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🏹 SPORTS · Japanese culture · 2026-09-08

Yabusame: Japan's 800-year-old horseback archery where riders hit 3 targets in 20 seconds

Same news, rewritten for 6 Japanese school grades — pick your level below. Furigana + translation included.
160 chars · ~3 min · 26 kanji
🏹 SPORTS 馬 うま
Same sentence · 6 levels

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やぶさめは、走はしる 馬うまの 上うえから 弓矢ゆみやで まとを いる、日本にほんの 神事しんじです。

馬うまは 二百にひゃくメートルほどを 二十秒にじゅうびょうほどで 走はしります。

乗のり手ては たづなを 持もたず、足あしだけで 馬うまを あやつります。

三みっつの まとに 次つぎつぎと 矢やを 放はなちます。

まとに 当あたると、大おおきな 音おとが します。

八百年はっぴゃくねんほど 昔むかしに 始はじまり、今いまも 秋あきの 祭まつりで 行おこなわれます。

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Translation

Yabusame is a Japanese Shinto ritual in which a rider shoots targets with a bow and arrow from a galloping horse.

The horse covers about 200 meters in roughly 20 seconds.

The rider does not hold the reins and steers the horse with the legs alone.

They shoot arrows one after another at three targets.

When an arrow hits a target, it makes a loud sound.

It began about 800 years ago and is still held at autumn festivals today.

What is yabusame in Japan?

Yabusame is Japanese horseback archery: a rider in samurai-era hunting dress gallops down a straight track and shoots arrows at three wooden targets, one after another, without ever slowing down. It is not a sport in the modern sense but a Shinto ritual (shinji), performed at shrines to pray for peace and a good harvest.

The numbers make clear how hard it is. The track, called the baba, is about 200 meters long and the horse covers it in roughly 20 seconds. The rider holds no reins while shooting, steering the horse with the legs alone, so both hands are free for the bow. Each target is a cypress board about 55 cm on a side. When an arrow hits, the board splits and a sharp crack rings across the grounds, which is the moment the crowd waits for. The arrow tip is a rounded, turnip-shaped kaburaya rather than a point, so neither people nor horses are hurt.

Yabusame goes back about 800 years to the Kamakura period. Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first Kamakura shogun, is said to have held it at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu as archery training for samurai. Today the best-known events are at that same shrine in Kamakura in September, at Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto in May, and at Asakusa in Tokyo in April, all drawing large crowds.

This article comes in six versions, one for each school grade from 1 to 6, each with furigana and full Vietnamese and English translations.

Where and when can you watch yabusame?

The most famous yabusame is held at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura in mid-September during the shrine's autumn festival. Other well-known events are at Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto in early May and at Sumida Park in Asakusa, Tokyo, in April. The events are free to watch from the roadside, but good spots fill up early.

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