Before telling you about project «White Nights. KYUDO-STYLE» we would like to introduce you to our beautiful city Saint Petersburg – the city that we love, and which is special to all of us who take part in the project.
St. Petersburg due to its geographical location, historical, social and political significance is rightfully endowed with the status of the northern capital of Russia. Since the beginning of the XVIII century, St. Petersburg has been the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. This was the period of the appearance and development of unique cultural traditions, which intertwined the influence of enlightened Europe and the originality of Russian colorit.
St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and was supposed to become a symbolic "window to Europe" for Russia. And indeed today St. Petersburg is Russian cultural center of world importance. A city of unique architectural monuments and museums, the city, which is poetically called Northern Venice due to the number of rivers, canals and bridges.
Every year St. Petersburg welcomes thousands of visitors - tourists, business partners, political and public figures. St. Petersburg is a center of active social and political life, and at certain historical stages of Russia the center of significant political reforms and changes.
Today, St. Petersburg is a modern city with a developed infrastructure and is a home to variety of events in culture, economics, science, art and sports. It is the world-famous venue for international summits, exhibitions, forums, conferences and festivals.
One of the unique natural features of St. Petersburg, complementing its architectural sophistication, unique style and landscape, are the famous White Nights. This is an astronomical phenomenon that occurs every year in June and reaches its peak during the summer solstice. During this period the sun hardly leaves the sky, and St. Petersburg becomes extraordinarily majestic and beautiful.
These features and traditions of our city allowed us to assume that it was the White Nights period in St. Petersburg that could be the most favorable time for the emergence of a new tradition in modern Russia - the tradition of annual Kyudo events. Since St. Petersburg is known for its festivals at this time of year in various fields of art, culture and sports, we decided to give our event the name of Kyudo-Festival "White Nights" Kyudo-Style.
A little about Kyudo and what we consider the main idea of this Project:
Kyudo is a traditional Japanese art of archery. Literally, the term Kyudo (弓道) means "Path of Bow". This is a sophisticated martial art that has preserved ancient rituals and surprisingly has not lost its relevance. It would seem that bows and arrows should have remained in the distant historical past, but every year the number of Kyudo practitioners is growing paradoxically. Martial arts masters consider Kyudo as a method of dynamic meditation, a spiritual practice in which the result of the action is obvious and directly depends on the purity of thoughts and intentions. Kyudo's values are universal and understandable in any modern culture - these are Truth (真 shin), Kindness (善 zen) and Beauty (美 bi). Perhaps this is precisely what determines the interest in Kyudo throughout the world.
Kyudo has been developing in St. Petersburg since 2008. Our city has its own history of existing relations with Japan, the people and culture of this country. The implementation of the Kyudo-Festival idea was considered by us as an additional opportunity, for St. Petersburg as a whole and the Kyudo community in particular, to expand the framework of international cooperation.
The modern world is incredibly fragile. Increased levels of aggression and a lack of tolerance are regrettable. In our opinion, Kyudo contains a potential that can help create an atmosphere of reasonable harmony and justice in modern society. Kyudo-Style for us is, above all, a symbol of mutual respect and sincerity.
The "White Nights. "Kyudo-Style" Project is an opportunity to unite for those who share Kyudo's values and principles in order to realize them in a specific place at a specific time - in St. Petersburg during the White Nights - when nature itself demonstrates the symbolic victory of the Light Start over Darkness.
We hope that the atmosphere of our events is consistent with this idea, and its participants are sincere associates who are able to show the true content of ancient traditional art and its connection with modernity. We will be glad to cooperate with everyone who is close in spirit and interests to these ideas.
We express our gratitude and deep respect to our Japanese friends and colleagues for their careful attitude to their culture, for the preservation of their traditions and their willingness to generously share heritage of their people.