h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well I am not sure, but the depicted bow is in my humble opinion no european let alone medieval weapon. I would think that this is a bow that zen monks would use for their concentration exercises. Anyone an opinion about that? - Posting just for nitpicking purposes -

Oh no. Looks pretty much like a longbow to me (not an expert - but my Mum is and I bet she's lurking around there somewhere: Come on out and show yourself!!)
The Europeans made good use of the Longbows - especially in 1066 and Agincourt. (even though we Brits didn't do sooooo well in 1066)

I confess. It was I who did the offending picture. We certainly can't pull the wool over your eyes can we? Back to the drawing board then It's just as well that the h2g2 researchers and readers are such a bright bunch. I don't mind you pointing it out at all and at least you were gentle about it

I've been looking into traditional Japanese and Chinese culture lately and couldn't resist doing an image which I hoped could be used elsewhere on the site too. I wasn't that comfortable about it I admit, but I bit my lip and went ahead. Well done for being so quick to spot the error, I shall do a suitable picture at my next free moment. If you have any useful ideas for an image in the meantime, I'm all ears open.

How did you know what kind of bow it was by the way?

Cynthia

Hi Cynthia,

thanks for your quick response! Don't mind changing the picture though, I wouldn't think it's overly important to have the right kind of bow in that picture.

To your question: Some time ago, I read an article in a magazine about zen monks and noticed that they had real weird bows, so to say. I couldn't imagine that one could give good shots with them, since the upper side is so much longer as the lower one.

Greetings,
SchrEck Inc.

This style of bow is used in Kyudo archery, Japan. There's a page explaining Kyodo at http://www.kyudo.org.uk/back.html

Cynthia

Thanks for your reply - very interesting link. The thing about becoming one with the target what is more or less that what I read in the article I mentioned.