Kozan Morikawa in 17th century (Edo period) streamlined schools of Kyu-jutsu (traditional Japanese archery), such as Heki-Ryu, Ogasawara-Ryu, and so on, and set the shooting methods and 6 principals. Then first he put the name this streamlined Kyu-jutsu KYUDO, YAMATO-Ryu (Yamato means Japan).
5 shooting methods
- Makiwara-Mae: Shooting in front of Makiwara
- Komato-Mae: same as Kin-Teki, shooting at the target 28m distance.
- You-Mae (Teki-Mae) shooting in front of enemy: needs pierce trough a thick metal armor)
- Sashiya-Mae: shooting for discouraging attacks from enemy in the far distance
- Toya-Mae: Shooting arrows as far as an archer can to send the letter attached to an arrow
*Komato-Mae: Samurai troop must hit the enemy in one shot by their bow and arrows in front of the distance 28m (average distance between their troop and the troops of enemy in the forefront of battle field in medieval wars)
6 principals
- Kyu-Ri: Theory of Kyudo
2. Kyu-Rei: Etiquette in shooting of Kyudo and others
3. Kyu-ho: Courtesy in handling Kyudo equipment and others
4.Kyu-Ki: knowledge of Kyudo equipment
5.Kyuko: knowledge of maintenance of Kyudo equipment
6. Tanshin (Renshin): Mentality of Kyudo
In medieval period in Japan, Samurai as a Kyudo archer needs to acquire all the methods and the principals.
Sakae Urakami (the deceased), the head of Urakami-Dojo of Hekiryu-Insai, granted Junji Miyata the tile of Menkyo-Kaiden (the Master of Hekyu Insai), the proof of that he mastered all the skills and principals of Hekiryu Insai.
Actually, Junji Miyata could not practice Teki-Mae, since the methods is very dangerous in the modern Budo / sport environment, but actually he mastered other 4 methods and 6 principals.
Especially, Kuko, including Ite-Mura (Shaping a Bamboo bow by Kyudo player) gave Junji Miyata the important skills and knowledge to make FRP bows.
(Quotation: "Practical shooting methods in Hekiryu", written by Genshiro Inagaki (the deceased) [Hanshi 9dan, the Kyudo instructor of Waseda University and Tsukuba University]）