When I read Professor Yamada's article in preparation for translating it, one of the things that most surprised me was the fact that Awa was able to get a menkyo kaiden (license of full transmission) in Heki Ryu Sekka-ha in only two years.
There are a number of possible explanations:
1) Awa really was that good
2) He purchased his rank
3) A menkyo kaiden is not as big a deal as we make it out to be nowadays
4) Maybe kyujutsu just isn't all that difficult
Regarding 1) it appears, at least from P. Yamada's article, that Awa was quite an expert archer. Being able to hit the target almost 100% of the time is no joke. The best I have ever been able to do is 18 hits out of 20 shots, and that still translates out only to 90%, even if I had been able to maintain that average for 100 shots (which gets pretty tiring, buckaroo). I was able to do that a few times many years ago, but I have not been able to repeat it. It was a flash in the pan, and even on a really good day I can't get above 70-75%. That's not too shabby, but it still ain't 100%. There is an old saying "an expert is anybody who can spit over a boxcar" (if you've ever stood next to a boxcar, you'll understand how difficult that is). If a guy can shoot so well that he practically never misses, he knows what he's doing. Awa was apparently in this league, so I believe that he probably had an extraordinary talent for archery. I have seen film of him shooting, and his technique was crisp and sharp.
Speaking from my own experience, practicing several hours a day every day is not uncommon; indeed, among traditional archers, you're nothing but a dilletante if you shoot less than 100 arrows a day (this will take at least >2 hours). Herrigel only practiced with Awa once a week, hardly a rigorous course of study. Indeed, he practiced as only a dabbler can. Perhaps once he got some experience, he practiced more on his own, but when I first began kyudo, I practiced with my teacher 3 times a week, and then, as I got good enough to shoot on my own, I started practicing >3 hours a day. It was very rare that I shot less than 100 arrows at each session. If you want to get any good, that is what you have to do. If Herrigel only practiced once a week, I can see why it might have taken him 3 years to progress from the makiwara to the actual targets. There is also the issue of Awa's evolving understanding of the purpose of kyudo, so perhaps he made Herrigel practice longer at the makiwara than was normal. At any rate, speaking from personal experience, if you really want to become skillful, long training at the makiwara first is a must. And, yes, when you first start shooting at the target it is not uncommon to have difficulty reaching it.
Regarding 2), P. Yamada states that Awa's teacher used to be employed as a kyujutsu teacher for the Sendai domain. I suspect that, after the dissolution of the feudal domains, he was, like many other bugei instructors, down on his luck. Indeed, after the bakumatsu kyujutsu came to be looked upon with a great deal of disdain by well-bred people; many unemployed kyujutsu teachers opened archery ranges in town (often near the red light district) which were frequented by prostitutes and gamblers who would hold arhcery contests and wager on the outcome (sort of like poolhalls, I guess). As a matter of fact, I have it on pretty good authority that Anzawa Heihachiro, Awa's senior disciple, used to run a brothel before he apprenticed himself to Awa (licensed prostitution used to be legal in Japan). This is entirely speculation on my part, but it is not inconceivable that Awa gave his teacher a certain financial consideration in exchange for his rank, but I want to emphasize that I have absolutely no proof whatsover for this. Still Awa's skill is a matter of record, so I tend to think that he just was some sort of kyudo genius and earned it legitimately (there is such a thing as prodigies, you know).
Regarding 3), there is no doubt that a hanshi (master) rank (roughly equivalent to a menkyo kaiden) in modern kyudo is perceived differently than it used to be. Nowadays, it is extremely rare for anybody under 60 years of age to get a hanshi ranking. Up until quite recently, people with such ranks were usually much older than that. Recently, there have been a few expert archers who have been awarded that rank (which requires at least an 8th degree ranking before they can be considered) before the age of 60, so perhaps things are changing. However, during the Dai Nippon Butokukai period (up until the end of WWII), it is clear tha a hanshi raking meant something different than it does today. My teacher's teacher (and father-in-law), Urakami Sakae, received his hanshi rank at the age of 47, something that is completely inconceivable today.
I believe that practical skill counted for a great deal more in the old days, and there was less of an emphasis on ceremonial etiquette as a component of skill. In the old days, certain elements of protocol and etiquette were much more a part of everyday life than they are today, so people did not obssess over them. Nowadays, when young people in Japan cannot even sit seiza anymore, there has been an increasing emphasis on the petty details of protocol and bearing. Judging from the film of Awa I have seen, and the more "rough and ready" ceremonial practices of the warrior schools of kyujutsu, I have a feeling that the overall prettiness of the performance wasn't as much of an issue as it is today, and actual skill in target shooting was much more important.
Regardng 4) Herrigel simply made kyudo into a bigger deal than it is. It is of the utmost importance to note that Awa supposedly only came to believe that technique wasn't important AFTER he had spent may years as a dead-eye shot. I don't care how "spiritual" a person may be, if he doesn't know the technique cold, he isn't going to be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Basic kyudo technique simply isn't that involved. People spinning fantasies in their own minds is what makes it difficult
Herrigel, like any intellectual, out-thought himself. He was convinced going in that kyudo was Zen, and since Zen is deep, abstruse, mystical, cryptic, and almost impossible to understand, so must kyudo be.
This is, of course, utter nonsense. Kyudo is, in reality, very simple. People make it difficult when they make it into a metaphor for something else instead of just doing it for what it is. Awa took traditional kyujutsu and tried to make it into a religion. Herrigel was looking for some transcendental spiritual experience; therefore, every little thing he did, no matter how piddling or inconsequential, became freighted with meaning and had to be analyzed endlessly for its metaphysical significance. This is utterly contrary to the real spirit of traditional kyujutsu.
Anyway, I don't believe for a second that Awa really disparaged technique as much as Herrigel indicates he did. Herrigel just didn't understand what Awa was really talking about. (I have read Komachiya Sozo's memoir of his experience with Awa and Herrigel; he describes Awa teaching Herrigel how to shoot a bow, so obviously he was teaching technique; Herrigel simply wasn't interested in it since it wasn't "spiritual". Therefore it has no place in his book.) That Herrigel couldn't understand Awa is not so strange, since Herrigel 1) only trained in kyudo for maybe three years, 2) couldn't speak Japanese, and had to rely on obviously faulty interpreting, 3) was determined to make kyudo into a Zen experience, which led him to understand Awa's words through the veil of his own preconceptions, and, finally, 4) had no understanding of the cultural framework in which Awa was operating.