Somewhere, right now, someone is sweeping fallen leaves off their shooting range. Pulling weeds. Raking gravel smooth. That is what a range is supposed to look like. Clean, orderly, not a dead leaf in sight. For most archers, this is the default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My range is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaves stay where they fall. The weeds grow knee-high. It does not look good. I will grant you that. But this is not the result of laziness. It is deliberate. And this essay is about why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me be clear upfront. This is not an attack on well-kept ranges. A meticulously swept dojo has its own beauty, and I respect the discipline behind it. It is simply not what I am aiming for. That is all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me start with facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fallen leaves that accumulate in autumn begin to decompose over winter. Earthworms colonize the space beneath them. Those earthworms become bait for fishing. They become a rich protein source for chickens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weeds get eaten by the horse. Birds pick at their seeds. The horse sheds hair, and crows carry it off for nesting material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, a cycle is running on this range. Leaves \u2192 earthworms \u2192 fish and chickens. Weeds \u2192 horse and birds \u2192 crow nests. No one orchestrated this. The living things are doing it on their own. All I have done is not interrupt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is a question worth asking. What does “clean” mean? Does it mean visually tidy to the human eye? Or does it mean the cycle of life is turning without interruption?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That question is the starting point of my range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When people talk about the history of kyudo, they usually start with the samurai era. But the bow of the samurai era was kyujutsu<\/em> \u2014 martial archery \u2014 and each school transmitted its own distinct shooting method: Ogasawara-ryu, Heki-ryu, Honda-ryu, and others. There was no unified form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hassetsu<\/em> (eight stages of shooting) that most people associate with kyudo today was established in 1953, when the All Nippon Kyudo Federation published the first volume of the Kyudo Kyohon<\/em> (Kyudo Manual). The idea of kyudo as a “Way” \u2014 beginning and ending with a bow of respect \u2014 was systematized in that same era. It is a remarkable cultural achievement, and it deserves respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you look at the full span of the relationship between humans and the bow, both samurai-era kyujutsu and modern kyudo occupy only the most recent sliver of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A passage from the Showa-era volume of the Kindai Kyudo-sho Senshu<\/em> (Selected Writings on Modern Kyudo) puts it plainly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The moment a person is born into this world, the problem of survival arises immediately. Survival means food, clothing, and shelter. The most pressing of these is the need to obtain food. Hunting is therefore an indispensable means to that end. \u2026 That the bow and arrow has been the most effective tool for this purpose, in every nation since antiquity, is something no one can deny.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The bow was not born as a refined art. People drew the bow to eat. And the era in which people drew the bow to eat is overwhelmingly longer than any other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During that era, the place where bows were drawn was not a “dojo.” It was the forest. The meadow. The riverbank. A place where leaves piled up, grass grew thick, insects crawled, and birds sang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how did the people of that era relate to the natural world? Let us look at a few cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jomon period on the Japanese archipelago. A society that lasted from roughly 16,000 years ago to 2,300 years ago \u2014 more than ten thousand years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten thousand years. Consider the weight of that number. No one knows how long modern civilization will last. The Jomon people actually pulled it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A wooden bow dating to approximately 6,500 years ago was excavated from the Torihama Shell Mound in Fukui Prefecture \u2014 one of the oldest bows ever found in Japan. The Jomon people used bows like this to hunt deer and wild boar, eating the meat, using the hides, and fashioning the bones into tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did it last ten thousand years? Archaeologists keep coming back to the same answer: they did not take more than they needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Sannai-Maruyama site (Aomori Prefecture, approx. 5,900\u20134,200 years ago), evidence shows that Jomon people systematically gathered chestnuts and walnuts and stored them in underground pits. Even more striking is the evidence that they intentionally managed chestnut groves around their settlements. They did not clear the forest. They selectively tended it, keeping useful species while letting the forest grow alongside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no concept here of sweeping away fallen leaves. The leaves on the forest floor nourished the soil. The soil fed the plants. The plants sustained the animals. The animals sustained the people. The bow existed within that cycle \u2014 a tool for keeping the cycle turning, not something that stood outside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a culture that carried forward the spirit of the Jomon way of life in particularly vivid form: the Ainu of Hokkaido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Ainu world, kamuy (gods or spirits) dwell in all things. Animals, plants, fire, water, wind. Kamuy normally reside in Kamuy Mosir<\/em> (the realm of the gods) and descend to Ainu Mosir<\/em> (the human world) by taking the form of animals. When a bear appears in the forest, it means the bear kamuy has come bearing gifts of meat and fur for the people. That is the worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunting, then, is not an act of taking. It is the act of receiving a gift from kamuy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This distinction matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ainu used the bow as their primary hunting tool. They crafted bows from yew wood, strung them with whale sinew or the bark of oriental bittersweet, and tipped their arrows with poison extracted from Aconitum<\/em> (monkshood). They also employed amappo<\/em> \u2014 spring-loaded trap bows set along animal trails. Everything, from the bow itself to the arrow poison, came entirely from the natural world around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ceremony of sending the bear’s soul back to Kamuy Mosir is called iomante<\/em>. The people load the departing spirit with gifts and send it off with care. If the kamuy is treated well, it will gladly return. If treated poorly, it will not come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shigeru Kayano, who devoted his life to preserving Ainu culture, passed