Toyohiko Okamoto (豊彦岡本) (artist 1773 – 1845)

Yabusame [流鏑馬] drawing (?): an archer on horseback preparing to shoot an arrow

Drawing

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Date:1800s
Dimensions:15.25 in x 29.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Wash drawing in sumi and color
Inscription:Signature: Okamoto Shuko
Seal reads: Drawn by the scribe Okamoto Toyohiko
"San mai no uchi" (三枚之内) in lower right
Artist's seal in red: 岡本豊彦書画之記
Links Description:Look at the arrow - it is a kabura-ya (鏑矢)

Things associated with archery took on mystical powers against malevolent forces centuries ago: the bow, the arrow and the cord that held the bow tautly. The kabura-ya or 'turnip-shaped arrow', with its whistling noise when shot through the air, was used to frightening off evil ghosts that were believed to consume new born babies right after childbirth. In 'Twanging Bows and Throwing Rice: Warding Off Evil in Medieval Japanese Birth Scenes' by Yui Suzuki, Artibus Asiae, vol. LXXIV, no. 1, 2014, on pages 38-39 the author says:

"Another important ritual practice commonly depicted in childbirth scenes is that of a man twanging the string of his bow. The Hungry Ghosts Scroll scene shows only the interior of a domestic household, but in the Kitano Tenjin engi, a man on the veranda outside the birthing room pulls back the string of his bow as he faces the garden... Similarly, in the childbirth scene from Hasedera engi, a man in white purified robes and black eboshi cap is illustrated holding his bow on the veranda just outside the birthing room. From the late ninth century, twanging the bowstring was a ritual known as meigen ("to sound a bow"), believed to be an auditory deterrent against harmful spirits. The ritual was also known as hikime, in which an arrow with a rounded tip punctuated with holes (kabura) was shot into the air, and the whistling sound it made was believed to scare away evil spirits. In the Heian court, a special unit of imperial bodyguards called Takiguchi performed the meigen regularly to protect the emperor. Meigen [鳴弦] is also performed at royal childbirths and during certain purification rites to drive away evil spirits. In her diary, Murasaki Shikibu writes that when Empress Shōshi gave birth to prince Atsuhira, twenty men performed meigen during the Ceremony of the First Bath (yudono no gishiki). In her novel, The Tale of Genji, Prince Genji orders a palace guard to twang his bowstring and shout warning cries after encountering a menacing presence."

"Although meigen is mentioned in various Heian- and Kamakura-period written sources, it is still difficult to ascertain how it was performed. The illustrations in the Kitano Tenjin and Hasedera engi scrolls are invaluable because they show that the meigen performer positioned himself on the veranda just outside the room where the birthing was taking place. Even more importantly, meigen twanged their bowstrings while facing away from the house. As the women indoors scattered the rice to deal with demons that may have managed to sneak their way inside, the men outdoors performed meigen to hold wandering spirits at bay."

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Flèches résonantes--On y trouve des sabres de toutes grandeurs et surtout des flèches résonant 鳴鏑矢 nari-kabura-ya ou simplement kabura-ya 鏑矢, lesquelles constituaient, avec les flèches empénnees 天羽羽矢 ama no habaya, une des pièces importantes de l'armement japonais, armement qui mérite de retenir notre attention, car à lui seul il prouve l'origine asiatique des Japonais."

"La flèches résonante est ainsi appelée parce que le morceau d'os de forme oblongue qui réunit à la tige la pointe en fer de la flèche est percé des plusieurs trous, de sorte qu'en volant dans les airs elle résonne d'un façon sui generis. La flèches résonante et empénnee devait être une arme remarquable dans les temps primitifs, car une passage du Nihon shoki nous raconte que lorsque l'arrière grand-père de Jimmu, Ninigi no mikoto 瓊瓊杵尊, descendit de la plaine du haut ciel 高天原 Takama-ga-hara pour gouverner, lui est sa descendance, la "luxuriante plaine des roseaux," 葦原中国 Ashihara-no-nakatsu-kuni, il était muni de la céleste flèches empénnee et de la flèches résonante. Dans un autre endroit le même livre nous raconte une singulière histoire. Lorsque Jimmu Tennô, poursuivant le cours de ses exploits, pénétra dans le Yamato, un chef du pays, Nagasun-ehiko, lui envoya une émissaire avec et message: "Autrefois la déesse qui fait briller le ciel (Amaterasu 天照) eut un fils qui, monté sur un navire en pierre, descendit du ciel et épousa ma sœur; il en eut un fils Nigihaya no mikoto 饒速日命, que je reconnais pour mon souverain; or, voilà que, toi aussi, tu te dis fils d'Amaterasu et, à ce titre, tu prétends enlever aux autres leurs domaines; la céleste déesse avait-elle donc un surcroît de deux fils?--Et Jimmu de répondre: "Les fils de la déesse qui fait briller le ciel sont nombreux; si ton souverain est également fils d'Amaterasu, il doit avoir un signe en sa possession: qu'il le montre." Alors Nagasun-ehiko lui présenta une céleste flèches empénnee et un carquois; Jimmu l'ayant examinée dit: C'est vrai, et don sa côté il lui montra des flèches semblables en son possession."

Quoted from: Le Shintoïsme: religion nationale, Volume 1 by J.-M. Martin, 1924, page 16.

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"San mai no uchi" (三枚之内) would seem to indicate that this is one of a set of three or an image to be spread over 3 sheets, put together horizontally. This appears to be a drawing for something to be printed as there are indications of colors to be used in various areas.

