Lajos Kassai started making his bows in the mid-1980s and was competing successfully in field archery. Then based on the work of Karoly Cs. Sebestyen and Dr Gyula Fabian, using modern materials and technologies, he reconstructed and as first one in the world started series production of the traditional Hungarian bow used in the age of the Hungarian Conquest. Eventually bow-making became his primary profession, and he became the first in the world to mass-produce this style of bow. Besides Hungarian, Kassai makes other types of traditional bows, including; Scythian, Hun (asymmetric type), Avar, and Mongol.
Equestrian archery
Kassai-völgy.Ölyv (red) and Farkas II. (black) bows
We are not to follow our ancestors, we are to follow what they were following.
Kassai created the competitive rule system of horse archery in the late 1980s, and started to propagate this new sport, first in Hungary, and from the 1990s in the rest of Europe, the United States and Canada. He made himself familiar with kyūdō in Kamakura, Japan, and travelled to Shaolin in China to study.
He summarized his experiences in his book Lovasíjászat ('Horse Archery'), which since its issue has been translated into German, English and Russian.[2][3]
He founded the center of Hungarian horse archery, Kassai-völgy, near Kaposmérő.[4] Horse archery centers based on the Kassai school are currently operating in fourteen countries, and organize world cups regularly.
In 2011, the University of Physical Education accepted the education practice developed by Kassai and began horse archery training. Hungary is the first country in the world where one can get a teaching diploma in horse archery.
His life and work was dramatized by Géza Kaszás in the film A lovasíjász ('The horse archer'), which premiered in January 2016.[5]
Achievements
Lajos Kassai won all competitions he entered from 1994 to 2019, among them countless World Cup rounds and international equestrian archery competitions, and the Equestrian Archery Open World Championship in 2014.
2011: In December, he shot 14 discs under 19.85 seconds in front of an 8,000 member audience and set his fifth Guinness World Record at the Budapest Sport Arena.
2009: In December, he set his fourth record in the Budapest Sports Arena. He shot 12 pieces of 30 cm diameter flying discs (thrown by his students) from the back of a galloping horse in 17.80 seconds.
2006: Riding 12 horses, Kassai Lajos did equestrian archery continuously for 24 hours during 661 competition runs, he achieved a total score of 15,596.43 points with 5,412 shots. His average point per standard competition (9 runs) was 212.35 points.
2002: Riding 12 horses, during 12 hours of continuous equestrian archery, he managed to achieve a total score of 7,126.05 with nearly 3,000 shots in 323 competition runs, breaking his previous record. His average point per standard competition was 198.55 points.
1998: Riding 12 horses, shot more than 1,000 targeted shots in 286 competition runs during 12 hours of continuous equestrian archery. His average point per standard competition was 133 points.
