Archery, or kyudo, "the Way of the bow," has a venerable Asian history. Confucius recommended it as one of the Six Arts, Siddhartha (later, the Buddha) was an adept who used the "bow of meditation" to draw the "arrow of wisdom," and Japan's Amaterasu, the sun goddess, was said to have carried a bow along with quivers containing a thousand arrows.
In Japan, it was the civil wars of the 13th century that emphasized mounted archery training and this led to further specialization and a number of schools. Their teachings were both refined and elaborated upon and certain schools were strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism.
Among these was the Heki school of archery, established by Heki Danjo Masatsugu (d. 1502) and continuing to today. Among the many master archers produced during the following centuries, outstanding was Awa Kenzo (1880-1939), the subject of this interesting and enlightening study by John Stevens.