.ernet.dli.2015.126280. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.126280
  33. The National Union Catalog (Library of Congress), s.v. Neya, Kumakichi, 1874–, An introduction to Japanese archery, Tokyo, Nippon-kyudo-kwai, 1924 (the year in the cataloguer's brackets), 82 p., read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive libraryofcongres100gale. https://archive.org/details/libraryofcongres100gale
  34. A Bibliography of Archery, 1974, s.v. Neya, Kumakichi, An introduction to Japanese archery, n.d. (1938), read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive bibliographyofar0000lake. https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofar0000lake
  35. General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, no. 2, November 1945, read in the Internet Archive's full-text search windows. Internet Archive summation-non-military-activities-japan-korea-no-02-1945-11. https://archive.org/details/summation-non-military-activities-japan-korea-no-02-1945-11
  36. Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, translated by R. F. C. Hull, with an introduction by D. T. Suzuki, Pantheon, New York, 1953; read in a reprint of that translation.
  37. Donn F. Draeger, Classical Budo: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan, vol. 2, Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1973, p. 95, at the page image.
  38. All Nippon Kyudo Federation, Kyudo Manual, vol. 1, first published 1953, revised edition 1971, English translation, p. 75.
  39. Hideharu Onuma, with Dan and Jackie DeProspero, Kyudo: The Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1993, p. 6.
  40. Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, vol. 2, Japan, translated by James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter, World Wisdom, Bloomington, 2005, p. 283.
  41. "Kyūdō", English Wikipedia, revision of 13 December 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=530452
  42. "Kyūdō", English Wikipedia, revision of 23 June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1360815535
  43. 平瀬光雄『射学要録』, 天明8 (1788), printed; the work's record in the 国書データベース, 国文学研究資料館, which gives its date as 天明八刊. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/221567
  44. 『尚志会雑誌』 47, 第二高等学校尚志会, December 1901, National Diet Library pid 1542985, served to readers in Japan only; known from the full-text search's snippets. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1542985

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 弓道 (kyūdō)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kyudo.