Sports in Japan

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Sports based on traditional Japanese culture are still very popular in Japan . In addition, modern team sports such as baseball have also established themselves.

history

The oldest sports practiced in Japan are archery and hunting . While both served purely for food acquisition in the pre-Christian Jōmon period , an elite emerged in the Asuka period (592-710) who could afford to do both to pass the time. Falconry , which probably goes back to the Mongolian tradition, and Kemari , a sport similar to today's footbag, is also proven for the Asuka period .

Also Sumo is an ancient sport that dates back to wrestling matches that were fought between villages. Sumo and other traditional Japanese sports were also practiced during religious festivities. The rituals and symbols in modern sumo competitions show this clearly, such as throwing salt in the ring or the ring border, which is like a shimenawa (straw rope to delimit a sacred area). Likewise, many popular festivals ( Matsuri ) of the modern Shinto religion are associated with sporting competitions based on local traditions.

The court nobility of the Heian period (794–1185) also loved sporting events to keep boredom away, especially as a spectator.

For the warrior aristocracy ( Bushi ), who experienced his rise in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), exercises in riding, archery and sword fighting served mainly to prepare for military conflicts. They invented, among other things Yabusame , a competition in horseback archery , and Inuoimono , a hunt with dogs.

In the Sengoku period (1470-1580), a century of ongoing battles between rival daimyo , the martial art became dominant again. The armies constantly needed new warriors, and so the training of the committed foot soldiers usually took place directly in the field. The samurai children were trained on the sword as soon as they could hold it. With the introduction of western firearms , shooting was also part of the training. Contrary to the romantic image of the samurai with the sword, most battles of this time were already decided by the rifle.

The training of the ninja , indispensable for the generals, was not only an intelligence service, but also a sporty one, with techniques such as climbing facades and throwing shuriken .

Only the pacification of the country at the beginning of the Edo period (1603–1868) led to the development of traditional Japanese martial arts. The samurai went from the military to civil servants, but in their self-image they continued to be fighters and were thus trained to use weapons. The peace, however, made it possible to perfect one's skills with the sword over decades. Only then did the refined systems of the individual combat schools come about. Within a school, fighters measured their skills with the wooden sword ( bokutō ), and in the 18th century the bamboo sword and protective armor were invented, which are still used today in modern kendō .

In contrast, various sword competitions were held in the amusement districts of the cities, and money could be placed on the participants. In addition to sumo, in which people competed against each other, animal fights were also very popular. Bullfights even took place in Uwajima on Shikoku . Japan has had its own record-keeping tradition for longer than most European countries. The rice sack carriers organized competitions where the aim was to carry heavier weights than others without collapsing. These records were confirmed by temples and monasteries, where the record lists e.g. T. can still be seen today. Such officially recorded and positively assessed results were, as in England, the prerequisite for betting in Japan. With the Meiji Restoration from 1868, modern sport came to Japan along with foreigners, which was developing in Europe and the USA at that time . Many new sports were introduced by O-yatoi gaikokujin , foreign teachers at the newly founded Imperial Universities . Among them were u. a. the German doctor Erwin Bälz , but also the American educator Horace Wilson , the father of Japanese baseball .

With the abolition of the warrior class, the centuries-old tradition of the samurai fighting schools threatened to perish, and so modern sports were created from the traditional martial arts. The sword fight has survived mainly in the kendō. In the early Meiji period (1868–1912) it was mainly used for training the police. With the introduction of conscription , sport also became a means of exercising the masses. In 1911 Kendo became a compulsory subject in Japanese schools. Reformers adapted the ancient teachings to the needs of the modern age and created modern unarmed sports and self-defense techniques. Kanō Jigorō created modern judo . Ueshiba Morihei created the aikidō . Gichin Funakoshi created karate from the martial arts of Okinawa .

In 1911 the Austrian k.uk Lieutenant Theodor Edler von Lerch went to Japan to study the military there (Japan had won the Russo-Japanese War a few years earlier ). During his stay, he taught the Japanese to ski . A social and mass sport developed from this.

The first professionalization in sport took place in the 1920s with the creation of the first professional baseball teams. It was also around this time that the migratory bird movement came to Japan and made hiking popular in Japan. With the advent of television, sports broadcasts became popular in Japan, particularly boxing , sumo and baseball.

The importance of sport in Japan at this time can already be seen in the fact that the 1940 Summer Olympics and the 1940 Winter Olympics were awarded to Japan, but were then canceled due to the Second Sino-Japanese War .

The first sporting highlight of the post-war period was the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo , which took place at the height of the first post-war boom.

The 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo caused a boom in winter sports .

In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital Beijing , competitive sport was reorganized in Japan. In addition to increased centralization, considerable funds have been invested in competitive sports research.

Major events

Individual sports

baseball

see : Baseball in Japan

Soccer

see : Football in Japan

Martial arts

see : Budō

Cheerleading

see : Ōendan

figure skating

Figure skating is the most popular winter sport in Japan. The first World Figure Skating Championships to be held in Japan took place in Tokyo in 1977 . This was followed by Tokyo 1985 , Chiba 1994 , Nagano 2002 and Tokyo 2007 .

