Where can I find the book "Bow Road-Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery"?

In recent years, Japanese archways are striding towards the world. In Europe and North America, there are more and more archways hosted by Japanese. Archery has also entered western schools. It is said that some middle schools in the United States have listed it as a course to let students know about oriental culture and receive oriental psychological training. There are also well-equipped archery clubs in colleges and universities. However, the equipment in the archway is generally exquisite in workmanship and expensive, and this sport has great potential to become the sport of new noble after golf.

The quiet rise of memorial archways is a noteworthy phenomenon, which has also caused some thinking.

I knew little about archery in the past. Fortunately, I recently read a book about Japanese archery called Kyud's Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery. The authors of this book are Americans Deng Duprospero and Jaya Duprospero. Their archery teacher and internationally renowned archery master Konuma guided the completion of this book.

Hideyoshi Konuma is one of the most representative figures in contemporary Japanese archery. 19 10 was born in a famous archery family in Japan. 1990 died at the age of 80. He is the15th generation inheritor and disseminator of Japanese Hekiru Sekka-Ha Archery School and Kyushu Banshi, and is recognized as a veteran figure in Japanese archery field. He devoted his life to the protection, promotion and popularization of Japanese bows, and made outstanding contributions to the spread of Japanese bows overseas, especially in continental Europe. Therefore, the bow ring enjoys a high reputation in Europe.

The other two authors of this book, Deng Duprospero and Jaya Duprospero, are students of Keizo Obuchi. Both of them are not Japanese, but they have achieved the high position of the archway. Among them, Jaya Duprospero is the first non-Japanese woman to be awarded the fifth section of the arch.

The bow and track competition is one of the oldest sports forms in Gu Wu Taoism in Japan, and it is also one of the most traditional sports in Japan.

The archway has a set of elegant and strict learning scope and competition rules, with simple form, exquisite costumes and appliances and strict requirements for every move. The practice of archery attaches great importance to etiquette, pays attention to the dignity of teachers, and has a strong sense of culture, but it does not lose its charming leisure and competitiveness. The function of memorial archway is not complicated. Simple, through the requirements of high standards and specifications, contains difficulty and profound philosophy. It can be said that, like tea, calligraphy, local combination and other traditional Japanese cultural forms, the bow road can best reflect the nationality and traditional spirit of the Japanese.

On the basis of combining relevant literature and physical evidence, The Bow Road briefly states the historical origin of the Japanese Bow Road. The text is simple and clear, and this book is illustrated and readable. Most chapters in the book are used to describe the archway technology, that is, to introduce readers to the basic methods and related rules of archway. Obviously, this is the focus of this book. But between the lines of the book, the author intends to lead readers from the practical level to the spiritual field of archery, so that readers can clearly understand that practicing archery is not only an entertainment or an ancient shooting art, but also an attitude towards life, including the principles of life. In this respect, this book is a success. It really attracts readers and has a certain spiritual appeal.

According to the contents of this book, let's briefly introduce the Japanese archway.

Japanese archway originated from archery. No matter from archaeological discoveries or myths and legends, it can be confirmed that Japan has long had the technology to make and use bows and arrows. Around 50 BC, Japan issued a decree requiring people to make bows and arrows on certain days of the year to supplement the consumption of bows and arrows in the army. From this, it can be confirmed that as early as 2000 years ago, bows and arrows were one of Japan's main weapons and equipment. Like China, archery, as a national sport in ancient Japan, has rich philosophical connotations. It not only requires archers to have superb archery, but also requires archers to achieve a high degree of harmony and unity of body, mind, bow and arrow under the guidance of Tao, so as to express their pursuit of noble morality, yearning for and enjoying the beauty of strength and accuracy, and finally melt into the pursuit and worship of truth.

Arch emphasizes high-intensity basic training, and the most important training method is to repeat a basic movement thousands of times until it is accurate. Through this method of repeated practice, not only can the archer's skill be improved, but more importantly, the practitioner can achieve the "mind" tempering through the practice of "technique" and gradually understand the "Tao" of the arch road.

Paying attention to etiquette is one of the biggest characteristics of Japanese archways. This stems from the pursuit of harmony and morality in Japanese Wushu, and is also directly related to the Japanese cultural tradition of advocating etiquette. The basic principle of memorial archway is that if practitioners want to reach a higher technical level, they must first master all kinds of etiquette of memorial archway and implement it in practice activities and even daily life. Only through the high restraint of behavior and the unity of body and mind can people be calm and enter a state of "Tao" In this respect, the archway undoubtedly benefited from the ancient shooting ceremony in China, and Japanese archway believers also acknowledged this. They even think that the Japanese Bow Road is, to some extent, the continuation and localization of the ancient shooting ceremony in China.

Now the etiquette process before practicing the bow is not as complicated as before, but tends to be simple. However, simplicity does not mean perfunctory things, let alone showing "show" and impetuousness. The ceremony in just a few minutes still needs to be focused, solemn and meticulous. Before holding the bow, the shooter is required to face the target, stand upright and concentrate, so as to achieve a calm and calm state. It is required that before shooting, we must try our best to eliminate distractions in our hearts, seriously think about and clarify the purpose and significance of archery. After completing the above-mentioned psychological adjustment stage, the archer is naturally calm, steady and clear-paced, and then he can shoot arrows.

