Yumi Bow
The yumi, the tall Japanese longbow, is asymmetrical, with its grip placed below the centre, a design that lets an archer shoot from horseback and from the knee without the lower limb striking the saddle or the ground; the true yumi is a composite of bamboo slats glued and bound together, often with wood and hemp, in the long tradition of the master bowyers. From the Heian period the bow was the samurai's chief weapon, and the court archery contests of the era made the yumi an instrument of ceremony and status as well as of war. The chronicles of the long-shooting contests at Sanjūsangen-dō re