World Archery Championships 1967 was the opportunity for Junji Miyata to develop FRP Japanese bows, and also there was another very important discovery. That was how Yugake of Kataboushi (Hard type finger cone) functions to keep the arrow straight in Kyudo shooting.
As a premise, we have to recognize that Kyudo shooting is different from the Western archery shooting and how an arrow fly. The details are described the article below.
Hanare in Kyudo is different from Release in western archery
In western archery, archers simply release the tension in their fingers which draw the string, to let the arro […]
ミヤタの弓の公式ホームページ Junji Miyata had to use Yugake of Yawaraka - Boushi in World Archery Championships 1967, due to the weather condition (Yugake of Kata-Boushi［hard - type finger cone］ could not function if it was wet) and other technical issues. After World Archery Championships 1967 he returned to Japan and practiced Kyudo with Yugake of Kataboushi, he felt the big difference between Kata - Boushi and Yawaraka - Boushi and deeply understood why Yugake of Kata - Boushi instead of Yawaraka - Boushi has been used in Kyudo until now since it was invented to use in Dosya ( Tohshi-Ya) in Edo period.
In ordinally Kyudo shooting with Yugake of Kata - Boushi, The string is locked by the Tsuru-Makura (groove) in Yugake of Kata-Boushi (Kyudo glove) when Kyudo archers in drawing (Hiki-Wake), and Kyudo archers gradually twist the bow in drawing process, and finally in Kai the string is released from the groove by the force of twisted bow. To use both type of Yugake, Junji Miyata realized that the groove is the most important part in Yugake of Kata - Boushi to keep the balance of right side and left side of an arrow until the last moment of shooting, which results in reducing the vibration dramatically to fly the long Kyudo arrow straight. Different from Western Archery, Archer's paredox is not necessary in Kyudo since the bow and strings rotates in shooting and the arrow feathers do not hit the bow if the bow properly twisted.
Comparing with Yugake of Kata - Boushi, Yugake of Yawaraka - Boushi without groove, Kyudo archers easily shoot by releasing the string by right hand (Mete Babare), which generates vibration such as western archery. The vibration is not good for long Kyudo arrows to fly straight, especially for thin bamboo arrow such as Enteki - Ya of Take - Ya. Also the vibration gives damage to a bow and strings.