Mike Galbraith's history of Western Sport in Japan
In 1974 the YC&AC rugby section went on tour to Seoul and played to matches. This appears to be the first overseas tour made by any YC&AC sports team and is one of the first rugby tour to Korea by any team. Alex Russell allowed me to copy his rugby photos displayed before he left Japan. The text is from the YC&AC magazine.
An email out of the blue containing two photos reveals the true start of Yokohama’s first kids rugby school.
BEST YC&AC RUGBY PLAYER IN 1930s Background: As explained in the story about Bill Salter’s reminiscences, in 1989 I decided to track down and interview the ex-YC&AC rugby player living in Japan who had first played for the club before anyone else. I thought I might be looking for someone who had played in the late … Read more
Background Only a handful of “open” rugby clubs in the world can trace their history back 150 years. The Yokohama Country and Athletic Club (YC&AC) in the port of Yokohama is one of them as one of four sports clubs which merged in 1884 to form the current multi-sport club was originally established as the … Read more
Background At the end of the 19th century the two leading international trading ports in Japan were Yokohama and Kobe and they were both home to foreign sports clubs, the largest of which were the Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC) and the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club. (KR&AC). Not long after the latter was … Read more
EARLY MITSUBISHI vs YC&AC RUGBY MATCH REPORTS The All Mitsubishi Rugby Club was founded in 1928 and claims to be the oldest “club” team in Japan. This is because Japan has a very unique way of classifying and counting its teams and clubs. In fact, its basic unit for counting is ‘teams’ and not ‘clubs.’ … Read more
Play rugby in Japan. If you are looking for a great rugby club, check out the YC&AC whose rugby team’s establishment preceded that of the the RFU by five years. The club is one of the very few clubs in Japan to have its own ground on a hill with a great view of Mt. Fuji and has a special sports bar for after-match receptions yards from the pitch ….
The annual rugby interport match played between Yokohama (YC&AC) and Kobe (KR&AC) started on Xmas day 1902 and was Japan’s longest running rugby fixture. Kobe hasn’t been able to field a team for more than 10 years. Here is a report on the 1972 match that was published in the club’s monthly in-house magazine and forwarded to me by John Quin, who played for the YC&AC that day.
HOW I ENJOYED RUGBY WITH THE YC&AC (1979-1986) (Editor’s note: I would like to encourage other old sporting Japan hands to follow Chris’ path and use lockdown to record their memories and send them to me.) By Chris Baker The beginning During February 1979 whilst working for British Leyland as a Senior Instructor at their … Read more
1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan Article written by JMG for The Japan Times published in March 2014 before Tokyo International 7s The history of rugby in Japan is arguably longer than that of every major rugby-playing country in the world outside of the British Isles and Australia. Very … Read more
Days before the eagerly awaited RWC2019 commences, Yokohama City will commemorate the city’s leading role in the start of rugby in Japan and Asia by unveiling a plaque. This article takes a look at the background to this event and why such post-WW2 recognition took almost 75 years. On September 5 there will be a … Read more
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.
BBC Sport recently published this articles following an interview Rugby World Cup: One man’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past Reward for 10 years of dedicated study – Mike Galbraith’s labour of love is perhaps now finally at an end Becky Grey – BBC Sport Read the full article on BBC Sport: Mike’s search into … Read more
Source: Mike’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past – BBC Sport BBC Sport in Yokohama By Becky Grey Reward for 10 years of dedicated study – Mike Galbraith’s labour of love is perhaps now finally at an endThere is a small, white plaque hidden away in the back streets of bustling Yokohama, so hard to … Read more
The ABC interviews Mike Galbraith on Sporty Mike was interviewed last week on Sporty – ABC Radio National – the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Part1. This broadcast discussed ‘When is it too hot to exercise or play sport?’ and is Heat stroke is potentially fatal. …and how do you know when it’s hot enough to stop? … Read more
Canada’s Twilighters played in Japan within weeks of disaster, becoming the first foreign sports team to play in japan after the tohoku earthquake
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.
According to most Japanese historians rugby was first introduced to Japan when Ginnosuke TANAKA and Edward B. F. Clarke started teaching students of Keio Gijuku University how to play the sport in 1899. In December1901 Keio played its first ever game against the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club (YC&AC) on the cricket ground in Yokohama … Read more
The evidence that the first baseball club in Japan was not the Shimbashi Athletic Clud allegedly founded by Hiroshi Hiraoka in 1878 but the Yokohama Base Ball Club and not the Shimbashi Athletic Club!