Iowa Kyudo Kai アイオワ弓道会

10/10/2025

🎉 It’s been a while since our last update, and we’ve got some exciting highlights to share! 🎯

Back in June, Hunter joined the Ogasawara Ryu Gasshaku at Redwood Dojo—awesome experience! 🌳

In August, a big chunk of our Iowa crew attended the American Kyudo Renmei seminar hosted by Minnesota Kyudo Renmei in Northfield. Huge congrats to Christi, Alexis, Robert, Hoshi, and Amy, who passed their tests and tried long-distance shooting for the first time—way to go! 👏

Hoshi and Haruhi stepped up big time, interpreting for their groups like champs! 🌟 Morgan helped organize, handled check-ins, and kept the chaos under control—thank you! 🙌 Nick didn’t test this time but was a rockstar volunteer, ensuring the test day ran smoothly. 💪

And recently, Hoshi and Alexis had separate trips to Japan, both bringing back equipment for our group—how thoughtful! 🇯🇵

Stay tuned for more updates, and let’s keep the Kyudo spirit alive! 🏹❤️

04/21/2025

For folks who may have recently seen us in the Daily Iowan. We also have a smaller group in Coralville that practices on Tuesday nights. You are welcome to take a look at that group.

Japanese Long Bow. Our Martial Arts School specializes in Taekwondo, KumDo, Kyudo Renmei, Aikido, and Kali. We are accepting of all ages and abilities. You must be a minimum 5 feet tall and at least 16 yr old.

04/18/2025

Here is the short documentary that the Daily Iowan created.

Every Sunday morning, the Iowa Kyudo Kai meets at the Northwest Recreation Center in Cedar Rapids to learn, train, and practice the ancient art of Japanese a...

04/16/2025

Clara Jarecke of the Daily Iowan published a short piece about us today. A short documentary will be made later.

Johnson County is home to the Iowa Kyudo Kai, an affiliate of the American Kyudo Renmei. Formed in 2017, the Iowa Kyudo Kai is an offshoot of the Minnesota Renmei. The group practices every week to build strength, discipline, and knowledge of the sport. They participate in Taikai, or competition, wi...

03/31/2025

Spring has sprung, and the Iowa Kyudo crew is on fire! 🌸🏹 Last week, our squad took on the Minnesota Kyudo Renmei's Taikai, and let me tell you, we brought our A-game! Robert, our rookie rockstar, snagged FIRST place in his category at his very first Taikai—talk about a natural! Hunter wasn’t far behind, sniping THIRD in his group.

We’ve also had some VIPs in the house! Two journalists, John and Clara from the Daily Iowan, dropped by our classes to get the scoop on our Kyudo journey. They’re crafting a documentary about us and the University of Iowa staff who join our practices. Keep your eyes peeled—it might hit screens as early as late April!

Oh, and big news: our new net is up and running, giving us space for 6-7 targets—plenty of room to perfect those shots! This session, we’ve been deep-diving into Toriyumi no Shisei and Kihontai (aka the fancy footwork and killer posture that make us look so good). Iowa’s crew is gearing up for the American Kyudo Renmei Seminar in Minnesota this August, and trust me, we’re putting in the work to make waves!

02/12/2025

It’s been a while since our last update, but we’ve been keeping busy!

In November, Hunter, Susan, and Nick traveled to San Mateo, CA, for the United States and Japan Friendly Taikai and the 2024 Special Overseas Shinsa. It was an incredible event filled with great food and even better company—always a pleasure reconnecting with friends we've made over the years.

🔹 Hunter took part in the Ogasawara Ryu Momote Shiki demonstration and helped run the scoreboard during the Shinsa.
🔹 Nick tested for Godan—and passed! 🎉

Meanwhile, our students back home continued their practice, looking ahead to the seminar in Minnesota later this year. We closed out 2024 with a fun **Kinmato shoot-out** to wrap up our final practice of the year.

Here’s to another year of training, growth, and community! 🎯

10/01/2024

The Iowa Kyudo Kai has been active these past few months! We hosted a panel and gave a demonstration at Anime Iowa, sharing the beauty of Kyudo with a broader audience. One of our members also traveled to the Redwood Dojo for an Ogasawara Ryu seminar, diving deeper into traditional teachings. On top of that, three of our members had been hard at work preparing for their video shinsa. We're excited that three members will head to San Francisco in November to participate in the 2024 IKYF Friendship Tournament, seminar, and shinsa. It's been a busy summer for us, and we look forward to the fall.🍁

08/02/2024

The International Kyudo Federation has released a beautiful video celebrating the 4th World Taikai, which they hosted in Nagoya, Japan, earlier this year.

The 4th World Kyudo Taikai (Nagoya) 2024.国際弓道連盟HP：https://www.ikyf.org/

08/07/2023

During our three-week break, five of our members traveled to Vancouver for testing. Fortunately, four out of the five members who went for the test successfully passed. Haruhi achieved Shodan, Morgan earned Nidan, Nick attained Yondan, and Hunter accomplished Godan.

Today marked our return to training, and we focused on two essential aspects required at higher levels - Ikiai and moving with the Koshi. We dedicated our practice to coordinating breathing with a partner, synchronizing movements with our breath cycle, and smoothing out our movements by carrying cups filled with water while walking. We kept these crucial elements in mind throughout the session as we went through our usual shooting practice.

07/23/2023

Iowa Kyudo had five members attend the Kyudo seminar in Vancouver, Canada, last week. We had a great time seeing friends we hadn't seen in years and learning some new things along the way while we saw a little bit of the downtown area. All of our members performed well at shinsa (testing), and we are waiting for the results to be formally announced by the International Kyudo Federation in Japan.

07/10/2023

Yesterday, our team gathered for a dedicated day of equipment maintenance. We repapered targets, prepared strings, cleaned up strings and rattan, and attended to various other tasks in anticipation of next week's upcoming trip to Vancouver. Today, we bid farewell to Celeste and wished her all the best as she embarks on a journey back to Japan in a few weeks to be closer to her family. Celeste has been an invaluable part of our group since 2016, even before we had access to our current gym and used a short indoor archery range.