In this first synthetic, comprehensive survey of Japanese sports in English, the authors are attentive to the complex and fascinating interaction of traditional and modern elements. In the course of tracing the emergence and development of sumo, the martial arts, and other traditional sports from their origins to the present, they demonstrate that some cherished "ancient" traditions were, in fact, invented less than a century ago. They also register their skepticism about the use of the samurai tradition to explain Japan's success in sports. Special attention is given to Meiji-era Japan's frequently ambivalent adoption and adaptation of European and American sports--a particularly telling example of Japan's love-hate relationship with the West. The book goes on the describe the history of physical education in the school system, the emergence of amateur and professional leagues, the involvement of business and the media in sports promotion, and Japan's participation in the Olympics. Japanese Sports Trivia Quiz (openli)Japan's first professional baseball team was founded in 1921. When were the Central and Pacific Leagues established? a. 1930; b. 1940; c. 1950; d. 1960 (openli)Oh Sadaharu hit 51 home runs in 1973 and 49 in 1974. How many did he hit in his lifetime? a. 597; b. 602; c. 755; d. 868 (openli)Sugiura Tadashi pitched 42 games for the Nankai Hawks in 1959 and won 38. How many games did he pitch and win against the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series that same year? a. 1; b. 2; c. 3; d. 4 (openli)The first Japanese radio broadcast of an entire sports event occurred at the national middle-school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium in 1927, with a Ministry of Communication censor standing by since the script couldn't be approved in advance. The national middle-school tournament was suspended in 1941. When was it resumed? a. 1945; b. 1946; c. 1947; d. 1948 (openli)In 1791 Shogun Tokugawa Ienari observed a new ring-entering ceremony similar to that now performed by yokozuna. When did the Sumo Association officially recognize the rank of yokozuna? a. 1789; b. 1890; c. 1909; d. 1951 (openli)Which famous sumo rikishi won 69 successive bouts over the course of 7 tournaments, the longest winning streak ever recorded? a. Futabayama (Sadaji); b. Wakanohana (Kanji); c. Taiho (Koki); d. Chiyonofuji (Mitsugu) (openli)When the first karate dojo was established in Okinawa in 1889, the characters for karate were written 'Chinese hand'. When were they first written 'empty hand'? a. 1889; b. 1922; c. 1929; d. 1935 (openli)Only one major school of aikido holds competitive tournaments. When did the name aikido first appear on the list of government-sanctioned martial arts. a. 1883; b. 1890; c. 1931; d. 1942 (openli)In 1951 Tanaka Shigeki became the first Japanese runner to win the Boston Marathon. When was the first Fukuoka Marathon held? a. 1927; b. 1937; c. 1947; d. 1957 (openli)At the infamous 1936 "Nazi Olympics" in Berlin, Japanese athletes won gold medals in track and field, swimming, and diving. In what event did a Korean win the gold for Japan? a. marathon; b. triple jump; c. pole vault; d. 1500-m freestyle Answers: 1. c. (the Pacific League was the expansion league); 2. d. (Japanese ballparks are shorter than U.S. parks, but the season is also shorter); 3. d. (his arm never recovered from that year); 4. b.; 5. c. (the rank "yokozuna" first appeared on the banzuke ratings in 1890; and the first solo ring-entering ceremonies by wrestlers wearing the "yokozuna" rope was in 1789); 6. a.; 7. c. (by members of Keio's karate club who were impressed by a Zen priest of the Rinzai sect); 8. d. (its founder Ueshiba Morihei was born in 1883); 9. c. (the year after the first footrace around Lake Biwa); 10. a.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. In 'Japanese Women and Sport', Robin Kietlinski sets out to problematize the hegemonic image of the delicate Japanese woman, highlighting an overlooked area in the history of modern Japan. Previous studies of gender in the Japanese context do not explore the history of female participation in sport, and recent academic studies of women and sport tend to focus on Western countries. Kietlinski locates the discussion of Japanese women in sport within a larger East Asian context and considers the socio-economic position and history of modern Japan. Reaching from the early 20th century to the present day, Kietlinski traces the progression of Japanese women's participation in sport from the first female school for physical education and the foundations of competitive sport through to their growing presence in the Olympics and international sport.

Examines the tension between traditional models of Japanese sport, developed over centuries of relative isolation, and the forces of modernization and Japanese determination to become a global power.

How does a small provincial city in southern Japan become the site of a world-famous wheelchair marathon that has been attracting the best international athletes since 1981? In More Than Medals, Dennis J. Frost answers this question and addresses the histories of individuals, institutions, and events—the 1964 Paralympics, the FESPIC Games, the Ōita International Wheelchair Marathon, the Nagano Winter Paralympics, and the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games that played important roles in the development of disability sports in Japan. Sporting events in the postwar era, Frost shows, have repeatedly served as forums for addressing the concerns of individuals with disabilities. More Than Medals provides new insights on the cultural and historical nature of disability and demonstrates how sporting events have challenged some stigmas associated with disability, while reinforcing or generating others. Frost analyzes institutional materials and uses close readings of media, biographical sources, and interviews with Japanese athletes to highlight the profound—though often ambiguous—ways in which sports have shaped how postwar Japan has perceived and addressed disability. His novel approach highlights the importance of the Paralympics and the impact that disability sports have had on Japanese society. Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Drawing from media coverage, biographies, literary works, athletes' memoirs, bureaucratic memoranda, interviews, and films, Frost argues that the largely unquestioned mass of information about sports stars not only reflects, but also shapes society and body culture. He examines the lives and times of star athletes---including sumo grand champion Hitachiyama, female Olympic medalist Hitomi Kinue, legendary pitcher Sawamura Fiji, and world champion boxer Gushiken Yoko---demonstrating how representations of such sports stars mediated Japan's emergence into the putatively universal realm of sports, unsettled orthodox notions of gender, facilitated wartime mobilization of physically fit men and women, and masked lingering inequalities in postwar Japanese society. --

The sports world’s attention was focused on Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The years-long buildup to and aftermath of the games occurred in the midst of the global pandemic, which delayed the event until 2021. Given all of this, there is perhaps no better time to delve into an often overlooked but critical facet of sport in Japan: religion. Religion has long been a part of the Japanese sport tradition—from Shugendō practitioners offering sumo bouts to the gods to soccer players of all ages praying for success at Shintō shrines; from the use of meditation and ritual in martial arts to gain focus or superhuman abilities to religious organizations sponsoring sporting events and teams and school sports clubs. Religion and Sport in Japan brings together historians and sport and religious studies specialists from Japan, the US, and Europe to address sport’s ties to corporate and national identity, politics, environmentalism, ritual, and sacred space. Major themes discussed include the spiritual geographies of sport, sport as invented tradition, technologies of self, material culture, and civil religion. The chapters are written so that sport historians with no background in the study of Japan or religious studies scholars who have never before examined the world of sport will find the material accessible. To provide further grounding for non-field specialists, the volume begins with two background chapters that introduce sport studies in Japan and the study of religion and sport.

The aim of this book is to provide an overview of perspectives and approaches to sports development focusing on sport systems, sport participation and public policy towards sports. It includes twelve European countries covering all regions of Europe and eleven countries from around the globe. The objective is to present an overview of the diversity of approaches taken to sport development, focusing on the different sport systems and how sport is financed, the underlying applications of sport policy and how it is reflected in sport participation. This book takes a comparative approach which is reflected in each chapter following a similar structure. The diversity of sports systems in Europe and other continents and their (historical) context is shown. Thereby a range of policy approaches underpinning sport development around the world are presented, making it of interest to both academics and policy-makers concerned with sports economics and policy.