Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/154

 WEAPONS AND OPERATIONS OF WAR

DURING THE MILITARY EPOCH

HE bow was always the chief weapon of the fighting man in Japan. "War" and "bow and arrow" (yumi-ya) are synonyms. Men spoke of Hachiman, the God of Battles, as Yumi-ya no Hachiman; the left hand received the name of yunde (yumi-no-te, or bow-hand), by which it is still commonly designated, and the general term for "soldier" was "bow-holder."

It is possible that a strain of romance runs through the traditions relating to the use of this weapon by the Japanese of old; but that fine skill was acquired, there can be no question. The first archer of national renown was Yoshiiye, whose fifth descendant, Yoritomo, founded the system of military feudalism and made Kamakura the administrative capital of the Empire. Yoshiiye's strategical abilities, displayed in a campaign against the autochthons of the north, won for him the title of Hachiman Taro (eldest son of the God of War). Such virtue resided in his bow, according to the belief of the men of his day, that 128