Azusa Yumi

An azusa yumi (梓弓) is a sacred bow (yumi) used in certain Shinto rituals in Japan, as well as a Japanese musical bow, made from the wood of the Japanese azusa (梓) or Japanese cherry birch tree (Betula grossa).^[1] Playing an azusa yumi forms part of some Shinto rituals; in Japan, it is believed that merely the twanging of the bowstring will frighten ghosts and evil spirits away from a house. In Japanese poetry, the word azusa yumi functions as a makurakotoba ("pillow word", a kind of epithet).^[2]

The story is told in Japanese mythology that a golden bird perched on the bow of Emperor Jimmu, the great-grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the first human ruler of Japan. This was seen as an extremely good omen; Jimmu's bow developed the power to dispel evil by the mere plucking of its string. His bow was made of azusa wood.

^ Loades, Mike (2019-02-21). War Bows: Longbow, crossbow, composite bow and Japanese yumi. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-4728-2554-4.
^ Kabanoff, Alexander M. (1992). "Review of A Blade of Grass: Japanese Poetry and Aesthetics in Dogen Zen". Journal of Japanese Studies. 18 (1): 181–185. doi:10.2307/132713. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 132713.

[1] Loades, Mike (2019-02-21). War Bows: Longbow, crossbow, composite bow and Japanese yumi. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-4728-2554-4.

[2] Kabanoff, Alexander M. (1992). "Review of A Blade of Grass: Japanese Poetry and Aesthetics in Dogen Zen". Journal of Japanese Studies. 18 (1): 181–185. doi:10.2307/132713. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 132713.

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