May 3, 1999. 'Yabusame' or horse back archery from Kyoto City. 'Yabusame' is a Shinto ritual praying for the safe journey of the 'Aoimatsuri' festival and parade on May 15th. The neigborhood of the 'Shimogamo Shrine' is a dark forest called 'Tadasuno-mori'. A straight and narrow riding path of 350m is set and one target (a Japanese cedar wood board of 50cm square) is placed at intervals of 100m. The riders try to shoot through these targets. There are several schools of 'Yabusame' following the old ways. Twenty archers from all over Japan such as Nikko, Kamakura, Fukui, Nara, etc., gather and compare their techniques. A swift horse gallops through this course in 15 seconds. The rider must handle the horse with just his legs, place three arrows set in his waist upon the string, and aim for the targets one after another. A very high degree of skill is required. When the starting preparations are over, a red fan is raised and the horse starts running. The archer draws a bow saying "in, yoo" (meaning shade and light). When the archer hits the target squarely and the cedar board splits and falls with the sound of a 'thwack', a great cry and the clapping of hands can be heard from the audience who had been watching and holding its breath. By the way, it was very hard to get a picture of the 'Yabusame' archery with a digital camera.

	The arrow flies with the shout of 'in, yoo'. It was a tense moment as the archer reigned the galloping horse with his legs and fixed the arrow set in his waist and drawing the bow.		The archers with the officials of the Shinto ritual enter the riding course.
	The target is a Japanese cedar board of 50cm square. You can get a sense of the size from the child holding it.		The occasion was favored by magnificent weather. It was announced that there were 20,000 spectators. Amateur photographers took up their positions quickly and waited for a good photo opportunity.