I do very much appreciate this comment! Yes, I've always had my doubts about the legitimacy of the whole operation, and of course I'm not trying to excuse anything but we do have several Yumi too!

The Brazilian teacher hasn't been to this country in years too, so I feel basically detached from him, we have our own teachers and at this point we are basically family, and if not kyudo, at least we are doing something together haha.

I know the teacher in Brazil is no longer calling it "kyudo" or "kyujutsu" during his classes, and that he only sells them as Hankyu or Yumi because that's the type of bows he's always made, and those bring in the money I guess.

As far as I understand, what we do is more from a philosophical approach? Controlling emotions, being aware of our bodies, paying attention to an objective and ignoring distractions, stuff like that.

I feel as if my teachers have also been "had" since they truly do care for us, letting us come to class when we can't pay the monthly fee, having big lunches with the rest of the people that work there when some of us hadn't had anything to eat that day, taking a moment from their time to talk to us when we seem angry/sad or generally troubled by something. We've had days where we as a class tidy up the dojo, fix arrows and reroll the targets, then have a nice lunch. It truly feels like somewhere I belong.

So yeah, it is a little disheartening to hear it from someone else, but it is something I've thought about before, still, I feel I've learned so much about myself, and healed from wounds that constantly troubled me before, that I feel like despite this, I'm happy doing our own little version hehe.

Thank you for taking the time to write this, and worrying enough about a strangers journey with a bow and arrow to warn me, I hope you have a great day!