S. Korea: Mounted Archers Training in a Mongol Plateau

muye24ki.com ^ | 08/04/06

[TigerLikesRooster]

Mounted Archers Training in a Mongol plateau

Some S. Koreans dug up old military training manuals from 18th century and are trying to restore the art of ancient warriors.

Here, they are practicing once-lost art of mounted archery. They went to Mongol steppe to do their summer training.

It was done this August on Arkhangel Aimac, a plateau which is 1,000 km from its capital Ulan Bator and 1,700 m (5660 feet) above sea-level .

The uniform they are wearing is from Chosun(1392~1910) era.

A trainee practicing so-called 'Parthian Parting Shot'

This is a favorite technique of Northen steppe warriors in the past. Koreans also used to use it.

More training shots of mounted archery

A Mongol cowboy joined the training, and was practicing the technique.

They lost much of their heritage during their communist era.

This is something new to this man, even though this was one of the main battle techniques

of Genghis Khan's troops.

Posing against a rainbow to get a nice photo

[familyop]

rahbert wrote:
"The horses must be very well trained - noone seems to be holding a rein. Keeping ones seat at the gallop with no hands?"

TigerLikesRooster wrote:
"I suppose so. The rider and its horse may need to spend a lot of time together to get comfortable to each other."

Yes, the rider uses his knees for a little control of the familiar horse. It is best to exercise horses for such practice every day. Some riders can ride with hands free without saddles or bridles for fair distances.

[Dustbunny]

Neat !!!!

[curmudgeonII]

I was talking about Mongolia's communist era.:)

Thank you for the clarification. Having served in the Army during the Korean War I'm, perhaps overly, sensitive about this.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #83

Thank you for your service.

[Pride in the USA]

Yes, Hollywood is remaking Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, "Seven Samurai." It is being made by Harvey Weinstein and is only slightly updated according to press releases. Most of the fight scenes are done using CGI. Akira Kurosawa, on the other hand, always sought to achieve what he called "immaculate reality," which will not be accomplished using CGI. The mounted fight scenes in "Seven Samurai," many of which are shot close up, are nothing short of brilliant. For more really amazing mounted archery scenes in cinema, see Akira Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress" where famed Japanese actor (and Kurosawa's favorite leading man), Toshiro Mifune, does some amazing mounted archery work. He was a graduate of the Japanese archery school, Takeda School of Archery.

"The Takeda archery school was begun earlier by Minamoto Yoshiari in the 9th century at the command of Emperor Uda. This school became known as the Takeda school of archery. The Takeda style has been featured in classic samurai films such as Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai (1954) and Kagemusha (1980). The famed actor of many samurai films, Toshiro Mifune, was a noted student of the Takeda school."

[lonevoice]

Great info, thanks! Kurosawa and Mifune. The world will probably never see the likes of their film magic again. There's a really well-done article about Japanese horseback archery here: Traditional Japanese horseback archery

Yabusame Ritual Mounted Archery

[SunkenCiv]