Japanese Sports, A History
Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy, Department of History, Kent State University, Stark Campus.
JANUARY 26, 2005 archive
Allen Guttman and Lee Thompson have written a text that fills a needed gap in sports history. There have been a number of books in recent years written on Japanese baseball and Sumo wrestling but few others deal with the wide variety of Japanese sports. This text walks the reader through current sporting trends as well as those that are ancient and no longer practiced. This gives one the opportunity to understand the context in which Japanese sport has grown and some of the influences on those still practiced today. The goal of the text is clearly stated as a twofold message: what were the existing sports before the intrusion of Western culture and how has Japan responded to the coming of modernization.
Not surprisingly the discussion of older sports begins with the national sport of Sumo wrestling. Sumo is dealt with in both parts of the book because it is a sport that remains and has had to adjust to changing traditions and the challenges to its popularity from baseball. After discussing Sumo, the examination turns to the martial arts as a part of the Samurai tradition and then to ball games of varying kinds. The second part of the book examines the growth of more modern sports from the early 1800s through the end of World War II. Included in this discussion are baseball, physical education training and philosophies of sport as they relate to military training and patriotism. The final section focuses on sporting growth since the end of the Second World War. Initially, with the American occupation, a number of traditional sports were banned but gradually the martial arts have been restored to prominence. Organizations were created at the national level to govern amateur and later professional sports, mirroring the same developments in the United States. This section also includes some discussion of Japan's gradual success and acceptance at the Olympic Games. It ends with a discussion of some of the more recent directions Japanese sports have taken including the addition of Western sports such as soccer and an increased emphasis on women's participation, mainly due to the Olympics.
One of the strengths of this text is found throughout the book as the authors go beyond talking about the sports themselves to discussion of history and traditions. For example, in talking about sword play, part of the focus is on the role and beliefs of the samurai and how the sword is an extension of that. It is these traditions that are so threatened when the YMCA introduces basketball and volleyball to Japanese schools. One of the major problems was the emphasis on involving women, which was problematic for the Japanese because of dress codes and existing patriarchal attitudes.
The authors also spend some time in examining how the government viewed sport during different time periods. In the early days it was about tradition and showing status. Later, during the Taisho era, it became about national strength and patriotism. Since the late 1940s, it has been about acceptance in the world, especially in the Olympics. This discussion is rather subtle and does not dominate the text but adds another level of complexity to this subject. The authors rightly capture the difficulties in examining sports that are different from many Western games and that have so much cultural significance attached.
This text is a must read for anyone interested in Japanese sports but also for those looking for an examination of the cultural context surrounding sport. It will also interest those who wonder about the influence of the West and modernization on traditional games. The text is well documented and the notes and bibliography provide excellent resources to continue studying this topic.
Guttman, Allen and Lee Thompson. Japanese Sports, A History. HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. 307 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8248-2464-4.
Copyright © 2005 by Leslie Heaphy