Introduction

Yawatashi is performed by the highest-ranking teachers at the opening of each public kyudo (Japanese archery) event such as grade (dan) tests, tournaments and seminars. This highly prestigious ceremony is intended to ensure the well-being of the participants and the auspicious progress of the events. Yawatashi sets into motion a complex cosmos in which the archers will act in the course of the ensuing event. In two separate interviews I conducted in Tokyo, I asked two senior teachers, Sakamoto-sense and Ishigawa-sense, about the meaning of yawatashi. Sakamoto, a senior teacher in the Honda school of kyudo, gave me a detailed and informed answer, explaining how the ceremony calls on the Shinto kami to give the arrows over for the event and thereby ensure its safe unfolding. The other interview was with Ishigawa-sense, a central figure in the ‘All Nippon Kyudo Federation’, senior teacher at the Shiseikan — the main kyudojo in Tokyo situated at the Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine complex — who is also head of the Tachikawa school and served as leader of the Japanese delegation to the European kyudo federation's summer seminars in 2009. I have watched him perform yawatashi to perfection several times, at the most important kyudo events in Tokyo; he registered slight surprise at my question about the meaning of the ceremony, replying only, ‘That's how we always do it!’