What was the draw weight of a historical Yumi (Japanese bow)?

by KennethGloeckler

And if data is available, what would be the point blank kinetic energy of the arrows? I assume there will be a discrepancy in the generated energies between English bows and Japanese bows because the release method of Kyudo is supposed to increase arrow velocity beyond what draw weight alone would suggest.

bigbluepanda

You would do far better to search on military forums, as there are no historical records of an actual number to it. There is no direct data that is reliable enough to draw a conclusion, unlike Chinese, Turkish and Middle Eastern, and European bows that still survive or were measured with quantitative draw weights. Not to mention that there are so many variables such as arrowtip, armour, range, penetration of various materials, the ability to wound v. kill, and so on.