Kanjuro Shibata XX

On-yumishi Kanjuro Shibata XX (御弓師 二十代 柴田 勘十郎 Shibata Kanjūrō born 1921 in Kyoto, Japan, died on 21 October 2013 in Boulder, United States)[1] was twentieth in a line of master bowmakers and a kyūdō teacher of the Heki Ryū Bishū Chikurin-ha (日置流尾州竹林派) tradition.

In Japan, Shibata became concerned that his students were too fixated on merely hitting the target, and were treating kyūdō as a sport rather than a meditative art.

Shibata thus represents a view of kyūdō different from the All Nippon Kyudo Federation (ANKF) and Japanese Budō Association.

In 1980, Shibata accepted an invitation from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche to come to the United States and teach kyūdō, and founded the Ryūkō Kyūdōjō (龍虎弓道場 "dragon-tiger archery practice hall") in Boulder, Colorado; it is now called the Zenko Iba.

Shibata did not rank his students (i.e. no belt or dan system), and there was and is no testing or contests within the schools he founded.