So yesterday I hiked for about 4 hours, meaning I don't feel the need to go for a freezing cold jog. Also, I don't have to prepare any lessons for tomorrow. Additionally, I'm currently waiting for a mess of video files to convert for a project. All of this should tell you I have a ton of free time on my hands so I can do all kinds of useful things...
Like updating my blog!
Let's talk about awesome things for a second. Horses, they're pretty awesome. In some places like rural America, rural Japan, rural anywhere that horses are domesticated, they're still the primary power source on small farms. Horses are also athletes, running in races like the Triple Crown and also dancing unnaturally in the ridiculousness that is dressage. (That's about as white collar as it gets. "Hey, I have a $9,000 beast of strength and kickass. I'll make it dance to "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'.") Some countries still use horses as their primary mode of transportation.
See "Seinfeld" episode "The Pony Remark."
I may be horribly out of touch with Poland's current state of affairs, but from what I know, this seems a logical leap.
Anyway, horses are pretty great. They're not rocket scientists by intellectual standards, but hey, they're horses. What do they need rockets for?
Now, archery. Archery is also rather, really, totally awesome. One of the oldest forms of killing something and watching the light leave its eyes from some distance, archery has shown itself to be pretty freaking cool throughout history. The Mongols (Genghis Khan's clan, to name names) were some of the first to actually start shooting arrows at targets from horseback. That takes some serious skill: taking your hands off the reins, drawing a bow which requires considerable abdominal and upper arm strength, aiming from the swaying back of the machine beneath you and actually hitting something.
Yeah, hardcore.
Japan also has a long history of horseback archery, or "yabusame." It all started in the Kamakura Period, (lasting roughly 1185 to 1333) when shogun Minamoto no Yorimoto was appalled at the lack of archery skills in his samurai. So how did he decide to spruce up the troops? Tasking them with learning archery ON A HORSE.
That training came into use during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and Taira shogun clans. At the end of one battle, the defeated Heike clan retreated from the Genji and took to their boats. The Genji pursued them on horses, but were stopped by the sea. The boats floated offshore waiting for favorable winds. As a sign of their "chivalrous rivalry," someone on a Heike boat hung a paper fan on a mast and challenged a Genji to hit it with an arrow.
One Genji rode his horse into the water, took aim with his long Japanese bow and shot the fan right through. It's still a well-known event today. So well-known that it's a common late summer festival event all over Japan.
I went to a yabusame festival in Tono last month. It was a great day trip and I definitely got a feel for the history and the excitement that the festival is all about.
As each rider raced down the track and shot the wooden targets, the crowd's collective voice rose, roared and cheered!
Immediately behind the archer, a retainer in blue rode with his arms outstretched. He'd turn sideways in his seat for every target hit. It's an interesting way to tally the score since the track is long and it'd be difficult for the judges to see the targets at both ends.
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