Yukinori Tsuchiya, a fourth-year student in J. F. Oberlin’s College of Business Management, bested 3,231 other competitors in the men’s individual division of the 61st All-Japan Kyūdō Championships, the finals of which were held on August 22 at Nippon Budōkan.

After the third round, the competition enters a sudden-death phase. In addition, from the fourth arrow onwards, the target is reduced in size from a diameter of 36 cm to a diameter of just 24 cm. Three competitors missed the target with their fifth arrows, leaving only Tsuchiya and a student from Ehime University, but Tsuchiya claimed the championship by hitting the target with his sixth arrow. From the preliminary rounds in early July through the finals, Tsuchiya hit the target with all 15 of his arrows.

“I’ve never won a tournament before in university,” Tsuchiya said afterward, “so I’m glad I could save my best performance for my last year. The day before the individual finals, in the team finals, we were eliminated in the second round, and I was so unhappy about that that I never even considered winning the individual division. Because I wasn’t worried about winning, I was able to concentrate on my shots.”

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