On Sunday, April 23, 2023, the 9th Rheingold Taikai began. At the same time, the event marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Kyudoverein Neandertal e.V.
In the fall of 2002, a handful of interested individuals gathered in the gym of a kindergarten in Erkrath to learn the beautiful art of Japanese archery from Reinhard Kollotzek. Due to limited space, lessons were initially limited to the gomu yumi—translated as “rubber bow”—a training device that merely simulates a bow. In March of the following year, a sports hall was found where the first tentative shots could be fired at the makiwara. Around this time, the club was also officially registered. Since エルクラト (Erkrath in the Japanese syllabary Katakana) is not easy for Japanese people to pronounce, the new club was given the name “Neandertal”—known throughout the world—since part of the valley is also located within the Erkrath municipal area.
While it hadn’t been necessary at the 10th anniversary, we now had to honor the memory of four members who have left us forever: Hans Heidecker, Alfred Hummler, and Klara Schmidt remain in our hearts. The death of Günther Dauner in 2016 was a bitter loss. Günther was a skilled and respected teacher whom we miss dearly.
A Taikai was exactly the right setting to celebrate the club’s anniversary. On Sunday, 21 archers from our club—as well as from other kyudo clubs—took to the range. Seven teams—most of which had only come together on site—gave their best in front of an interested audience. What makes this competition unique are the three matos of different sizes (36, 30, and 24 cm) assigned to each team. Each team must make the strategic decision of whether they have a better chance if the archers rotate so that everyone shoots at the different sizes, or if the sizes are assigned to team members based on their skill levels. After five rounds, the “Bento Box” team scored the most hits. It was a mixed team consisting of Hannelore Heid-Dauner (Neandertal), Thorsten Küper (Bottrop), and Raghu (Frankfurt/Main). Second place went to “Nekomata” with Kieko Petermann-Shibata (Neandertal), Karin Reich (Hamburg), and Uta Scholten (Neandertal), closely followed by “Kokoro” with Lu Markefka-Witaschek, Marcus Schöne, and Claudius Schimanski, all from Neandertal.
During the break after the team competition, the birthday cake was cut and devoured in no time. Yoshiko Ueda had baked a beautiful cake with a marzipan topping shaped like a mato, decorated with arrows and a small kyujin. Before the individual competition, Hakushinkai Düsseldorf e.V. gave a demonstration of their iaido skills. The two clubs have maintained a friendly relationship for years, which was also reflected in the lovingly crafted gifts presented by the president, Michael Hegenberg: a birthday greeting featuring a custom-written haiku and a miniature bow stand with a bow and sword.
In the individual competition, a certain degree of fatigue was already noticeable; only four contestants achieved a 50% hit rate and advanced to the second round. Thorsten Küper secured victory in his head-to-head match against Karin Reich, while Raghu fought his way to third place.
After a long day, Reinhard Kollotzek, who had served as a judge for the competition, presented the traveling trophies—large gold-plated Rhine pebbles, known as “Rheingold”—to the successful archers. In the end, participants and spectators alike agreed that this day had been an extremely successful birthday celebration. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this event!
(More photos in the photo gallery)

Automatically translated by DeepL