Yabusame is mounted archery that is both sport (martial arts) and religious ritual. The earliest samurai were mounted archers and Yabusame was a way to keep up their skills. In Shinto, Yabusame is done to entertain the gods in return for blessings or divinations of the future.
November 3rd is a public holiday known as Culture Day (Bunka no Hi) and at Meiji Shrine in Harajuku they do Yabusame where they shoot at hardened paper targets and small clay pots.
2 ноя 2015
