RUGBY ESTABLISHED IN AGE OF SHOGUNS & SAMURAI
Japan’s YC&AC rugby club, founded in the turbulent last days of the ferocious samurai and the Tokugawa shoguns, was the first rugby club established in Asia and is one of the very oldest in the world.
Death threats sparked Japan’s first cricket game | The Japan Times
Article written by me for The Japan Times On June 25, 1863, a Royal Navy team drawn from officers on …
Death threats sparked Japan’s first cricket game | The Japan Times Read More »
1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan | The Japan Times
1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan Article written by JMG for The Japan Times …
1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan | The Japan Times Read More »
My research about YFBC was nearly not published
I first became really interested in the early history of rugby in Japan when I offered to write a Japan …
JAPANESE RUGBY PLAYERS IMPRESSIVE DURING FIRST TOUR OVERSEAS DURING 1925-26 NEW YEAR HOLIDAY
Keio was the first Japanese team to play overseas and at the time they arrived in Shanghai they still had …
YOKOHAMA FOOT BALL CLUB RULES ADOPTED BY ENGLISH CLUB IN 1870
Yokohama Rules adopted by Southend FC in 1870
MIKE GALBRAITH CRITIQUES RWC2019 MATCH PROGRAM’S POOR HISTORY OF RUGBY IN JAPAN
The content of the article ‘Brief history of rugby in Japan’ which is around 850 words long in the 114 …
MIKE GALBRAITH CRITIQUES RWC2019 MATCH PROGRAM’S POOR HISTORY OF RUGBY IN JAPAN Read More »
OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF BEGINNINGS OF RUGBY IN JAPAN IN YOKOHAMA, WHY IT TOOK SO LONG AND ROCK-SITTING
Days before the eagerly awaited RWC2019 commences, Yokohama City will commemorate the city’s leading role in the start of rugby …
FIRST JAPANESE TO PLAY RUGBY SCHOOL RULES FOOTBALL
The first recorded attendance and study by a Japanese boy at Rugby School is of a boy from Shikoku in …
FIRST JAPANESE TO PLAY RUGBY SCHOOL RULES FOOTBALL Read More »
CRITIQUE OF TWO ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXHIBITS EXPLAINING JAPAN’S RUGBY HISTORY IN JAPAN PAVILION IN LONDON DURING RWC2015: PART 1
I wrote and circulated the information below with Japanese translations to a number of people involved in the rugby world in Japan including at least one director after initially making a complaint to the two Japanese officials on the spot at the Japan Pavilion in London during the RWC 2015 in the UK immediately after reading the information about the history of rugby in Japan that was offered in the display. I didn’t expect to get any response and I didn’t get any.
SPOTLIGHT ON E. B. CLARKE – ONE FATHER OF RUGBY IN JAPAN
E. B. studied at the Victoria Public School alongside TANAKA Ginnosuke who helped him to introduce rugby in 1899 to the students of Keio University. At the age of 15 he won nearly all the academic and sporting prizes in the school, except that for mathematics which was awarded to Tanaka, and had several inspirational meetings with the famous writer Lafcadio Hearn while Hearn was a guest in the headmaster’s house.
FIRST JAPANESE TO PLAY AN EARLY FORM OF RUGBY: KIKUCHI DAIROKU
The first recorded playing of an early form of rugby by a Japanese is that of 17-year old KIKUCHI Dairoku …
FIRST JAPANESE TO PLAY AN EARLY FORM OF RUGBY: KIKUCHI DAIROKU Read More »
First Ever “All Japan” Team Played in 1908 and were Non-Japanese
All Japan beat Shanghai 13-6 at Kobe On 30th December 1908 in Kobe, a rugby team named the All Japan …
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1952 Win by YC&AC-based “Japan Foreigners” Rugby Team against Hong Kong Uncovered
Only match Hong Kong lost during their 1952 Japan tour excluded from subsequent lists of matches played by touring teams in Japan
Mike’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past – by BBC Sport
Rugby World Cup: One man’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past Reward for 10 years of dedicated study – Mike …
Mike’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past – by BBC Sport Read More »
Mike Interviewed for Dutch Newspaper
I was interviewed Thursday the 19th of September by Frank HuisKamp Here are some highlights of the interview in English …
The ABC interviews Mike Galbraith on Sporty
The ABC interviews Mike Galbraith on Sporty Mike was interviewed last week on Sporty – ABC Radio National – the …
YC&AC 100 YEARS AGO DURING WW1
The YC&AC grounds and sports facilities at Yaguchidai have been enjoyed by the club’s sporting members for just over 100 …
HOW BHN OPERATES: THE CASE OF NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
On Saturday April 25 2015, Nepal was struck by a huge 7.8 magnitude earthquake which killed nearly 9,000 people and …
TWO SCOTTISH ‘CASTLES’ IN KINTYRE WHERE TWO KEY FIGURES IN EARLY HISTORY OF SPORT
CLUB HISTORIAN’S VISIT TO TWO SCOTTISH ‘CASTLES’ IN KINTYRE WHERE TWO KEY FIGURES IN EARLY HISTORY OF SPORT AND YC&AC GREW UP, AND ANOTHER THAT ANOTHER ONE INHERITED
EARLIEST AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN JAPAN
Unlike with the first official games of soccer, rugby, hockey, etc. in Japan., American football started with a big BANG and a big exhibition at the Meiji Shrine grounds on Thanksgiving Day (November 29) in 1934 watched by 15,000 (according to the JAFA* today – the Japan Times at the time said 10,000) people including Prince Chichibu and the American ambassador Joseph Grew who gave a speech as part of the ‘colorful’ opening ceremonies. These included the Florida Dance Hall orchestra playing the football songs of leading US colleges.
