PERSON BEHIND START OF YC&AC KIDS RUGBY REVEALED
An email out of the blue containing two photos reveals the true start of Yokohama’s first kids rugby school.
Yokohama
BEST YC&AC RUGBY PLAYER IN 1930s
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
YC&AC 150th ANNIVERSARY OF RUGBY EVENT
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
FIRST INTERPORT RUGBY MATCH (YC&AC vs KR&AC) IN 1902
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
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 ships sent to protect British expats in Japan had plenty to worry about as the lanky James Campbell Fraser strode out to bat against them on an apology for a cricket pitch in Yokohama. A … Read more
1866: 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 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
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 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
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 years and those of no other “open” club in Japan’s major cities come anywhere near matching them. Many members over those years happily played field sports at the YC&AC for ten or even twenty years … Read more
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.
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
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, & EVEN HELPED WRITE JAPAN’S CONSTITUTION Marlborough College is justly proud of its rugby history and pedigree in the UK. The school played the first inter-school game in 1864 when it played a match against Clifton … Read more
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.
ORIGINS OF BASEBALL IN JAPAN AND YC&AC’S BASEBALL SECTION
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!