Figure 1.--These Japanese boys are participating in a school sports day with a gymnastics exhibition. |
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We have only limited information on sports in Japan. We know that baseball is very popular. But we have little information on other sports. Japanese scgools have a very academic focus, thus sports are not promoted in the school as is the case for America. We notice Japanese boys in a variety of athletic uniforms, but we are not always sure just what sport is involved. Hopefully our Japanese readers will povide us some insights on sports in Japan.
The Japnese do not seem as sports minded as some other countries. As in all countries, however, a number of sports are popular. Perhaps the most populsar sport is baseball--an import from the United States. Soccer is also popular. Thre most Japanese of all sports is of course sumo with its Shinto connections, often considered to be the national sport.
Japan is on of the few countries outside of North America where baseball is popular and there is a professional league. A few Japanese players have entered the big league in the United States. We do not know how youth baseball is organized, but believe there is a Japanese Little League.
We note images of Japanese boys doing gymnastics. The programs seem very similar to Western programs. Presumably Olympic competitive rules have helped standardize gymnastic programs in countries around the world. Some of this is done at school in gym classess. Notice the boys here practing their gynastic roytines as part of a school sports day (figure 1). We notice other boys doing more sophisticated gymnastic work. We are not sure, however, if this is club or school gymastics. We think that many of these clubs are club gymnastics.
We have seen impages of Japanese boys playing soccer. We have littkle information, however, on how soccer competitions are organized. We think there are probably soccer leagues as in America rather than inter-scholastoc competitions.
Sumo is the indigenous Japanese style of wrestling. It isrefeered to as the national sport. This is interesting. Americans call baseball the national sport, in part because everyone played it. But sumo is a sport for only a small group of highly trained and very heavy atheletes. The association with the Shinto religion probably explain why it came to be called the natinal sport. Summo is an ancient, highly ruitulized sport. Its origins seem as anient as Shino itself. The earliest known sumo wrestling was organized as performances to entertain the Shinto gods. The rituals associated with Shinto todsay are founded in these early Shinto performances. The ritual and decorum of sumo can be complicated, but the rules for the matches are quite simple. Thereare two ways to in. You either make your opponent touch the floor with something else than th sole of his feet or force him to leave the ring. The matches are generally very short, often only a few seconds. Only rarely do matches exceed one minute. Most elite wrestlers are highly trained and conditioned athletes, usually between 20 to 35 years old. It is especially important to gain bulk. Sumo wrestlers live in special sumo stables under very strict cobditins. We notice boys engaging in sumo. I don;t think this is a scjool activity. Perhaps it is a club acivity or organized by local temples.
A major event in Japan is Undo Kai or Sports Day. Many parents come to watch their children on Sports Day. It is perhaps the most intesively photographed school event in Japan. It is not a single day, but rather varies from school to school. Some schgools have more than one Undo Kat each year. The kids are of course the center if attention, but it is actually more of a community event than school event because so many parents and even neighborhood residents witghout kids attend. The school essentially closes down for the day. An effort is made to involve as many of the children as possible, The activities for the younger children focus on participation. Competition becomes more important for the older children.
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