However you look at it you can't easily place everything in the middle.
At least not with a simple hand held bow.
Ishi's Yahi style comes close but that is a style that is mechanically weak outside of it's original context.
If you make a totally symmetrical bow, as soon as you pick it up, put an arrow on it and start to shoot it it becomes dynamically assymmetrical in the plane of pitch.
All we do is try to establish the most effective compromise in set up where the bow feels in balance and the spread of the group in elevation is minimised.
The classic solution is to have the hand pressure point on the centre of balance (dimensional centre of length) and the arrow resting as close above that point as is practicable.
The nocking point is conventionally slightly above this level so as to optimise clean arrow departure in the plane of pitch (eliminating porpoising so as to contribute to optimising the spread in elevation).
But the same principles can be applied to other variations in asymmetry to effect a workable result.
With a given style of bow, we quite often work within the appropriate tradition of the culture that historically used that bow.
Or not, as we choose. But I prefer the first course.
The yumi is no different except that the tiller is adapted to suit the degree of asymmetry in the bow.
Which side of the bow the arrow is placed is another topic and relates to cultural and functional factors, style dictated by holding shafts in the bow hand as it affects shaft loading, type of string hold dictating side pressures and the consequent effect on alignment of string rotation during the shot.
The "rules", such as they are, are properly functional and defined by how well the arrow goes where it has been aimed.
What else matters?
Rod.
