Student Voice: …San, Yon, Go, Hanare! – The Beauty of Kyudo at AIU

Cebic Nikola Stefan, Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur, Switzerland is participating in our exchange program for Fall 2025. We would like to introduce his experience at AIU.

Be it in the form of art, spiritual discipline or sportsmanship, Kyudo has its own quiet charm that draws many into AIU’s Kyudo club. In this article, I would like to talk about my experience at the club and what practicing the Way of the Bow feels like.

Before coming to AIU, I was imagining kyudo as a great way to improve upper body strength in a more meaningful way than just an ordinary workout – a discipline that can teach inner balance and physical control. So with this thought in mind, I went to club activities and applied for it right away.

In the beginning, our focus was entirely on form and refining it, since this art has a lot of steps and details in form that one has to consider and because obtaining and maintaining a calm body and mind is crucial to the way of the bow.
In the beginning, form is learned only with arrows in hand. With time, I received rubber band tools that would simulate the drawing of a bow, until eventually we were trusted with real ones. Since the bows used in kyudo are large and the technique in drawing them is unique, it is a significantly different experience from European archery!

As time went on, a few other club members and I were able to shoot our first arrows in the club house’s back area, which filled us all with pride. Shortly after, we went to the archery field and shot arrows at targets from a larger distance, which was very exciting and fun to do. Each shot made us feel the growth from our past efforts.

What I like about the club is its atmosphere. While the art demands discipline and patience, practice sessions can be filled with laughter and encouragement when you’re around your friends and club mates. One of the best things about these clubs is indeed the members that make the experience all the more worth it!

To conclude, I can highly recommend joining the Kyudo club at AIU, as it’s very fun and adds to a great experience at AIU!