Mounted Archery
Yabusame (Mounted Archery Performance)
1st Sunday in every June (2021 June 6)
12:30-14:00 (12:30 shrine rituals,13:00 mounted archery)
Viewing is free. No registration required.
(Cancelled in inclement weather.)
Until now it had been held on November 3, it has been changed in June.
Until now it had been held on November 3, it has been changed in June.
Mounted archery of the Kamakura Takeda School by the Japanese Traditional Archery on Horseback Association.
Yabusame is the art of shooting arrows, Japanese style. In this shrine, the Takeda School of Horseback Archery performs it for an annual ritual to please the gods. Yabusame is a colourful and exciting event where archers on horseback will shoot arrows at targets.
Yabusame is the art of shooting arrows, Japanese style. In this shrine, the Takeda School of Horseback Archery performs it for an annual ritual to please the gods. Yabusame is a colourful and exciting event where archers on horseback will shoot arrows at targets.
Both archers and horses will dress richly in ancient-style costumes, and go through a series of solemn steps before they let the arrows fly. This event starts with a ritual called the Kaburaya houken-no-gi, in which arrows are offered at the main sanctuary, followed by a procession to the front path of the shrine.
After a ritual called the Tencho-chikyu-no-shiki, the performance of ancient Japanese archery, called yabusame, begins, about seven mounted archers running at a full gallop take aim at three targets in succession.
An exciting and colourful display of Japanese spot, you will be surprised with the loud sound an arrow makes when it strikes the target.
