Japanese micro-bows

Gianrico; If I am not mistaken, these are Carriage bows as described in Stone's Glossary (Weapons Manual). They were made of whale baleen. Were to be used to defend against highway men at close quarters. 1800s, I think. -j-

Gianrico,
Jack is right. These are what are often called rimankyu and were supposed to be carried in the palanquin by important people for self defence.

I examined several in the Grayson Collection and found that they were very well made. The bows were baleen as Jack mentioned and the arrows were of bamboo with bone or ivory nocks. The bow case and quiver were lacquered and usually had a clip for fitting onto the obi (waist sash). Most of the arrows had simple armour-piercing steel points, but there were usually two with more elaborate arrow heads. The holes for fitting the ordinary arrows into the quiver part of the case are round and the special arrows had slotted holes. They also had four feathers instead of three.

The nocks for the string on the bow were complicated cut outs in the recurves.

I've seen a few of these in the Archery Museum of Crepy en Valois (40 km north of Paris)

You can almost see one in the picture below, inside the glass box on the left of the image...

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Silly of me ! I replied without checking your link ! and it shows precisely the bows of Crepy en Valois ! :?

Not a problem Romain... thanks for the photo, this museum seems very interesting (YUM(I)!! :lol: )

Bede and Jack:

Thanks for the informations. Do you think it would be possible a replica using bamboo or other materials? I think baleen is no longer available today...

And, what the estimated weight of this kind of bow? 25-30#?

Thanks, best regards

Gianrico

I think you could make one of bufalo horn. I do not know what the cast would be.

The bows are small. It is worth experimenting with them with different materials. I don't think they are high performance.

On the link you included there is a bow in Cr?py en Valois labelled a Kirghiz bow, but I think it is actually a Yi Dynasty Korean war bow. They are quite rare. Thomas should check it out see http://www.archerymuseum.org/kirghiso.htm

Thanks Gianrico.

Bede wrote:

I think you could make one of bufalo horn. I do not know what the cast would be.

G: This could be perhaps a good start for bowmaking.

The bows are small. It is worth experimenting with them with different materials. I don't think they are high performance.

G: OK.

On the link you included there is a bow in Cr?py en Valois labelled a Kirghiz bow, but I think it is actually a Yi Dynasty Korean war bow. They are quite rare. Thomas should check it out see http://www.archerymuseum.org/kirghiso.htm

G: I noted this bow for his design and beauty patina, but nothing more...

Thanks Gianrico.

Best regards

Gianrico

Japanese micro bows? Well I have somewhere on my computer picture of few japanese ladies who shoot this small bows just for fun. And in other picture I have set of two this "micro" bows. Maybe this bows were used for protection but why not hornbows? Japanese people inported swords from china before 1000AC than why not horn bows eather? I know that yumi have 2,33 m and you need small bow for palace but why this short? Why nobody say ninja bow? :? It is the same as to say bodygard bow.

Rapsod; There are other types of miniature bows of Japan. For instance there are Parlor bows which were shot inside during social events for entertainment. Some of these are of wonderful manufacture since they were for upper class patrons and the craftsmen's work was affordable.

Modern Kuydo bows are demonstrably larger than those of a century ago. War bows are also another thing.

Horse archery bows are smaller than Kuydo bows.

There are also "Boy's Day" presentation bows which appear functional but in fact are not. These may be the smallest of all.

Of course, those legally allowed to carry weapons in Japan in the past, could use them as they saw fit.

PS. There are some very unsophisticated reproductions on this site.

Apart from the small 'carriage bows' discussed above, there we also small bows for indoor sports that Rhapsod mentioned.

They were called 'yookkyuu' or 'willow bows'. I am attaching a previously unpublished picture from a rare old book (1688) called 'Yookyuu Sharai Houshi Shou' ("Copy of a work on the shooting game with the willow bow and cane arrows'.

The bow is described as being made completely of willow. The arrows were made of cane and were blunt. The target was a sort of gong. There are elaborate rules for scoring.

As the game has very romantic origins and symbolizes love, I arranged a round at a friend's wedding recently. It was a great success.

Regarding Whale Baleen, note that one of the volumes of THE TRADITIONAL BOWYER'S BIBLE recounts the author-contributor's experiment with a piece of whale baleen. Despite a very light pull, it showed a good speed of recovery. So, maybe those carriage bows could do some hurt, especially at fairly close range.

They look just like these, also in Cr?py en Valois :

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Romain do you have any good picture of unstrung yumi that you take in that museum? I want to make yumi. I found lots of pictures of yumi but thay are all with string.

Does anybody know e-mail of Don Symanski? He learned yumi making from Shibata.