Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/160

 was required, but the right gauntlet had slight padding to save the string-finger. The quiver, slung on the back, held from sixteen to thirty-six arrows, and the shafts were drawn from it over the left shoulder.

To complete this sketch it should be added that the bowman's art, as practised by the bushi (warrior), was of two general kinds, equestrian archery and foot archery, and of each there were three varieties. In equestrian archery the varieties were, shooting at three diamond-shaped targets set up at equal intervals in a row; shooting at a rush-woven hat placed on a post; and shooting with padded arrows at a dog. The costumes worn at each of these three exercises differed slightly, but the difference counted for much in a society austerely obedient to etiquette. It was necessary that the shafts should be discharged while the horse was in swift motion, but no inference of great skill may be drawn from that fact, for the Japanese pony was invariably trained to trot "disunited" without "breaking," and the motion being thus free from jolting, a rider experienced little difficulty in standing steadily in the capacious shoe-shaped stirrups while drawing his bow. Altogether this shooting at a fixed target, whether diamond-shaped or in the form of a hat, was reduced to a mechanical performance, the range being very short, the course invariable, the size of the enclosure uniform, and the horse perfectly trained,—a kind of social