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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Traditional Japanese Mounted Archer
Ritual “Yabusame” Archery at the Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto Japan

We went to a traditional “yabusame” archery rite today at the Shimogamo Shrine, part of the month-long “Aoi Matsuri” Festival, whose most well-known part is the Aoi Matsuri procession in the middle of May.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Archery At Full Gallop

You can read about “Yabusame” on Wikipedia, but in short, this yabusame mounted archery involves an archer on a horse at full gallop running a 280-yard straight track with three small targets at equal intervals. The archer has but a few seconds between each one to grab an arrow, prepare it, aim, and shoot, and then must do it again two more times, all the while riding a horse at full gallop on a very thin track, without using his hands (because he's using them for the bow and arrows). As a specific discipline, it dates back about 800 years.

The targets are small (today's were about one square foot) but are fairly close to the track, so hitting them from that distance is not much of a challenge. The tricky part involves the whole “horse at full gallop” thing, as well as the “hands-free riding” and “just a few seconds between targets” bits. It's apparently a heady combination, because even though this particular shrine's yabusame rite is the most famous in Japan, with 15 presumably-elite riders from around the country (mostly from Tokyo and Kyoto) getting one run each, I think only four were able to hit all three targets.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Breakneck Speed With the Long Bow

What surprised me the most was the speed... I've seen countless full-gallop horses in movies, and I've been to a horse-racing track, but nothing prepared me for the explosive speed of these horses flying by at 35mph. It took several riders before I could even start to follow them with the camera.

For a better sense of the action, here's a link to the middle of a video on YouTube from the event at this same location a couple of years ago: Yabusame video.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/9, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
First Rider Heads To the Start

I hadn't been particularly interested in going, but we wanted Anthony to see it, and while he enjoyed it very much as we expected, we were surprised at how much we enjoyed it as well. It was quite exciting.

I almost didn't even bother bringing the camera, but am glad I did. The event wasn't really set up for photography (at least not good photography), and my primary concern was Anthony, and indeed, none of the shots I've seen so far could be called “quality”, but I'm happy for the memories. (I haven't even seen most of the photos yet... I don't have time for a proper writeup this evening, so I'm just sharing a few of the snapshots from early in the bunch.)

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Young Archer
going much, much faster than his composed expression belies

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Better Look at His Horse
( in the 3.6 seconds since the previous picture, he's shot one target and is already loading the next arrow )

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/9, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/9, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Helpers

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm, cropped — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Direct Hit
one down, two to go

The shot above illustrates what I got most of: people's heads. The original is even worse, but I cropped out most of the crowd in this one. But, at least it shows the target (what used to be a square of wood held by an upright of bamboo) and the bunt-end arrow.

A miss is silent, but a hit makes a loud and satisfying whap! sound.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Down Track
workers in yellow replace a target; scrum of cameramen await next rider

Me
with child shoulder weight added to steady the camera
( photo by Fumie with her cell-phone camera )

Continued here...