Kyudo in Los Angeles

Kyudo in Los Angeles:

Kyudo came to the United States from Japan in the early years of the 20th Centery, reaching Los Angeles as early as 1908 with the Rafu Kyudo Kai.

As early as 1916, Mr. Suda Chokei had founded the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai. From 1920 to 1928 Miwa Tanechiko Sensei taught the Heki style of archery. The group met at a dojo located on what was then Jackson Street in Little Tokyo. A second dojo was located in Boyle Heights on St. Louis Street, near Hollenbeck Park.

In the 1940's the Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, like all the other Americans of Japanese ancestry, and placed in internment camps. Many of the bows and arrows were seized as weapons by the federal government. Fearful owners of these weapons often either burned or buried their equipment.

In 1973, Koen Mishima Sensei arrived in Los Angeles as a minister at the Higashi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. At first he practiced by himself in the temple's basement.

The Jackson Street martial arts center was closed and eventually demolished, and for the duration of the war, Japanese-Americans were relocated to internment camps. After the war, individuals resumed their practice in isolation without the help and support of an instructor, and there was no official kyudo dojo in Los Angeles for over thirty years. . In 1973, Rev. Koen Mishima, a kyudo practitioner of many years' standing, arrived in Los Angeles from Japan to minister at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple. He practiced kyudo in the temple's basement by himself for a long time; one day, he was photographed as he was practicing. Iwao Iwata saw that photograph displayed at an exhibition, and he became Mishima-sensei's first student. Eventually the two of them were joined by Rev. Hirokazu Kosaka (a priest from a neighboring temple), Rev. Kiyomaru Mishima (Mishima-sensei's younger brother), and an American man named Mike Stanley. In 1975, Mishima-sensei and Kosaka-sensei officially reinstated the old Los Angeles Kyudo Kai, and weekly taught a growing number of students in a variety of locations: from 1973–1978, at the Higashi Honganji Temple; from 1978–1981 in the basement of Koyasan Temple in Little Tokyo; from 1982–1992, in the beautiful wood-paneled church hall of the Nichiren Temple in East Los Angeles, at the corner of Fourth Street and Saratoga; from 1993–1999, in the Rafu Chuo Gakuen Community Hall on Saratoga. From 2000 to the present, the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai has met with the Nanka Kyudo Kai at the Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute. The Nanka Kyudo Kai was formed by Rick Beal with permission from Kosaka-sensei to represent the growth of their group beyond Los Angeles to include all of Southern California. Nanka is the word used by the local Japanese Community to mean "Southern California." The group now has classes in San Diego, Orange County, Palmdale/Lancaster area, Pasadena, and West Los Angeles. In addition, the Nanka Kyudo Kai represents the group nationally and internationally with as a member of the American Kyudo Renmei and the International Kyudo Renmei in Japan. Instructors of the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai (1973–Present) Rev. Koen Mishima Rev. Koen Mishima was born and raised in Takayama, Japan. His father was a Buddhist priest, with his own temple and congregation, and all three of his sons became Buddhist priests and kyudo practitioners. When their father died, according to custom, the eldest son inherited the temple; Mishima-sensei immigrated to Los Angeles in 1973 and began his ministry with the Higashi Honganji Temple. In his youth, Mishima-sensei was taught kyudo by two teachers. One of these followed the Honda and the Ogasawara styles, and the other taught a style called Muyo Shingetsu Ryu. Mishima-sensei did not at that time embrace either of these disciplines entirely, but rather took elements of each and incorporated them into his own practice, which became a blend of his teachers' styles and which became the style practiced by the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai from 1975 until 1995. In 1988, Mishima-sensei immigrated to Australia and lived in Brisbane for eight years, which provided him the first opportunity in many years to think deeply about what he was looking for in kyudo. During this time he built a temple and a kyudo dojo on his own property, and he practiced with a growing number of students in what he called the Brisbane Kyudo Kai. In 1990 on a visit to Japan, he met with his old teacher, Master Sagino of the Muyo Shingetsu Ryu, and attended a kyudo seminar that his master was giving. When the master stood in front of and helped him open the bow, imbuing it with his spirit and experience (as is the custom that style), Mishima-sensei felt he experienced enlightenment in his kyudo. Abandoning the Japan Kyudo Federation because of its focus on sport as opposed to spiritual discipline, he began his commitment to Master Sagino and his master's school of kyudo. In 1995 Mishima-sensei returned to Los Angeles for a visit, and persuaded Kosaka-sensei