TRADITIONAL ARCHERY AND AESTHETICS

Let's face it, traditional archers care about how things look, and I must say that it is starting to annoy me somewhat that some archers consider aesthetics irrelevant at best, laughable vanity at worst. 

I am not denying that vanity for inexplicable reasons is an irksome vice found in all people, which irritates us when we find it in anyone but ourselves, yet there is surely something good to be said of aesthetics and, for want of a better term, "looking good".

In Kyudo, for example, an archer is judged not only by the outcome of his or her shots, but by how graceful the archer is in his or her movements. This is not deemed vanity, but an indication of one's inner self. The manner in which one conducts himself, his movements, his posture, his gracefulness, has been considered in many societies throughout the ages something more noble than vanity. Rather, it was the measure of how civilized and cultured a man or woman was.

In a similar way, I do not believe that aesthetics in archery, be it the choice of weapon or some other instrument of the art, or the manner in which the archer stands, takes an arrow, nocks an arrow, draws and shoots, is simply a matter of vanity.

So, let us consider yet further the charge of vanity. I remember at my first archery club, when I turned up with a longbow and a leather back quiver, together with a leather bracer and shooting gloves (to my surprise, the experienced shooters of modern bows could not understand why I needed a glove on my bow hand when shooting a long bow) I was gently ridiculed and accused thus: "He thinks he is Robin Hood". 

After the initial embarrassment, I became rather upset that my fellow archers could not comprehend why I preferred wood, horn and leather over fibreglass, plastic and synthetics. If I am going to shoot a traditional bow, I will acquire trappings to match. How many people willingly go out wearing socks of colours that do not match? Or how many decide to go to a club wearing dirty jeans to go with their smart shirt and tie? Similarly, why would I purchase some horrible-looking plastic quiver to go with a traditional weapon of exquisite beauty?

Some may like to think of traditional archery and all the stunning craftsmanship that goes with it as vanity. I think of it as good taste and common (or perhaps not-so-common) sense.