DATE:		Yabusame archery - May 3, 2007 from 13:00 Busha archery - May 5, 2007; from 11:00
PLACE:		59 Shimogamo Izumikawa-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto
DIRECTION:		City Bus #4 or #205 to Shimogamo-jinja-mae or Tadasu-no-mori
TEL:		81-75-781-0010
ADMISSION:		Free
TEXT:		Yabusame and busha are famous rituals of exorcism that precede the Aoi Festival. Yabusame is a ritual in which an archer shoots an arrow at a target while riding on a galloping horse. The 360-meter-long course is at Tadasu-no-Mori in the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine. There are three targets, each placed 100 meters apart. The archer on horseback fires an arrow at each, one after another, and by doing so purifies the route, which will be used during the Aoi Festival. In contrast to yabusame, which is done on horseback, busha involves an archer standing and shooting an arrow in order to purify the roadside that will be used during the Aoi Festival. The performance also includes hikime archery, carried out by an archer who plucks the string of his bow to purify the area in all directions, and yagoshi archery, in which an archer shoots two arrows over the roof of a two-story gate.