Archery Club
01: Obirin's position
Winning every tournament! The momentum is unstoppable for both men and women!!
University archery is comprised of university federations in nine regions across Japan (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokushinetsu, Kanto, Tokyo, Tokai, Kansai, Chugoku/Shikoku, and Kyushu), and each region is divided into "clubs" which are categories based on skill level.
Our university belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Student Archery Federation, where both the men's and women's teams are in the first division league.
Winning the Division 1 league qualifies the team for the "Championship Championship," a national tournament to determine the best student archer in Japan. Individually, the top six archers based on their accuracy in the league matches qualify for the East-West All-Japan Archery Championship. In 2025, the women's team won the All-Japan Student Archery Championship for the fifth time in eight years, securing their place in the Championship Team Competition, the most prestigious stage in university archery.
02: Rules
The winner should be determined by the number of hits!
Kyudo is a martial art that has been passed down since ancient times. In the current competition format, archers aim at a 36-centimeter diameter target 28 meters away and compete based on the number of hits. In team competitions, the total number of hits by the team members is used to determine the winner. Unlike Western archery, the bow does not have a recoil absorption function, so archers must rely on their own body and senses.
Kyudo (Japanese archery) is not merely a target sport. When shooting a bow, one is required to adhere to eight basic movements, known as the "Eight Steps of Shooting," from "foot placement" to "lingering posture" after releasing the arrow.
The standard number of tickets drawn is four. Hitting all four tickets correctly in one round is called a perfect score.
In team competitions, women's teams are mainly composed of three or four people, while men's teams consist of four, five, or six people. (For example, in a four-person team, if each person shoots four arrows, the team will shoot 16 arrows in one round, and the competition is based on how many arrows are hit.)
There are tournament formats and league (round-robin) formats.
Facing the target, the players line up with their left side forward, and each person takes turns drawing their arrow, starting with the person in front when their face is facing forward.
Once the person at the very back has pulled, the person at the front pulls. (This is repeated for the number of pulls.)
Individual competitions also include formats such as shoot-off contests (missing the target means you lose) and distance contests (the one who shoots closest to the target wins).
03: How to watch the game
How to purchase tickets: None
Access to the main venues: Train, car, bullet train
Other information (streaming, etc.): Streaming is available on the official YouTube channels of the Tokyo Metropolitan Student Archery Federation and the All Japan Student Archery Federation.
04: Team Highlights & Selling Points
Each student strives to improve the "quality" of their own bow. At the Shiunkan archery range, one of the largest in the university archery world, they practice diligently every day, identifying their own challenges and working to overcome them on their own. They only seek guidance from their coaches or supervisors when they are truly stuck. Through this martial arts-style training that emphasizes self-discovery, they cultivate an unwavering spirit that fears even the biggest stages.
Our overall goal is to win the championship, and each individual is putting their best effort into their daily training for each tournament in order to achieve that goal.
