Kyudo and Sailing, birds of a feather…

A friend of mine said the other day, well a while ago now, about how I should have a larger motor for my sailboat. His reason being for safety & easy of use. He is not a sailor he owns a …powerboat. I told him a larger motor does equal more safety .  He does though do Kyudo, so  I tried to explain to him in a way he could understand. Power boats and Sailboats are like Kyudo and Western Archery. The ends are the same, hitting the target and gong where you want to be are the alikeness. However the style you travel, the journey is different.

With Western Archery you have compound bows, sighting finders, string release, plus other misc high tech stuff can be added. In all fairness there are rules and things to follow. You need still a steady hand and some other factors come into play, I’m just talking in general . Also not all the bows are the techy ones, I’m just speaking of the general trend… I’m just saying. So if you shoot Western style do not get your knickers all in  a knot.

Also if you drive a powerboat and do western Archery… well…heheh

With a power boat you check to see if you have fuel, oil, steering works put in the key and off you go. You can buy a powerboat and with no prior training could in most cases drive it home after a short lesson. Docking would be anther matter but that would be the same as the finer points with shooting in western archery.

With Kyudo, sometimes incorrectly called Zen Archery things get more complex even before you can get to shooting. There is learning how, to hold the bow and arrow , how to stand , how to raise the bow, how to draw the bow, how to hold the bow and nock the arrow, how to release the arrow. Plus all the pre-stageing stuff, how to walk, how to approach the shooting area, then come the refinements …The “Zen” factors, I’ll call it. If you do not like my use of that word, too bad, it’s my word and my blog and all my opinion! Incert whatever word you like, it is just a word, a finger pointing to the moon as it were. Heheheh. Yeah I like that phrase, I’ve used it a lot on the other blog. Anyway I digress…

As for buying a sailboat, and never sailed before. You should forget about taking it home under sail the first day or even week if you are smart. You need to understand how the boat moves, how the sails work, what line does what, how to even get the sails up, how to tack, gibe, stop the boat , basic sail trim, steer if you have a tiller not a wheel, points of sail. Then add on the refinements …”zen” stuff.

With the refinements we are getting into another realm. Now one is getting into the realm of Art, of connecting with the environment much like Kyudo and Zen tapping into the life Ki/Chi of oneself and that of nature.

Kyudo, Tai Chi, Tea Ceremony, sailing are Arts. They go beyond the technical aspect of pure function. Good power boating like good driving is a skill learned and developed on a technical level.

Being good technically on Kyudo is only half of the development. One can hit the target and still have poor Kyudo skills, one can sail a boat but still have poor sailing skills. Yet be fair-good technically.

With a good sighting scope even a laser , one can be good technically in western
archery . It is about hitting the target as is powerboat is about getting from point A to point B . They both are about the destination not so much the journey. Kyudo and Sailing are about the Journey not so much the destination… But it is still good to hit the target .