Props Yumi for 70cm+ Archers

Several of my doll characters are practitioners of kyūdō (Japanese archery), most notably Kokichi, my LoongSoul ZhuZhao. Certainly, he's probably the only one of my dolls at the moment who can pull off archery poses properly. However, the search for to-scale Japanese bows, or yumi, had always eluded me. I could understand the difficulty though, because yumi are supposed to be longer than a man is tall, and I'm talking about 70cm+ dolls here. I ultimately decided that if Kokichi were to become an archer for real, I'd have to try my own hand at weapons-making. Note that I failed to take proper WIP photos of the process, so I apologize for the lack of clear photo instructions!

I managed to acquire some flat bamboo sticks of the sort used for BBQ, but they're still too short for my needs. I thought of attaching two sticks together where the bow's grip would be, but I still needed to get the sticks to bend in something remotely like a yumi shape. To test if the project could even work, I searched Google for methods on how to set bamboo into curves, and I was not disappointed. After multiple dunks in hot water and steam, I bent several test bamboo sticks into curved forms and let them dry. To my relief, they kept their bent shapes. Linking the two bamboo sticks was more straightforward, with wood glue and waxed thread doing the trick. Add the string, and I had something remotely looking like a yumi. But, would it be light enough for a doll to draw?

Yumi Test by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr
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OMG it actually worked! (Pardon his bad form.)

After the encouraging results, I gave the project full steam ahead. I made another bow, using better-looking bamboo sticks. But without proper finishing, it's still not something my doll would use for a proper archery-themed meet.

Mother in the Shadows 02 by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr
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The bow was spray-painted black, and the grip sections were covered with bias tape and more waxed thread to somehow hide evidence that the bow was made of two separate pieces of bamboo. The result wasn't as neat as I would have liked, but since this weapon (story-wise) had gone through several owners already, I would think some wear and tear would be forgiven. I also added several decorative wraps of waxed thread to make striped patterns along the length of the bow.

Below is the result, showing just how long the final bow was, and how the doll could still draw it and hold the pose without any assistance.

Yumi with no arrows by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr
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Obviously, I have yet to make arrows and the quiver to complete the set, so he's going to be using a placeholder balloon stick until then.

 

@c4tbus @evilhamster13 @SteamWitch @Havra @Ipledreamer

Thank you, everyone! I did get pointers from practicing archers to be able to fix the doll's draw form (even though kyūdō pulls the string differently, they're still very helpful). LoongSoul's joint notches (and the snappiness of the DF-H jointed hands) were a godsend. I'd very much like to find out if there are other doll bodies that can draw a bow pretty convincingly, so feel free to add them in comments!