Generally, the whole process of archery in archway consists of eight movements. One is stand, which is called "Ashi Bumi" in Japanese; Second, the posture is correct, which is called "Dozukuri" in Japanese; Third, prepare a bow, which is called "Yujia Mae" in Japanese; Fourth, raise the bow, which is called "uchiokoshi" in Japanese; Fifth, bow-pulling, which is called "Hiki Waka" in Japanese; Sixth, before opening the bow, Japanese is also "Kai"; Seventh, put an arrow, which is called "hanare" in Japanese; Eight, the continuation of the arrow and the heart, which Japan calls "residual body" or "Zanshin". That is, the shooter still maintains his posture after releasing the arrow. At this time, his spirit seems to fly out with the arrow, reach the arrow target, and fly beyond it to further goals. This is the most thoughtful part of the whole radiation process.

The demonstration photos in the book "The Road to the Bow" were all completed by Mr. Hideki Kokujian himself. At that time, the old man was over 70 years old, wearing the traditional costume of Japanese bow and arrow. All his tricks and gestures revealed his profound skills and accomplishment, which made him a great man. Bows pay attention to imposing manner and the accumulation and concealment of internal forces, while excellent archers often have a mental state of overflowing internal forces, which is difficult for beginners and ordinary archers to do.

There are different opinions about the appearance of Japanese archways. The author of "Bow Road" thinks that the bow road was produced by ancient Japanese archery under the influence of Shinto and Zen Buddhism in China. Formally, it not only inherits the characteristics of Japanese archery, but also absorbs the content of China's shooting ceremony. While abandoning the complicated etiquette of China's shooting ceremony, he integrated many ideas of Zen. Therefore, many words spoken by Japanese archers, such as "one shot hits a hundred shots" and "shooting like running water", can be said to be full of Zen flavor and intriguing.

The Japanese believe that although the Japanese began to accept China's Zen as early as the Kamakura era (1 185- 1333), it was a part of self-cultivation. However, the influence of Zen Buddhism on bow and track mostly began in the Edo period of 17 and 18 centuries, that is, the mature period of Japanese Bushido. It was at that time that the Japanese officially renamed "Kyujutsu" as "Kyudo", completing the concept sublimation from "skill" to "Tao", thus opening a door to "seeking truth" for Japanese archery. Since then, learning archery is not only to master and improve archery, but more importantly, to improve one's personality. At the same time, the archway did not give up the essence of "pragmatism", but still emphasized hard training, taking endless technical training as the only way to the commanding heights of the archway. The motto of the memorial archway is: "Whether it is 1000 arrows or 10000 arrows, each arrow should be a brand-new launch!"

Like many traditional Japanese cultural forms, we can also find many shadows of China and traces of China's influence in the archway.

Makiwara, a straw target used by Japanese folk archers, originated in China and was mainly influenced by the authentic shooting of China Ming Dynasty archer Gao Ying. Most Japanese archers are familiar with the allusions of authentic shooting fake anvil. Authentic shooting was introduced to Japan during the Edo period in Japan. At that time, Tatsumi Gulai, a famous Japanese scholar, introduced a variety of China archery books, including Authentic Archery, into Japan and compiled a series of archery books, which had a far-reaching impact on Japanese archery. We also found in the image data of memorial archways that there is always a word "Hu" among the targets of many memorial archways, which is undoubtedly from China. Confucius said, "Shoot like a gentleman; If you lose the right ones, you will seek them. " The mandarin fish here is the target of archery.

It is only in recent decades that memorial archways were introduced into China from Japan. According to the introduction of Gonglu, after World War II, the book Zen in Japanese Archery by Eugen Herig was the first book to introduce Gonglu to the west, but it really developed in the last twenty years. Archery is undoubtedly a beautiful sport. It is beautiful not only because it shows a unique oriental charm, but also because it shows a single-minded and persistent pursuit of "truth" and a persistent and steady sense of strength, which is attractive to every modern person. This is also one of the important reasons why the archway goes to the world.

The reason why the Japanese Bow Road has been preserved so far is that it can go abroad, be gradually accepted by westerners and be integrated into the western society, which is inseparable from the Japanese cherishing their traditional culture and the unremitting efforts of the government and the people to carry forward the national culture. Over the past 100 years, Japan has experienced a broader and deeper modernization transformation than ours, and has also experienced a strong impact of westernization on tradition. However, they did a good job and successfully preserved the traditional culture, especially the national sports culture. As far as archway is concerned, Japan has not given up its own archway after accepting the competitive mode and rules of international archery. On the contrary, the archway is still developing and developing better. An important reason is that the research work is well carried out and there are many related works, and most of them are serious and standardized, and they don't deceive themselves with circumstantial evidence. In recent years, reference books on the bow track, such as "Dictionary of Bow Track" and "General Introduction to Bow Track Books", have been published one after another, which greatly improved their academic taste and attracted researchers at home and abroad. In this way, the archway is not only accepted by the public, but also openly enters the lecture halls of colleges and universities.

The success of the Japanese bow road has aroused many associations.

The first thing that comes to mind is our own archery, that is, China's archery, which was honored as "archery" by the ancients. From 1959, China's archery gradually disappeared. With endless sadness, he quietly left the Chinese civilization that accompanied him for thousands of years and became an ancient bone and an abandoned "old skill". Today, although some ethnic minorities still retain archery tradition, and the state also provides them with exhibition occasions, it is not the main body of China's "archery" after all, and its cultural connotation cannot be compared with "archery". With the rapid development of archery in Japan, we can't help sighing for the archery and a series of national sports we have lost. As Kong said, "We should lose all the good things, but look for all the good things." !