Kyujutsu

This series of works are all inspired by the World of Kyujutsu (Japanese battlefield archery).

The relatively rare martial art is something that I’ve been involved with for over a decade and have attained the rank of fourth Dan black belt in Yamabushi Ryu Kyujutsu.

At the end of a training session I was struck by the holes left in the paper targets. Although appearing to be random they were the result of each archers efforts to attain a perfect hit. This apparent chaos arose from a very orderly desire and it’s this juxtaposition that was appealing and started me on a path to try and capture it in a series of works.

On each artwork the pieces are placed in the same pattern that arrows (known as Ya) pierced a paper target. The pieces used range from cherry blossoms (Sakura), Ginkgo leaves (Ichou), Chrysanthemums (Kiku) and the feathers on the arrow (Hane).

The title denotes the pieces used, the target size and the number of arrows represented.