Horsing around

What't that? Another blog that's not an hour after the last one, and yet not a month after it either? It's almost like this blog might be functioning as initially intended for once...

Saturday night at the dorm we had the welcome party, which brought all the residents, old and new, into the multi-purpose hall for lots of food and drink, which culminated in a beer pong tournament and then evolved into hitting the nightclubs of Shibuya.

Except I didn't go clubbing, because I had an early wake up on Sunday. That was because Sunday was the end of the Kamakura Festival, which is held in the old Samurai capital of Kamakura, which is in Kanagawa Prefecture, right next to Tokyo, and incidentally a stone's throw from where I used to live in 2011-12. What really appealed to me about this festival, which runs for a week, was that Sunday was a day of Yabusame, or horseback archery.

I had been to Kamakura before in October 2011 with my AFS chapter, also to see Yabusame, and so walking to the venue, Hachimangu Shrine, I was riding something of a nostalgia wave.

Also found the "Sexy Zone", something I don't recall being there last time

I was approached by a guide who spoke very good English, who gave me an information pamphlet and told me the timetable for the day, as well as asking where I was from. When I said I was from New Zealand, but living here, and he asked what I was doing, the answer of "I'm studying at Tokyo University" caused the shock and awe response I have grown accustomed to (I can hear my friend Claire sighing already). Once that dust had settled, he pointed me in the right direction, and off I headed up towards the Shrine, seeing a pair of dogs in a pram on the way.

Claire sighs at "T-Bombs", I sigh at this

This was all just before 11am, with the tournament kicking off from 2pm. The amount of free standing public space was very limited though, and so I reasoned I could explore the shrine another day, opting instead to secure a front row place by the fence straddling the main stage. This was a good idea, as soon people were jostling behind me for a good view, and I felt quite comfortable, having bought some convenience store food, as well as a couple of bottles of water, and my iPod. The next few hours of standing doing nothing were whiled away listening to podcasts about land-mines, the Charles Manson murders, and the mystery of the Mary Celeste. That I waited patiently in the same spot for so long also meant I felt less bad about the fact that my excessively large camera lens would soon be in dozens of peoples' photographs - I'd earned this spot dammit!

A brief bit of history about Yabusame - the 9th Century Emperor Uda ordered one of his courtiers, Minamoto Yoshiari, to come up with set rules for what had previously been a fairly ad hoc demonstration of martial skill. The reasoning for this codification was because Yabusame was also used as a ritual for peace, good health and a bountiful harvest. 

The ritualistic aspect of Yabusame has archers riding a horse, charging straight down a stretch of earth around 280 metres long, firing arrows at three targets. These ritual targets are large pieces of wood with colour paper on, and a ring of flowers on the back, the latter of which represent a warrior who killed himself out of shame for missing the target. Striking the target with their arrows, which are blessed before the ritual, symbolises hitting demons which might bring about malady and other bad things.

The second aspect of Yabusame is a competition, whereby the archers fire their arrows at increasingly small targets, until the last round where ceramic targets are used, which are filled with coloured paper, meaning when they are struck and the ceramic breaks, the paper flies through the air like a firework.

Once a winner has been determined after five rounds, the archers all proceed back into the lower shrine where the Magistrate (essentially a referee) inspects the ritual targets (which is a metaphor for examining demon heads for arrow wounds), and the winner is announced. Following this there is a big celebratory shout, and the archers all drink some blessed sake.

This ritualistic side was very interesting, but from my position I was only really able to see the actual shooting, with those who were late to the game being afforded an excellent view of arrow blessing (though I know which I'd rather be at), so all I got of that was some shouts and so on - I'm sure it all looks very ornate though.

What I could see was the Chief Supervisor riding in a circle inside the ring of archers, pulling his bow first to the heavens and then down to earth, which is a prayer for peace, health and harvest. There were some speeches by three "Miss Kamakura", which I found quite amusing - hopefully they had a bit more going on than stereotypical American beauty pageant women! Then the temple attendants formed up in a procession behind the head priest, who blessed the actual strip of earth used by the archers, and then the tournament was ready to begin!

As I said earlier, this was not my first Yabusame, with 2011 being my first time - indeed we were given premium seats which gave us a good view of the targets too. However being 2011, my camera was not of a comparable quality to the one I have today, and my skill far less; so for comparison's sake here is the best photo I could find of my 2011 experience:

The skill of the archers is phenomenal, as they must hit three targets as they barrel down the 280 metre length, giving them a very small amount of time to reload and aim before they need to fire again - no sooner had an arrow been loosed were they nocking another.

After each round the riders would march back to the start, with their heads bowed as they passed the Magistrate overseeing the tournament. Apparently they also take their left foot out of the stirrup, as this is the one which bears most of their weight when firing - to have their left foot out shows the Magistrate (who is also on their left side as they return to the start point) that they bear him no malicious intent and will not fire at him (wonder who the unfortunate Magistrate was that made that rule a necessity...)

These archers have little red demon heads on their hats, indicating they have won previous tournaments - having "killed" a demon in the past

This rider is yet to win a tournament, but as he had only been on the scene for a year this was to be expected

As the archers were doing their thing, all of the young priestesses were lining up as well to watch, which I thought made a nice photograph:

With all of the people around, it was inevitable that various iphones and little annoying cameras on selfie sticks were getting in the way, so we were leaning further and further out to get an unobstructed view (though some small traces remain, so please forgive fuzzy black and white patches in the corners of some of the shots)

The amount of grit the horses kicked up was understandably quite a lot, and so I was incredibly glad I foresaw wearing my sunglasses as a good idea, for a small pebble was thrown through the air and hit my left sunglass lens smack bang in the middle - that would have been an unpleasant Yabusame experience...

With the integrity of my eyes intact, I set myself of getting a 'money shot', which to me was capturing the archer on his horse with the arrow loosed, but still in frame. The speed of everything combined with the presence of others trying to get photos meant I had some difficulty at times (not to mention a Canon 5D MkIII can shoot up to 6 frames per second; on the face of it quite fast, but as I found with Yabusame arrows, not always fast enough). Despite all these challenges, I was very satisfied with the following shots:

Gotcha!

Gotcha again!

Three's a charm!

 As a side note, it was funny hearing the people watching the videos their iPhones had been shooting as the horses ran past, with the audio consisting of clickclickclickclickclickclick from my camera shooting, and then a cheer as a target was struck.

With the final round complete, the attendants took down the ritual targets for inspection, and the procession headed back to the shrine for the final announcement and ceremonial sake consumption.

This also gave me an opportunity to photograph an archer who wasn't on his horse, to give an idea of the clothing they wear - it seems a lot of deerskin goes on top of their silks!

They also ride with one or two swords in scabbards, meaning these guys are ready for anything!

Needless to say I was very pleased with my decision to go, even if my feet were very sore at the end of it! There is another tournament taking place in November that I might have to check out (especially as it is close to Tokyo!) 

Otherwise there is little to report, as the last blog really covered the academic side of things for the next while - other than that I am now resolved to getting up at 5.40 most mornings as my body clock wasn't letting me sleep in until a reasonable time like 7, so I figured I may as well make the most of the mornings.

But for now, stay frosty out there!

Troy :)