流鏑馬 (yabusame) - Horseback Archery
Spent the afternoon watching yabusame in Tokyo. Watching the archers riding horses in full gallop, shooting arrows into targets along the 300-meter long track and hearing the crowd cheering was fascinating!
This style of mounted archery has its origins in the XIIth century when Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura period, became alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai had and decided to organise yabusame as a form of practice.