Kyoto, Yawata City, Iwashimizu Hachimangu.
In the early Heian Period, Great God Hachiman had appeared and expressed his wish to protect Kyoto from nearby, so his seat had been moved from Usa Hachiman Shrine to the summit of Mount Otoko in Yawata City. It had a history of eleven hundred years.
Iwashimizu Hachimangu ranked alongside Ise Grand Shrine as one of the Japanese imperial family's two great ancestral shrines.
"Now, please welcome Ninth-Dan Saitō, hanshi, to perform the ceremonial offering shot."
More than a dozen teams from the Tokyo Metropolis Student Kyudo Federation had traveled here from Tokyo and gathered to compete for the sole qualifying berth in the team Championship Tournament.
Dressed in white-and-black hakama, Uchiha Naruto stood among the University of Tokyo team, surveying the scene ahead with interest.
Before a huge target stood offerings of sea bream, melons, fruit, and other items dedicated to Great Shining Deity Hachiman, the god of archery. A middle-aged man dressed as a Shinto priest held a written prayer and chanted in a peculiar cadence, as though reciting scripture:
"Recalling ages past, the treasured bow blessed by Great God Hachiman wielded the virtues of concentration and wisdom, vanquished the bandits obstructing the path, and defeated the demons of life and death. In the power to exorcise all demons, no god surpasses him. Here at this practice hall, we humbly beseech the protection of Great Shining Deity Hachiman..."
Once the Shinto priest finished, he slowly stepped back, yielding the stage to an elderly man dressed in a pure-black kimono, his temples frosted with gray.
The trembling old man sat formally on the ground, placed his bow and arrows beside him, and slipped off one sleeve, baring his left shoulder.
Then he straightened his back and drew his bow in an almost textbook-perfect shooting