BEST 1930’S YC&AC RUGBY PLAYER
When I asked Bill the name of the best player in that period up to world war two, he seemed to hesitate before mentioning several names – Fleming, Archie Scherrer, Devison and Edwards – but when I asked Cecil Arab he quickly said, without any hesitation, ‘Lampy Lamport – the Oxford Blue!’ Years later I decided I should try to find out something about the legendary Lampy Lamport!
BILL SALTER’S REMINISCENCES
GLIMPSES OF YC&AC AND RUGBY IN JAPAN ON AND OFF THE FIELD IN 1920s & 1930s – BILL SALTER’S REMINISCENCES
FIRST FOREIGN SPORTS MATCH AFTER TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE
Canada’s Twilighters played in Japan within weeks of disaster, becoming the first foreign sports team to play in japan after the tohoku earthquake
FUWAKU – WORLD’S FIRST SENIOR RUGBY CLUB
Over-40’s rugby originated in Japan in the aftermath of the second world war. Its beginnings can be traced back to one evening in October 1947, two years after the end of the war, when Tokyo was still utterly devastated having been reduced to heaps of rubble. Life was a struggle characterized by confusion and disorder.
YC&AC RUGBY’S 150th CELEBRATION
Rugby involved kids, veterans in close Classic Interport match warmed up things of main match (1st XV Vs the old Japanese enemy Acorn Club), followed by a black-tie VIP-studded dinner with Eddie Jones the main speaker ..
THE 1874 “FOOTBALL IN YOKOHAMA” ILLUSTRATION AND THE ARTIST WHO CREATED IT
The image is most likely the oldest image of rugby in Asia and one of the very oldest in the world relating to ‘club’ football – at glance at the picture will tell you that the players were certainly not playing a game of soccer – actually being played as opposed to football/rugby played in schools and universities.
HOW THE EARLY HISTORY OF RUGBY IN JAPAN WAS “LOST”
However, the conventional history of rugby in Japan, at least since World War II, has been that rugby was introduced to Japan by Cambridge University graduates Ginnosuke Tanaka and Edward Bramwell Clarke who taught Keio students how to play the sport and arranged Keio’s first game against the YC&AC in Yokohama Koen in 1901
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES – 150th ANNIVERSARY OF CLUB-BASED RUGBY IN JAPAN
Messages mostly from descendants of players and also from living ex-players involved in rugby in Yokohama history – 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1950s to 1980, 1971, 1979, and 1980s
REMARKABLE CONTEMPORARY 1864 REFERENCE TO FOOTBALL/‘RUGBY’ IN JAPAN FOUND IN BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL
This is the earliest evidence of British army officers and Yokohama civilians playing football regularly in Yokohama, Japan in the mid-1860s
FIRST STUDENT AND HIGH SCHOOL RUGBY TEAMS AND GAMES IN TOKYO & KYOTO
According to most Japanese historians rugby was first introduced to Japan when Ginnosuke TANAKA and Edward B. F. Clarke started …
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VIDEO OF FCCJ PRESENTATION ON HISTORY OF RUGBY IN JAPAN & RECENT PODCAST
Slide presentation on 150 years of rugby in Japan at FCCJ in Tokyo on March 31st 2016 …
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IDENTITY OF OLYMPIA SEAMAN WHO SPOILT END OF ICHIKO’S 1896 BASEBALL TRIUMPHAL RUN IN JAPAN REVEALED AFTER 120 YEARS
CHURCH WAS NOT SO-CALLED EX-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER HIRAM CHURCH BUT 18-YEAR OLD ERNEST FISHER CHURCH FROM RHODE ISLAND
MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE’S UNKNOWN REMARKABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO 19th CENTURY JAPAN ESPECIALLY IN FIELD OF RUGBY AND OTHER SPORTS
SCHOOL’S ALUMNI HELPED INTRODUCE MANY SPORTS IN JAPAN, INCLUDING RUGBY, INITIATED FOUNDING OF KEY YOKOHAMA & KOBE SPORTS CLUBS, & …
LEGENDARY 1896 YC&AC vs. ICHIKO BASEBALL GAMES
Four simple games of baseball 120 years ago opened way to brilliant future for baseball in Japan.
JAPAN’S REMARKABLY EARLY ADOPTION OF TELEGRAPHY
How Edo and Meiji-period Japan embraced the telegraph and logged on to the Victorian Internet.
ORIGINS OF BASEBALL IN JAPAN AND YC&AC’S BASEBALL SECTION
The evidence that the first baseball club in Japan was the Yokohama Base Ball Club and not the Shimbashi Athletic Club!