Inuoumono Explained
was a Japanese sport that involved mounted archers shooting at dogs. The dogs were released into a circular enclosure approximately 15m across, and mounted archers would fire upon them whilst riding around the perimeter.[1]
Originally intended as a military training exercise,[2] dog-shooting became popular as a sport among the Japanese nobility during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1185-1573).[3] During this time it was briefly banned during the rule of Emperor Go-Daigo (owing to his concern for the dogs); however, this ruling was overturned by the shōgun Ashikaga Takauji at the behest of his archery teacher Ogasawara Sadamune.[4] The influential Ogasawara family were particular adherents of inuoumono; Sadamune's archery treatise Inuoumono mikuanbumi regarded it as fundamental to a warrior's training, and his great-grandson Mochinaga devoted five books to the subject.[5]
The arrows used in dog-shooting were usually rendered non-fatal, by being either padded[6] or blunted.[7] This modification to the original sport was suggested by the Buddhist clergy, as a way of preventing injury to the dogs used.[8]
Inuoumono waned in popularity during the sixteenth century and has been largely extinct as a practice since then. It was eventually banned outright during the reign of Tokugawa Iemochi. Occasional revivals have taken place: there is a record of the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi viewing dog-shooting in 1842, and the sport was performed for Ulysses S. Grant during an official visit to Japan in 1879 (Grant reportedly expressed distaste for the practice).[9] The last recorded instance of dog-shooting took place before the Meiji Emperor in 1881.[3]
See also
Notes and References
- Book: Louis Frédéric. Käthe Roth. Japan Encyclopedia. 22 February 2013. 2002. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-01753-5. 392.
- Book: Mari Womack. Sport As Symbol: Images of the Athlete in Art, Literature and Song. 22 May 2012. 2003. McFarland. 978-0-7864-1579-3. 131.
- Book: Doris G. Bargen. Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori Oḡai and Natsume Sos̄eki. 22 May 2012. 2006. University of Hawaii Press. 978-0-8248-2998-8. 107.
- Book: Jeffrey P. Mass. The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century. 22 May 2012. 1 September 2002. Stanford University Press. 978-0-8047-4379-2. 232.
- Book: G. Cameron Hurst. Armed Martial Arts of Japan. 27 June 2012. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-11674-8. 120–121.
- Book: Yoko Woodson. Junʼichi Takeuchi. Thomas Cleary . Takeuchi Jun'ichi . Morihiro Hosokawa . Junko Abe . Asian Art Museum--Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture . Eisei Bunko. Lords of the samurai: the legacy of a daimyo family. 22 May 2012. 5 May 2009. Asian Art Museum--Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. 978-0-939117-46-8. 131.
- Book: Charles E. Grayson. Mary French. Michael J. O'Brien. Traditional Archery from Six Continents: The Charles E. Grayson Collection. 22 May 2012. 1 November 2007. University of Missouri Press. 978-0-8262-1751-6. 38 (caption).
- Book: Thomas Louis. Tommy Ito. Samurai: The Code of the Warrior. 22 May 2012. 5 August 2008. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. 978-1-4027-6312-0. 61.
- Book: Allen Guttmann. Lee Austin Thompson. Japanese Sports: A History. 22 May 2012. 2001. University of Hawaii Press. 978-0-8248-2464-8. 52.