to change Los Angeles dojo to his new style. For the next five years, all members of the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai practiced Muyo Shingetsu Ryu exclusively, and this style is still practiced by the senior members. In 1996 Mishima-sensei moved back to Japan, settling in the city of Nigata. He was adopted as a son by the temple that he inherited through his second marriage, and consequently he has changed his last name to "Hosagawa." He has built a dojo on the temple grounds, and once again teaches kyudo, always in the Muyo Shingetsu Ryu form. Mishima-sensei taught kyudo continuously throughout these years until he emigrated to Australia in 1988. At that time, Kosaka-sensei took over the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai. Mr. Hirokazu Kosaka Mr. Hirokazu Kosaka was born in Wakayama, in the south of Japan. Wakayama is located only a few miles from the town of Tanabe, the city in which aikido was founded, and where kyudo is still zealously practiced today. It was in this Mecca of martial arts that the young Kosaka-sensei grew to understand and appreciate the many different aspects of the bushido ("The Way of the Warrior"). The form of kyudo practiced by members of the Kosaka Family was Kishu-Chikurin-Ha of the Heike-Ryu from; the young Hirokazu Kosaka was, however more fond of the ceremonial from of Ogaswara-ryu, and so spent much of his time learning this form. Kosaka-sensei is the fourth generation of his family to come to America. His great-grandfather came to Seattle in 1890, his grandfather in 1910, and his mother came to Tacoma in 1921. In 1958, when he was ten years old, Kosaka-sensei came to study English in Los Angeles for a year, and then returned again in 1967 to attend the Chouinard Art Institute. In 1970, he returned to Japan and entered a monastery, where he became a Buddhist priest; and in 1975 he once again returned to Los Angeles to minister at the Koyasan Temple in Little Tokyo. There were only a few young Japanese priests in the area at the time, and they were all well acquainted with each other. One day, Kosaka-sensei was invited by Mishima-sensei to practice kyudo, and this invitation began a long relationship during which they developed a deep bond of friendship and a common kyudo ideal, and they spent much time in discussion of how to teach kyudo to westerners. From the time that Mishima-sensei moved to Australia in 1988, Kosaka-sensei has been the head of the Los Angeles kyudo Kai. He is also a multi-media artist, and as the Exhibitions Director of the JACCC-Japanese American Community Cultural Center he is very involved with the cultural life of the Little Tokyo community. As a consequence, in recent years he has had very little time to devote to teaching and managing the Los Angeles Kyudo Kai, and has given his senior student, Rick Beal, permission to teach kyudo. Rick Beal Rick Beal began training in Japanese Budo at a young age in 1966. But his real revelation came in the early 80’s with his sword teacher Hirotaka Okubo (Okubo-sensei). Okubo-sensei had studied kyudo with Kosaka-sensei and Mishima-sensei in Los Angeles; so Okubo-sensei incorporated the basic movements of kyudo into his warm up exercises for the sword classes. When asked why, Okubo-sensei replied, “If you lay down your sword and practice kyudo for ten years, then pick up the sword again, your sword will also be ten years better. No other martial art will do that, only kyudo.” Prior to meeting Okubo-sensei, Rick had owned and operated a small karate/kobudo school. Okubo-sensei and insisted that if Rick wanted to train with him, he must close his school. Rick closed the school and traveled around the area to find places for each of his senior students to train. One of those students (one of Rick’s top students) couldn’t find any other instructor he wanted to train with, or any other art that he would rather study. So Rick took him to meet Okubo-sensei in hopes that they could train together. The student had no interest in the sword, and really didn’t bond with Okubo-sensei; but upon seeing the kyudo warm up he exclaimed, “What is that? I want to do that!” Okubo-sensei wrote a letter of introduction for the young man to Mishima-sensei and sent him to the Higashi Hongwanji temple to begin kyudo. Being one of Rick’s previous karate students, he asked Rick to come along for moral support. Rick came and the two of them were told to sit down and watch (it was customary at that time in the class to have prospective students watch for three classes before they could begin instruction). But for some reason, Mishima-sensei approached them and asked them to join the other beginning students that he was teaching to walk. Although Rick’s friend stood up immediately, Rick explained that he had no interest in training in kyudo, but he had only come to offer support to his friend. Mishima-sensei insisted that Rick should also train, but Rick demurred, saying that he did not want to waste the-sensei’s time and that he would only be there for one day and then be gone. Mishima-sensei said, “One day of practice is one day of practice.” Rick practiced with the group that day, and has practiced with them ever since.