Kanjuro Shibata XX, whose name at birth was Yoshimune, was born on December 29, 1921 into a Samurai family in Kyoto, Japan’s former capital city.

Munekazu Shibata, the first person to hold the title of Kanjuro Shibata, lived on the island of Tanegashima, off Kyoshu, in the mid-sixteenth century. He and his ancestors served the Shimazu clan as Bowmakers, with the title of Yumishinan, or Master Archer.

In 1574, Munekazu Shinata left for Kyoto, where he and his descendants continued to serve the shogunate and the nobility throughout the Tokugawa period (1600-1868).

The Shogun gave each holder of the Kanjuro Shibata title the highest of honorary titles, Onyumishi, which means “Bowmaker and Archer,” or “Lord Bowmaker”. This title has come down through the generations.

When he was 8 years old, Shibata Sensei began to study kyudo and bowmaking from his grandfather, who not only held the title of Onyumishi, but was also the eighteenth generation of Kanjuro Shibata to act as Official Bowmaker to the Imperial family, an honour that dates from the 1889 request of the Emperor Meiji.