well as American style cheering. Back home, the
team drew 60,000 to some of its subsequent intercollegiate games. The Keio-Waseda games, played in the separate spring and
fall seasons which came to characterize intercollegiate and interscholastic competition, were especially popular and attracted
increasing newspaper coverage.
A book called
Saikin YakyGijutsu
(Modern Baseball Techniques), which was inspired by and published shortly after the 1905 trip, stressed the application of
Japan’s “3,000-year-old martial arts … combining physical and spiritual strength” to baseball, as well as to other imported
sports like football and boat racing. This, the author maintained, would eventually produce a type of baseball superior to
that of the U.S.
Credence was lent to that theory in 1924 when Waseda hosted a strong University of Chicago team and defeated them convincingly
in a series of contests representing new heights for the Japanese game and once again elevating baseball to a symbol of national
pride. The manager of that Waseda team, Suishu Tobita, a squat, intense individual, became famous as a practitioner of his
own brand of
bushido
ball. He encouraged his players to practice—as he himself had done during his playing days at Waseda—until they had “collapsed
on the ground and froth was coming out of their mouths.” His infield ground ball drills were so ferocious that he would often
back his victims all the way to the outfield fence. Although college managers at other schools like Keio and Gakushuin had
on occasion tried a less regimented, less groupist approach to
yaky, bushido
ball was so successful it spawned many imitators.
By the time the first professional league in Japan had been established, in 1936, amateur baseball already had a solid grip
on the public’s interest. The annual National High School Championship baseball tournament, established in 1916 by the
Asahi Shimbun,
drew capacity crowds for the two weeks it lasted. The newspaper used the tournament to increase circulation with reports
on the games, as well as to promote the concept of Ichiko’s
bushido
spirit and to tout baseball as a tool of education. The highly opinionated Tobita became a regular columnist for the
Asahi,
extolling the virtues of student baseball as “the only true form of the game.” Samples of his musings about the new fighting
technique based on old spirit include: “The only real baseball is year-round baseball…. Character is more important than technique….
Baseball is more than just a sport. It is an expression of the beautiful and noble spirit of Japan.” This paralleled, incidentally,
similar arguments being made in favor of the game in the United States at the time, which extolled it as an expression of
democratic values and good citizenship.
Some More History
Japanese had actually gotten their first taste of professional baseball in 1908 when a team of minor and major leaguers from
the U.S. called the Reach All-Americans won all of its 17 games versus amateur competition on a tour of the archipelago. Similar
tours followed, reaching an historical peak of sorts in 1934, when Babe Ruth, playing his last game in a Yankee uniform, headlined
a team of big-name American players that won all of its 16 games against a team of former college players, semiprofessionals
and high schoolers, mostly by lopsided scores. Ruth, who during the series hit .408 and clubbed 14 home runs, led a huge confetti
parade through the Ginza before several hundred thousand wildly cheering Japanese fans.
That 1934 tour had been sponsored by the
Yomiuri Shimbun,
which would vie with the
Asahi
for the title of Japan’s leading daily newspaper. Despite the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the life of Yomiuri owner
Matsutaro Shoriki by an extreme right wing group named the Warlike Gods Society, who were angered that he had allowed foreigners
to play baseball at Jingu Stadium, located on
team drew 60,000 to some of its subsequent intercollegiate games. The Keio-Waseda games, played in the separate spring and
fall seasons which came to characterize intercollegiate and interscholastic competition, were especially popular and attracted
increasing newspaper coverage.
A book called
Saikin YakyGijutsu
(Modern Baseball Techniques), which was inspired by and published shortly after the 1905 trip, stressed the application of
Japan’s “3,000-year-old martial arts … combining physical and spiritual strength” to baseball, as well as to other imported
sports like football and boat racing. This, the author maintained, would eventually produce a type of baseball superior to
that of the U.S.
Credence was lent to that theory in 1924 when Waseda hosted a strong University of Chicago team and defeated them convincingly
in a series of contests representing new heights for the Japanese game and once again elevating baseball to a symbol of national
pride. The manager of that Waseda team, Suishu Tobita, a squat, intense individual, became famous as a practitioner of his
own brand of
bushido
ball. He encouraged his players to practice—as he himself had done during his playing days at Waseda—until they had “collapsed
on the ground and froth was coming out of their mouths.” His infield ground ball drills were so ferocious that he would often
back his victims all the way to the outfield fence. Although college managers at other schools like Keio and Gakushuin had
on occasion tried a less regimented, less groupist approach to
yaky, bushido
ball was so successful it spawned many imitators.
By the time the first professional league in Japan had been established, in 1936, amateur baseball already had a solid grip
on the public’s interest. The annual National High School Championship baseball tournament, established in 1916 by the
Asahi Shimbun,
drew capacity crowds for the two weeks it lasted. The newspaper used the tournament to increase circulation with reports
on the games, as well as to promote the concept of Ichiko’s
bushido
spirit and to tout baseball as a tool of education. The highly opinionated Tobita became a regular columnist for the
Asahi,
extolling the virtues of student baseball as “the only true form of the game.” Samples of his musings about the new fighting
technique based on old spirit include: “The only real baseball is year-round baseball…. Character is more important than technique….
Baseball is more than just a sport. It is an expression of the beautiful and noble spirit of Japan.” This paralleled, incidentally,
similar arguments being made in favor of the game in the United States at the time, which extolled it as an expression of
democratic values and good citizenship.
Some More History
Japanese had actually gotten their first taste of professional baseball in 1908 when a team of minor and major leaguers from
the U.S. called the Reach All-Americans won all of its 17 games versus amateur competition on a tour of the archipelago. Similar
tours followed, reaching an historical peak of sorts in 1934, when Babe Ruth, playing his last game in a Yankee uniform, headlined
a team of big-name American players that won all of its 16 games against a team of former college players, semiprofessionals
and high schoolers, mostly by lopsided scores. Ruth, who during the series hit .408 and clubbed 14 home runs, led a huge confetti
parade through the Ginza before several hundred thousand wildly cheering Japanese fans.
That 1934 tour had been sponsored by the
Yomiuri Shimbun,
which would vie with the
Asahi
for the title of Japan’s leading daily newspaper. Despite the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the life of Yomiuri owner
Matsutaro Shoriki by an extreme right wing group named the Warlike Gods Society, who were angered that he had allowed foreigners
to play baseball at Jingu Stadium, located on
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