Nobuo Satō was the first successful figure skater from Japan in the 1960s. In 1965 he was fourth at the World Championships in Colorado Springs . Minoru Sano won his first medal at world championships with bronze in 1977 in his native Tokyo. In 1979 Emi Watanabe was the first to achieve this in Vienna , also with bronze. Midori Itō became the first Japanese woman to become world champion in Paris in 1989 . This was also achieved by Yuka Satō in 1994 , Shizuka Arakawa in 2004 , Miki Andō in 2007 and Mao Asada in 2008 and 2010 . Arakawa became the first Japanese Olympic champion in figure skating in Turin in 2006 . In the men's category, Takeshi Honda won two bronze medals in a row in 2002 and 2003 , before Daisuke Takahashi became the first Japanese runner-up in 2007 and the first Japanese world champion in 2010 . At the Olympic Games in Vancouver Takahashi won bronze, which also meant the first Olympic medal for a Japanese figure skater in the men's competition. At the Olympic Games in Sochi , Yuzuru Hanyū became the first Japanese Olympic champion in men's figure skating.

rugby

Rugby , like other European team sports, came to Japan during the opening up of the country in the Meiji period . The national association Nihon Rugby Football Kyōkai ( 日本 ラ グ ビ ー フ ッ ト ボ ー ル 協会 , English Japan Rugby Football Union ) was founded in 1926 and promotes the variants of the classic rugby union , as the 15 rugby, and the Olympic 7 rugby . Today there are over 120,000 registered rugby players in Japan. As in baseball, the national high school and college competitions that have been held since the 1940s are particularly popular. At the annual "Japanese Rugby Football Championship" ( 日本 ラ グ ビ ー フ ッ ト ボ ー ル 選手 権 大会 , Nihon ragubī futtobōru senshuken taikai , 1960-62 NHK Cup), the best university and club teams have been competing against each other since 1960. As a professional league, the Top League was founded in 2003 , which consists of 16 teams, most of which are factory teams from Japanese corporations and whose players are among the best-paid in the world. The Japanese franchise Sunwolves has been playing in the international Super Rugby league since 2015 . The 2019 Rugby Union World Cup will also be held in Japan .

First introduced in Japan in 1993, Rugby League , i.e. modern rugby 13 , has also found a small following. The national team, founded in 1994, played their first international game against Lebanon in 1998 .

golf

Golf is the most popular sport among salarymen . In the 1980s in particular, playing golf became a status symbol. However, membership in a club is very expensive, which is why simple office workers meet at one of the tees found all over the country. The Chiba Prefecture is the center of golf in Japan. On the one hand, Chiba is right next to Tokyo, which has many companies with well-paid employees, and on the other hand, the area is hilly, which makes settlement difficult, but not so mountainous that it cannot be used for golf courses.

formula 1

Formula 1 races have been held in Japan since 1976 , mostly under the name of the Japanese Grand Prix . The racetrack used for this purpose since 1987 is the Suzuka International Racing Course . Since 2008 it has been switched between the Fuji Motor Speedway and the Suzuka International Racing Course. The Japanese car brand Honda provided a team until the 2008 Formula 1 season . This gave the resignation from Formula 1 because of the financial and economic crisis . Toyota drove as the last remaining Japanese team until the 2009 season . See Honda Racing F1 and Toyota Racing .

Horse racing

Horse racing (and the associated sports betting ) are very popular . The 28 tracks are operated by municipalities, prefectures and the Japan Racing Association (JRA) and National Association of Racing (NAR) public companies and are regulated by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries . A total of more than 16,000 individual races take place each year, the most important towards the end of the year at the international Japan Cup in Fuchū , Tokyo Prefecture , in which over half a billion yen prize money is distributed.

Track cycling

The Japanese version of the track bike sprint , Keirin ( Japanese 競 輪 ), was introduced in 1948, is now enjoying international popularity and has also been part of the Olympic cycling competitions since the 2000 Summer Games . In Japan, the approximately 50 velodromes have over 20 million visitors annually. As with horse racing, bets play a major role, with over 1.5 trillion yen being turned over per season.

Surfing and diving

Since no place in Japan is more than 150 km from the sea, and most of the residents live on the coast anyway, scuba diving and surfing are extremely popular sports, especially in the south. Numerous small islands live on water sports enthusiasts who come as weekend tourists. A dream destination for many divers is the Yonaguni Monument .

Rockclimbing

Around 80% of Japan is covered by mountains, and especially in the Tōhoku area there are large areas in which only individual, narrow valleys are populated. These areas are particularly popular with mountain climbers. To climb the highest and most famous mountain in Japan, Mount Fujisan (3776 meters), you only need warm clothes and sturdy shoes, at least in the summer season.

Synchronized swimming

Synchronized swimming has enjoyed some popularity since a popular television series ( dorama ) and a film about a synchronized swimming team at a high school in Saitama Prefecture based on a true story, Water Boys .

tennis

With Naomi Osaka , a Japanese woman won a Grand Slam tournament for the first time and climbed to first place in the WTA women's world rankings. In 2018 she won the US Open in New York against Serena Williams from the USA and in 2019 the Australian Open in Melbourne, where she defeated the Czech Petra Kvitova in the final . Japan also has a top 10 world-class player in the men's category, Kei Nishikori , who made it to the final of the US Open in New York in 2014 and made it to fourth place in the ATP world rankings in 2015.

Brain teaser

Shogi

Shogi is also very popular as one of the thinking sports. It is played by around 12 million Japanese as a popular sport. There are also around 190 professional shogi players. These are organized in the Japan Shogi Association .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnd Krüger & Akira Ito: On the limitations of Eichberg's and Mandell's theory of sport and their quantification in view of chikaraishi, in: Stadion 3 (1977), 2, 244-252.
  2. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner , Manfred Litscher (ed.): The Army History Museum in Vienna. Graz, Vienna 2000 p. 62.
  3. ↑ Arnd Krüger , Machiko Kimura & Kinji Oita: Transformations in Japanese Sport, in: Leistungssport 33 (2003), 5, 49 - 53. ISSN  0341-7387
  4. ↑ International Rugby Board: Entry Japan ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.irb.com
  5. ^ Nihon Rugby League Kyōkai: 日本 代表 の 歴 史

literature

  • Stefan Huebner, Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913–1974. Singapore: NUS Press, 2016.