3 days · from Nagoya · up to 6 guests
Most visitors get fifteen minutes with a bow and a souvenir photograph. This is the other thing. Three days in a real dojo in Aichi — the province that produced the three men who unified Japan — working through the shaho-hassetsu, the eight stages of the shot, until your body stops arguing with them. You will not become good in three days. You will understand what good would require, which is worth more.
The Plan
A starting point, not a script. Everything here can be swapped or dropped on the day.
Centrair Airport, Nagoya Station, or your hotel.
We begin at the shrine, not the dojo. 1,900 years old, home to the Kusanagi sword. You cannot understand the bow here without understanding what it was pointed at.
Hitsumabushi eel, the Nagoya way — three ways from one bowl.
How to bow at the threshold. How to hold the bow. How to stand. Two hours before you are allowed to draw anything.
The straw butt at two metres. You cannot miss, which is the point — nothing to think about except the form.
A ryokan with an onsen. Your shoulders will want it.
The dojo before anyone speaks. This is the session guests remember.
Onto the full range and the standard target. Most guests hit it on day two. Some hit it on day one and never again until day three — we will explain why.
Kyudo is more tiring than it looks and the afternoon is deliberately quiet.
Forty minutes of seated zen at a temple nearby. The same problem as the bow, without the bow.
Chado in our own tea room. Ken will tell you why a warrior class built an entire discipline around serving a bowl of tea.
With the people who train here every week. This is the part that is not on any itinerary anywhere.
By now you will notice the difference in your own breathing before anyone tells you.
Everyone shoots four arrows, formally, in front of the others. Nerves are the lesson.
Miso-katsu, and an honest assessment of where you would start if you carried this on at home.
The reconstructed Hommaru Palace, or 400-year-old shibori dyeing in a preserved Tokaido post town.
Airport, station, or onward to Kyoto — two hours by car, and we can drive you.
If You Need It
Travelling with a baby, or a wheelchair, or a business meeting in the middle of the day —
none of it needs to be a problem. Tell us on the form and it is simply there.
Rear-facing infant seats for under-1s, fitted and checked before we arrive.
No charge
Japanese law requires a seat under age 6. Tell us the ages and we bring the right ones.
No charge
A folding stroller kept in the car all day, so you are not carrying one through an airport.
No charge
Six guests and six large suitcases do not fit one Alphard. A second vehicle follows.
From ¥40,000 / day
Arranged through our own rental arm — including Tesla. Delivered to your hotel with the paperwork done.
From ¥18,000 / day
A separate national-licence interpreter guide alongside the driver — for business visits, medical appointments or deep-history days.
From ¥60,000 / day
Chinese, Thai and Indonesian arranged through our own network in Nagoya.
Quoted
Met at arrivals with a name board; suitcases sent ahead to your next hotel.
From ¥3,000 / bag
Arranged with notice — we run a care business, so this is familiar ground.
Quoted
Waiting for you in the car on day one.
From ¥800 / day
Anything not on this list, ask anyway — the answer is usually yes.
Your Guide
Founder, BUSHIDO LLC · Representative, Nagoya Inbound Summit
Kensuke Ueoka — Master Ken — was born in Aichi to a mother who holds the rank of kyoshi in kyudo, and he had a bow in his hands before he had opinions about it. Forty years later he holds 4th dan in kyudo and 6th dan in calligraphy, rides yabusame — archery from a galloping horse — and runs BUSHIDO LLC from the province that produced the three warlords who unified Japan.
He is also the representative of the Nagoya Inbound Summit, a director of a care company running a group home for adults with disabilities, and a triathlete who gets up early enough to be irritating. The range is not scattered: kyudo taught him the axis, calligraphy taught him concentration, and the care work taught him what it means for a person to live with dignity. He guides the way he was taught to shoot — quietly, without exaggeration, with complete attention on the person in front of him.
Master Ken personally guides six days a month and no more — those are the A Day with Master Ken dates. Every other day is led by a BUSHIDO Certified Guide he has trained and signed off himself. If you want Ken specifically, say so on the form and we will tell you honestly which dates are still his.
BUSHIDO is not tourism. It is transformation.
BUSHIDO Certified Guides
Ken cannot be in six prefectures at once, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. So every other guide who works under the BUSHIDO name has been through the same gate.
The philosophy first — rei, harmony, the reason a warrior class built a tea ceremony — then itinerary craft, pacing, and the things we do not do.
The first guided day is run with Ken in the car. Nobody is certified on paper alone.
Five stars and a written comment after each day. Two days below 4.5 and the guide retrains before working again.
Standards drift quietly. We check them on purpose.
It is the reason we can say yes to Hokkaido and Fukuoka in the same week without the day getting thinner.
Begin Your Journey
One private group per day — nationwide.
— dates are currently open, synced with Ken’s own calendar.
Inquiring is free. Nothing is charged until your itinerary is confirmed in writing.
We reply within 24 hours — Ken reads every message himself.
Nothing is charged at this stage. You receive a written itinerary and price first;
a 30% deposit by bank transfer confirms the date.
Guiding & hospitality by BUSHIDO LLC. Reservations, travel contracts and payment are handled by our licensed partner 有限会社ローライ (Rollei Co., Ltd.) — Aichi Prefecture Registered Travel Agency No. 3-1516. All vehicles are operated by licensed chartered-hire operators.
Payment & cancellation terms →
Other Journeys