Samurai Arrowheads
As a mounted warrior, the samurai used not only a
sword but bow and arrow. The bow was usually about six and half long with
a double ess curve. Of composite composition, the bows were made of thin
bamboo wooden strips within three strips of dediduous. wood Held vertically
the arrow was shot from about two-thirds of the way down the bow, always
on the right hand side, with the bowstring pulled behind the ear. The bowstrings
were made of twisted hemp fibers. The bow was not
a weapon of choice among the European knights.
Source: Arts of Japan. A Complete Illustrated Guide
H. Batterson Boger (New York; Doubleday, 1964), 112 From left to right:
a steel arrowhead in the shape opf a gem that shows the story of Kwakkyo.
Middle, steel arrowhead with a pierced design of peonies and a Chinese lion
(or shishi). Right, steel arrowhread witha pierced design of sages playing
the game of go. All of these arrowheads were signed Umetada Hikobei no-jo
Motoshige, dated to 1645, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Giovanni
P. Morosini Collection, 1932.
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