down this teaching: “All things in the universe have life, and everything that humans consider important is a god. All those gods are watching your actions, so behave in a way that would not shame you before any of them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way you related to nature was, in itself, an ethical code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result: in the era when the Ainu lived on and with the land, roughly ninety percent of Hokkaido was covered in forest. Do not take too much. Use everything. Give thanks. When these three principles held together, the forest remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turn now to the North American continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tribes of Native America also relied on the bow as a primary hunting tool. For the Plains Indians, the bison was the center of everything. Lakota and Dakota hunters brought down bison with their bows, ate the meat, used the hides for tipis and clothing, fashioned the bones into tools, and twisted the sinew into bowstrings. Waste from a single animal was close to zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the root of their worldview lay the recognition that all things are connected. Humans are not masters of nature but merely one constituent part of it. The concept of Oneness \u2014 that all things are one \u2014 was shared across many tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a widely quoted saying: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Its precise origin is debated, but as a statement of philosophy it captures the Native American relationship with land. For the Iroquois and many other tribes, land was not something an individual could own. Like air and water, it belonged to the community as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apply this idea to a shooting range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is “management” only the act of pulling every weed, removing every leaf, and reshaping a space to suit human convenience? Could there not be another form of management \u2014 one that preserves what already belongs to the land, maintains the cycle, and still provides a place to draw the bow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further north still. The Inuit of the Arctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For thousands of years, in tundra where farming is impossible, these people sustained themselves through hunting and fishing. What stands out about their way of life is that wastefulness and reverence do not conflict \u2014 they coexist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a caribou or seal is taken, the meat becomes food, the fat becomes fuel, the hide becomes clothing or shelter, the organs become dog feed. Surplus meat goes into stone-lined caches to prepare for the depths of winter. Waste is nearly zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the research of Nobuhiro Kishigami (Inuit: The Arctic Hunters Today<\/em>, Chuko Shinsho, 2005), in the world of the Netsilik Inuit, the spirits of hunted animals must be treated with respect. If the hunter processes the kill with proper reverence, the animal’s spirit will return to the same hunter again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we see here is a sharp line between “taking” and “plundering.” Receiving with respect and seizing by force are entirely different acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bring this back to the range. Sweeping leaves and pulling weeds looks like “tidying up.” But it is simultaneously erasing the earthworms’ habitat, cutting off the birds’ food supply, and taking away the horse’s forage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To tidy is also to take. Whether or not you are aware of that \u2014 that is the crux of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jomon, Ainu, Native American, Inuit. These cultures span different regions and different eras. Yet they share something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the bow stood at the center of daily life. Not as a refined art or a ritual form, but as a tool for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, there was a sense of “receiving” from nature. Not “taking” but “accepting.” That distinction underpinned everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, the cycle was never broken. Do not take too much. Use everything. Give thanks. Keep the cycle of life turning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth, it lasted. The Jomon sustained their society for ten thousand years. The Ainu kept ninety percent of Hokkaido forested. Native Americans maintained bison populations in delicate balance. The Inuit survived thousands of years in one of the harshest environments on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They did not know the term “sustainability.” They simply lived the way they lived. And the way they lived turned out to be sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sweeping every fallen leaf, pulling every weed, keeping a range immaculate from corner to corner. That is one kind of “clean.” Sweeping is a form of practice, and the discipline of maintaining a pure space runs deep. I have no intention of dismissing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the kind of “clean” I am chasing is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earthworms turning the soil beneath the leaves. Weed roots holding the ground together. The horse grazing. Birds pecking at seeds. Crows weaving the horse’s shed hair into nests. Nothing wasted. Nothing taken beyond what is needed. Every strand of the cycle turning without a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is what “clean” means to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stand on the range and raise the bow. Dry leaves creak faintly underfoot. Somewhere a crow calls. Wind stirs the weeds. The horse grazes slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I release. The string sings through the air. The arrow finds the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bamboo that made the arrow, the wood that made the bow \u2014 all of it came from nature. All of it will return to nature. And so will I, someday. Just as the fallen leaves do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A swept range is not wrong. I simply want to stand on an unswept one. I want to draw the bow in the midst of the living cycle. In a place where bow and arrow, soil and grass, insects and birds, horse and human all exist within the same unbroken circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is my range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Somewhere, right now, someone is sweepin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojikaryu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\n\n\nTen Thousand Years of Sustainability \u2014 Jomon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGifts from Kamuy \u2014 Ainu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Earth Is Borrowed \u2014 Native Americans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHunters Who Do Not Plunder \u2014 Inuit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhat Four Cultures Point To<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nRedefining “Clean”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Arrow Returns to the Earth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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