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In the Journal of Asiania Sport for All, 2015.13(1) there is an abstract entitled: 'Traditional Sport from Cultural Perspectives in Japan' by Yasuo Yamaguchi of Kobe University. On page 41 it notes that " "Yabusame” is a kind of horseback archery, in which archers try to hit marks evenly set apart by using “Kaburaya” whistling arrows. The old archery game also has been regarded as a sacred one. The origin of “Yabusame has yet to be known, but it is believed to have started as a sacred rite."

"Today, the most famous “Yabusame” style is the Takeda School, which requires the positions of commander, archer, judge, sacred gifts manager, arrow collector, flagmen, starter and drummer. The horse runway should be approximately 218 meters long, and three targets are placed there. Each target is a 54cm × 54cm Japanese cypress broad covered by five-color, round-shaped paper. Flowers of four seasons are placed behind the target. When an arrow misses the target but touches the flower, it should be counted as a successful shot."

[Note that properly speaking, this archer on horseback is not practicing yabusame since the horse is not speeding along. Perhaps he is simply a design for an archer on a horse.]

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The yabusame is discussed in a scholarly article, 'Sacred Dance at Sensōji: The Development of a Tradition' by Gerald Groemer in Asian Ethnology Volume 69, Number 2 • 2010: "For much of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Sanja Gongen commenced its year with a series of ceremonies featuring kagura and a sacred equestrian archery exhibit (yabusame 流鏑馬). These two events were normally presented on the fifth day of the New Year. Yabusame is not listed in rosters of Edo annual events in the 1690s, though note is taken of other Sensōji performances and rituals. Sacred archery does, however, appear in guides to the city from 1723 and 1735. These record that yabusame at the Sanja Gongen took place on 1/5. Perhaps Tamura and his administration instigated this event or at any rate boosted it to prominence… Edo archery had been on the rise during this era. Around 1724 shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune commanded Ogasawara Sadamasa 小笠原貞政 (the twentieth head of the Ogasawara family, in charge of bakufu etiquette) to tutor the warrior class in proper forms of archery. Yabusame presented at the Ana-hachiman shrine at Takada-no-baba in Edo in 1728 featured equestrian archers dressed in Kamakura-period garb boldly galloping down a 250-meter course and seeking to hit a series of targets. On this occasion yabusame served as an appeal to the gods for the shogunal heir to recover from smallpox, but it was repeated again on many later occasions with no reference to such motives."

"By the mid-eighteenth century, Sanja Gongen yabusame had established itself as a well-known New Year’s event in the capital. The archery presented was not, however, the sort displayed at Takada-no-baba in the city. Nor did it resemble that exhibited at the famous Suwa, Fushimi Inari, or Tsurugaoka Hachimangū shrines, where it was usually enacted with much fanfare during the eighth month. Sanja Gongen yabusame more closely resembled a ceremony accompanying the “first archery” of the year (yumi-hajime shiki 弓始式) staged at many shrines throughout the Kanto area. Indeed, it looked suspiciously like the archery exhibits (not all equestrian) taking place at Sagami shrines staffed and led by men related to Tamura’s organization. Sagami yabusame was commonly displayed during the first week or two of the New Year… A late Edo-period report states that men at the Rokusho myōjin 六所明神, an influential Sagami shrine closely associated with “masters of sacred dance,” produced yabusame annually on 1/17... A similar ritual took place on 5/5 as part of the shrine’s grand festival... At the nearby Shirahige shrine 白髭神社 in Odawara, yabusame was also witnessed every year on 1/7, supposedly since the Kamakura period... A comparable spectacle was staged on 1/8 at the Samukawa shrine 寒川神社 near Tamura village, the hamlet of Tamura Hachidayū’s ancestors. Here standing archers released arrows at a target emblazoned with a stylized ideograph for “demon” (鬼 oni). This mark was held in place by twelve (in leap years thirteen) bamboo poles... Yabusame at the Sanja Gongen also featured a cypress plaque with the character “demon,” though it was elevated by only one shaft of bamboo... The archer, donning a lacquered court hat and white attire, was mounted on horseback. Through his actions he drove out demons from shrine precincts. This sort of familiar rite was also frequently known as oni-yarai 鬼遣らい (“ousting demons”) or tsuina 追儺 (“expelling calamity”)."

"The religious connotations of Sensōji yabusame were fortified by embedding it in a series of exorcistic events of differing provenance. 1/5 commenced with a solemn performance at around nine o’clock in the morning dedicated to Goō 牛王 (or Gozu tennō 牛頭天王), the heavenly “bull-headed king” traditionally linked to “mountain ascetics” (yamabushi) and the Kumano shrines. This divine “king” was believed to be efficacious in preventing disease and in warding off evil. The ceremony in his honor at the Sanja Gongen was carried out by seven Buddhist priests and two novitiates. After this event Buddhist music (hōraku 法楽) was intoned by six Buddhist priests and three acolytes from a subsidiary temple. During the period of Tamura’s headship the ceremonies then turned to noontime prayers and finally moved on to kagura and yabusame."

The last part of the ceremony was described in 1800: "When the kagura performance is over, Hachidayū lowers the bow and arrow from its position before the gods and hands it to a shrine official. This official mounts a horse which has been brought here earlier. Another official, wearing a figured costume with Chinese-style designs and a demon’s mask, takes the target and attaches it to a green bamboo pole about seven feet tall. Four assistants lead the demon by the hand, hold the target, and run before the horse for yabusame. The archer from the shrine who performs the yabusame begins to shoot his arrows from the east, then proceeds through the torii [鳥居, sacred gate] of the Sanja Gongen, circles twice around the main temple hall from the west to the north, and returns to the Sanja Gongen, where he dismounts.13 It is said that picking up the fallen arrows brings good luck, so all the spectators clamor to obtain them. When the yabusame is over, the spectators fight to obtain the ceremonial rope that has been hung around the Sanja worship hall. In accordance with tradition, nobody stops them from doing so."
Related entities warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)

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