1. Réglements généraux du noble jeu de larc Charles Arnaud de Pomponne 1733 a brief snapshot of french archery tradition through time

2. how a thousand year old game is still alive today

4. Archery has been practiced in france from prehistoric times the rules we use today are very old, maybe a thousand years

5. it was mostly oral tradition then came the need to write it down this has two effects: the «us et coutume»,spirit and tradition can now passed from generation to generation but now archery evolves very slowly

6. what you can find in the book is a translation from the 1733 Réglements généraux written by Charles Arnaud de Pomponne

7. mostly these are the rules of modern «compagnie darc» follows the only change is from the 1905 split between the state and the church As a result we almost took away everything religious from the rules and regulations

8. what is still alive ? the «beursault» shoot two targets 40cm wide at 50 meters facing each other one arrow in one way, one in the other way the arrow is in the target : «honneurs» outside is miss, the most «honneurs», the winner

10. the militarian hierarchy of a compagnie one captain on top one first lieutnant one «censeur» one «porte drapeau» flag barier in old times every archer was a knight now we have the knights and the regular archers

11. le tir du Roy on a beursault target a wooden bird approximatly 52x26 mm at 50 meters everybody shoots one arrow only, the first one who shoots the bird is sacred king of the compagnie for one year

13. the Saint Sebastien on the 20th of january this is a saint sebastien, the protector of archers in a compagnie, we celebrate this day by a shooting and a meal

14. the bouquet provincial once a year, there is a parade in a french city this is a gathering of every compagnie of france 2000 to 3000 archers every year to participate in the french beursault championship,the attendance of the compagnie at the bouquet is mandatory

16. in 2010 the bouquet was in Ermont my compagnie

17. let me talk about knighthood knight of archery, is somehow a secret society, like freemasson for example, now only the initiation remains secret to be or not to be a knight is not secret anymore

18. this is the pin of knight of archery

19. in conclusion, let me share some thoughts about french beursault and kyudo practice

20. the beursault target the kyudo target

21. the beursault range one kyudo range I found in Matsuos last book

22. Maybe this subjet needs some investigation kyudo versus beursault

23. thanks to: Raphael Rambur for the original paper you can found in this yearbook Matsuo Makinori Richard Hornsby for the translation from frenglish to summersets english Hilary Greenland see you next year Emmanuel KIM