ＹＣＡＣ　日本ラグビーのルーツコミュの日本ラグビーの歴史　まだやっと110年

HISTORY OF RUGBY IN JAPAN

Rugby seems to have first been played in Japan by the British in the late 1860's or early 1870's when the foreign settlement was established in Yokohama. A battalion of "Tommies" was stationed on "Camp Hill" (presently known as Minato No Mieru Oka Park) between 1864 and 1874 and they were well-known as 'a sporting lot'. Many of the first rugby matches in Japan probably involved these "Tommies".

In those days, cricket was the main love of the expatriates and the Yokohama Cricket Club dominated the sports scene in Yokohama. There were several other sports clubs in Yokohama, including a rowing club, a race club, a baseball club and a football club to name only a few, but there was no rugby club. Anyway, there is a mysterious 25 year gap before we hear about rugby in Japan again. Presumably, after the redcoats left it was difficult to get teams together.

Ginosuke Tanaka is the person credited with introducing the game to the Japanese in Japan. He returned from Cambridge University and had students of Keio University playing rugby in 1899. He was helped by Professor E.B Clark who also taught at Keio and had played for his college at Cambridge.

The first recorded game in Japan was played on Boxing Day 1900 between Keio University and the Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club. Unfortunately, the score was not recorded. How quickly the Keio team improved can be judged from the scores in those early years.

Keio also played an annual match against the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club (KR&AC) from 1900. In 1902, the YC&AC and KR&AC started playing their INTERPORT fixture which has been fiercely contested down to this very day. The trading company Cornes started what may have been the first company team at around the same time. From 1911, the Third High School in Kyoto and Doshisha University started to play matches against each other and gradually schools, colleges and universities also formed teams. In 1923, the first fixture between Keio and Waseda was played. This fixture has long been regarded as the equivalent of England's varsity match (Oxford-Cambridge). Even in the 1930's these matches were attracting quite large crowds. In 1923, HRH the Prince of Wales visited Japan and attended a rugby match between the KR&AC and the Third High School of Kyoto.

1927 saw the formation of Japan Rugby Football Union through the cooperation of the Kanto and Seibu (now Kansai) unions. In the same year, a young man named Kayama went to England and played for the Harlequins and also Richmond. Kayama played a major role in raising the standard of rugby in Japan, and was chairman of JRFU from 1956-1968.

1927 also saw Waseda University send a touring side to Australia. They lost all five games but it was the first time for a Japanese team to venture overseas.

In 1930, a national selection toured Canada. They won six games and drew one. Six years later, the first New Zealand Universities team toured Japan. They won six matches but were held to a draw in the last game by the Japan Universities side.

Like all other sports, rugby almost ceased before, during and after the war, though the YC&AC and KR&AC managed to play their Interport up until 1941. Within weeks of the war ending, Japanese rugby players were getting together again. However, it took a long time to get back to the level of the pre-war days and there was no national team.

In 1952, Oxford University was invited to Japan and thereafter other foreign teams started to tour Japan. In 1958, the Junior All Blacks came over with a team that included Winston Whinaray, Colin Meads, Ken Tremain, Ross Brown and several others who were very soon to become world-famous. Doshisha University toured New Zealand in 1966 and two years later an All Japan Team visited New Zealand. This was the tour in which Deme Sakata, playing on the wing, scored nine tries in two consecutive games on a Saturday and the following Monday. This would be an amazing achievement in any circumstances. To do it in New Zealand against teams like the Junior All Blacks (who not surprisingly lost that game) was truly a rare feat. The success of this tour gave a big boost to Japanese rugby.

In September 1971, England sent a full international team to Japan as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Rugby Union. This was the first time Japan played a full intentional team. After winning easily against Waseda University, England could only win the other two matches 27-19 and 6-3.

The Welsh Rugby Union invited Japan over to Wales in September and October 1973. The highlights of this tour were the fairly close game against France and the sight of star winger Itoh crashing through J.P.R. Williams' tackle to score a spectacular try.

Since 1973, Japan has toured fairly regularly and have invited most leading international teams to Japan. There has also been a fairly constant stream of visits to Japan by foreign club teams and university sides. In Osaka in 1979, Japan was leading 19-15 against England with the referee already looking at his watch. In those last moments, Peter Squires managed to score a face saving try which Dusty Hare converted. Another time at Cardiff Arms Park in Wales in 1983, Japan was all over the home team in the final 15 minutes and scored three excellent tries. Wales were lucky to get away with a win. The final score was 29-24 to Wales.

Without doubt, Japan's best performance to date was beating a Scottish touring side in Tokyo in 1989 by 26 points to 22. The Scots had a number of well known faces missing (they were touring with the British Lions in Australia at the time) but still had an impressive line up. This was the first occasion that a major rugby nation had been overcome.

At present, there are more than 7,300 clubs registered with the Japan Rugby Union. This is more than any other country in the world. However, most clubs have only one team and the total number of players is around 200,000. Only England has more: around 300,000 players playing for 2,000 clubs.