was a warrior, who is seen as having created the basis for Japanese archery for footsoldiers. Heki Danjō's teaching started one of the prominent schools of kyūdō

Kyudo

, literally meaning "way of the bow", is the Japanese art of archery. It is a modern Japanese martial art and practitioners are known as .It is estimated that there are approximately half a million practitioners of kyudo today....

, which is named Heki-ryū after him. Several Heki-ryū branches are taught activiely even today.

Heki Danjō lived in warlike times when it was considered honorable to be linked to famous warriors. For this reason there is no certainty to the connection between every Heki-ryū branch and the historical character Heki Danjō. It is known however that Heki Danjō taught Yoshida Shigekata, who collected the teaching into a scroll (mokuroku), which is still an important part of Heki-ryū's teaching.

The founder of Heki-ryū Insai-branch Yoshida Genpachirō Shigeuji wrote about Heki Danjō as a manifestation of the god of war Hachiman

Hachiman

In Japanese mythology, is the Japanese syncretic god of archery and war, incorporating elements from both Shinto and Buddhism. Although often called the god of war, he is more correctly defined as the tutelary god of warriors. He is also divine protector of Japan and the Japanese people...

. History tells us little of his life. Heki Danjō was born in Yamato, became a famed archer in a battle, taught kyūjutsu and shortly before his death ended as a monk at Mount Kōya

Mount Koya

is the name of mountains in Wakayama Prefecture to the south of Osaka. Also, Kōya-san is a modifying word for Kongōbuji . There is no one mountain officially called Kōya-san in Japan....

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