The Archer
“The way of the bow is the way of joy and excitement, perfection and mistakes, technique and instinct. But you will only discover this if you continue to shoot your arrows.” – Tetsuya (“The Archer”)
You yourselves know what the situation is when it comes to Paulo Coelho… the man simply put humanity in his debt with “The Alchemist,” so we’re prepared in advance to be gentler toward some of his books, even if we wouldn’t like them much. But again, to be fair, he writes solid books, which always hid some important life message, sometimes obviously written, and sometimes wrapped in a philosophical “coating.”
About five years ago there was a review of his (aforementioned) best and most significant book, and today his newest… “The Archer.”
To a village, somewhere in Japan, arrives a mysterious stranger who’s searching for the famous master of bow and arrow, Tetsuya. A little boy whom the stranger stopped for information confusedly leads him to Tetsuya. However, this Tetsuya is a carpenter and the little boy is convinced it’s a misunderstanding, but the stranger immediately knew he’d found the right person and asked Tetsuya to give him an opportunity to demonstrate his skill.
In the end this trio headed toward the mountain, which the stranger soon came down first from, and whose trace is soon lost. Meanwhile, Tetsuya and the little boy slowly head toward the village. Since the little boy witnessed firsthand the scene where Tetsuya with his mastery of bow and arrow “blew away” the stranger, he started begging this unusual carpenter/archer to teach him how he too can shoot so well.
And so, while descending the mountain, Tetsuya talks to the boy about the skill of archery, but not so much from the practical side, as from the (expectedly for Coelho) spiritual side, and how lessons from handling bow and arrow are applicable to real (everyday) life.
And that would, in principle, be the plot of the story “The Archer.”
If you’re a Japan lover (here 😁), a martial arts fan (same here 😁), and moreover you’ve perhaps read the little book “Zen in the Art of Archery” by Eugen Herrigel (again here 😁), everything in “The Archer” will seem unusually familiar. Perhaps that’s not a surprise, because the largest part of Coelho’s life is connected to mysticism, magic, philosophy and occultism, so maybe it’s not a surprise that he somehow “connected” with Zen as well. Also, if I read correctly in his interviews, Coelho practices (as part of his meditation) kyūdō, i.e., the Japanese skill of archery (and these are those “classic” Japanese bows, slightly larger in size, which you’ve probably seen in films and series, and which are, in fact, the motif of this book), and moreover he obviously read the aforementioned Herrigel, so perhaps it’s not a surprise he decided to write a book full of wise thoughts, also prompted by his experience in archery.
In translation, “The Archer” is a collection of wisdom that Tetsuya shares with the little boy about life, told through elements of the skill of bow and arrow shooting. Tetsuya will tell his young companion about the significance of allies, the bow, the arrow, the target, posture, holding the bow, holding the arrow, drawing the bowstring, observing the arrow in flight and some other elements… and as you can assume, each of these elements represents, in fact, a part of a person (the bow as the source of life, the arrow as our intention, the target as the goal we strive toward, the importance of focus, calmness, simplicity, faith, repetition of an action to perfection, acceptance of our mistakes and similar).
Although it has about 150 pages, “The Archer” is, in fact, a very short book that can be read in one relaxed afternoon over coffee. Besides being very simply written, Tetsuya’s wisdom on every page fits into a paragraph or two (in translation, five to ten sentences), and the book is interspersed with various drawings inspired by archery, Japan, mysticism, Zen and the like.
By the way, since I already mentioned the drawings, I must admit that the unusual style of illustrator (Eva Eiró) very nicely complements the book. In combination with the hard cover, beautiful title page and quality paper, “The Archer” can also be a very nice gift book.
All in all, “The Archer” is a decent little book, and how inspired you’ll be to read it depends on several factors. If you’re a fan of Paulo Coelho’s character and work (and moreover collect all his books), it’s logical you’ll pick up this title. If you’ve read (besides The Alchemist) his works like “Manuscript Found in Accra” or “Manual of the Warrior of Light,” then “The Archer” will fit in nicely for you too. For lovers of Zen, Asia and martial arts, Coelho’s view of this skill and its symbolism can be interesting.
For me, besides all the aforementioned, the little book was appealing because I myself had the opportunity a few times to do a bit of “archery” and I quite liked it… unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to try kyūdō (but maybe one day I will), but classic “archery,” yet I still (at least I think) could understand (or better said, feel) one small part of the “depth” hidden behind this skill.
And because of that, “The Archer” receives a decent, passing grade on the blog.
And the book is also a good gift idea. 😁
And you, dear reader, have you ever had the opportunity to shoot a bow? 🙂
Author’s website
Book price: Laguna | Vulkan | Delfi
Ratings (and purchase) on foreign sites: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository | Audible | Waterstones | Penguin Random House
