Equipment

The equipment you will need for practicing kyudo is, to start with, a keikogi (practice dress), consisting of an uwagi (jacket), obi (belt), hakama (trousers) and tabi (socks). Women also wear a muneate (chest protector).

What you get next is your own kake (shooting glove) with shitagake (inner glove) (to protect the glove from sweat and dirt), and your own ya (arrows) fitted to your arm length and draw weight of the bow. For the arrows you will also need a yazutsu (quiver).

Finally, after attaining sufficiently good technique, it is time to get your own yumi (bow). Usually, this is made of wood laminated with glass fibre or carbon fibre. A real bow, takeyumi, is handmade from bamboo, but such a bow is both expensive and delicate (especially in our dry winter climate), so it is often not until you have practiced for several years that you start thinking about getting a bamboo bow.

In addition, a number of accessories are needed, such as extra strings, a string holder, resin for the shooting glove, etc.