Originally published at: Japanese whistling arrow not what ashigaru wanted to hear today | Boing Boing
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neato. i’ve never heard of these before. (sorry, pun)
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Worth noting that few people reading this are capable of pulling back the bow that this woman used.
It’s sort of ridiculous how difficult it is.
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Archery was my sport in high school. We shot regular stick bows - compounds not allowed. I am amazed at both the bow and the shooting style! How does that even work? The bow looks uneven and drawing above your head??? I aimed straight down my arm to the tip of the arrow.
I’m totally blown away.
Though it should be noted that we didn’t see where the arrow ended up… 
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There is a weird amount of Kyudo instruction and demonstration in our area. Of course, there are probably 10 zen monasteries within a stone’s throw.
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Sounds like the kind of thing i’d be into, looked into it and there’s a place on the south side of town that teaches it. Interesting, i’ll keep it in mind though honestly driving to South Austin sucks. The traffic is always terrible.
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Wow, thanks for this! Into my folder of “stuff students will find interesting about history!” Seriously, much thanks!
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not as terror weapons like the Aztec Death Whistle.
Or the New Jersey “side eye death ray”, deployed by every Mom that ever lived in New Jersey.
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there’s the answer, grasshopper.
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Interesting! And I’ve been brushing up on German during the pandemic…
I remember when I was shooting really well how automatic everything was. Same holds for the sport I took up in college, figure skating.
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That was very cool.
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Some believe it was designed for use on a horse, where the yumi could be moved from one side of the horse to the other with ease, however there is evidence that the asymmetrical shape predates its use on horseback.
I had learned the horse thing, but I guess it’s a mystery.
Oddly, striking the target appears to be a fairly tertiary concern in kyudo.
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Did anyone else notice a couple of the dark-suited acolytes in the audience started to clap but swiftly stopped? I guess they weren’t yet fully au fait with the etiquette.
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I’m going to add “turnip-headed whistling arrow” to my archive of obscure insults
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For some reason, my New Jersey flashback involved the death whistle from those James Ryan martial arts movies. Kill or Be Killed or Kill and Kill Again could be considered terror weapons, if someone is forced to watch. 
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At least one of us made it out, the Lost Tribe of New Jersey is a thing.
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See if you can find a plan of where the shot were found. You can see the process of the battle in it - an attack from the south, then the surviving defenders made a break for it towards the north-east. You can see how far they got before they were killed.
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in the 1183 battle of Kurikara, for example, fifteen arrows were shot by each side, then thirty, then fifty, then one hundred, before these hundred samurai on each side actually engaged one another in battle.[2] It was also not uncommon for messages to be tied to these arrows, which could be shot into fortresses, battle camps or the like. This practice of the formal archery exchange likely died out gradually following the end of the Heian period, as war became less and less ritualized.
The arrows would also be sold at Shintō shrines as good luck charms, particularly around New Year’s Day; simply carrying a kabura-ya is meant to serve as a ward against evil spirits.
Very nifty, great art.
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My sons preference is a long unsymmetrical bow much like this, made of PVC pipe with a heat gun. They are so cheap and fun to make I have a pile of Reject bows and the kids forever find one that is “just right” and I just tune it up a little for them.
Kids learn to shoot like snipers. Now they are asking for stuff like this:
They market as S.A.F.E. arrows but I have questions.
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