Japanese Archers Circa 1860s

Here’s an interesting picture I stumbled across on Reddit:

japanese-archers

Supposedly its a colorized photograph of Japanese archers from around 1860. What I find interesting is how Japanese bows, known as yumi, were constructed. As the picture shows the bows are very tall and asymmetrical. While the common belief is that yumi were designed in this asymmetrical manner to make them easier to use while on horseback the design actually predates horseback archery in Japan.

The bow is also drawn in a manner different than most bows. In the video you can see how the archer actually starts with the bow and arrow above his head and lowers it as he draws: