日本語
1. Oldest Asian Rugby Club Approved by the World Rugby Museum in England
In 2015, the World Rugby Museum in Twickenham, England approved Yokohama Football Club was the oldest rugby club in Asia and sent this document as follows.
An early form of the game synonymous with modern Rugby Union has been play in Asised by students at Rugby School, Warwickshire and a number of other British public schools since at least the 1820's. Many of the students of these schools went on to careers in the armed forces and travelled around the world on trade and other ventures. It was common for these sailors, soldiers and merchants to form informal, and formal, sports clubs in the places that they were based. Sports such as cricket, football and rugby were often played by the British expatriate communities. Consequently it is very difficult to state definitively when these sports were first played in these places.
As of August 2015, to the best of our knowledge, the oldest verified rugby football club in Asia is that formed in Yokohama, Japan in 1866. The article printed in the Japan Times newspaper on 26th January 1866, that was supplied to us by Mr Mike Galbraith in January of 2013, makes reference to the establishment of this club.
In subsequent articles, also brought to our attention by Mr Galbraith, reference is made to ‘catching the ball' and ‘drop-kicking' as a means of points scoring. This, coupled with earlier mention of participants being alumni of Rugby and Winchester Schools suggests that the Yokohama Foot Ball Club were playing a version of football in general accordance with the rules, established at Rugby School, that would form the basis of the game now known as Rugby Union.
As things stand, we therefore believe that the evidence shows Yokohama Foot Ball Club to be the oldest rugby football club in Asia and one of the oldest anywhere in the world. We would welcome any further information or opinions on the subject.
These records tell us that Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC) was established in 1868 mainly based on cricket, but the football club had been already active two years before YC&AC was set up.
2. Organisational Meeting of Yokohama Football Club (YFBC) and Namamugi Incident
Before the establishment of YC&AC, Britain and France decided station their forces in Yokohama in May 1863, 10 months after the Namamugi Incident occurred in 1862. The Namamugi Incident was an assault of a British, Charles Richardson, by armed Satsuma retinues. There had been similar incidents caused by the exclusionists targeting foreigners, such as the assassination of the interpreter, Henry Heusken, of Townsend Harris in January 1861, attacking of the British legation, and killing of British Navy sailors (of the destroyer Renard) in front of the British legation. Under such a situation, British and French troops demanded to protect their residential areas and their communities.
This led to the stationing of French Army Forces based in Yatobashi, Yokohama. The British Army Forces dispatched a detachment of the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment from Hong Kong in December. In January of the following year, one Light Infantry Battalion of the Royal Marines with 550 soldiers arrived. In total, 1,200 British garrison forces set up their camps in Yamate, Yokohama. They must have also brought rugby balls with them.
Here is an article that ran in the Japan Times about the YFBC organisational meeting: "At 2 pm, an organisational meeting was held at a racket court lodge in 127 Yamashitacho, Yokohama, along with another meeting in order to select the organisational committee members. As a result, as proposed by W. H. Smith and Campbell, Captain Rochfort and Captain Bront from the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment, and other members were appointed to the committee (three seats) to determine the club regulations by majority vote. Baker, a cooperative person with the skill of communication, was appointed as the honorary secretary, while Monk was appointed as the honorary chairman. YFBC consisted mainly of British troops and foreign residents."
3. An Illustration of a Rugby Match Depicted in The Graphic
(Source: The Graphic April 18,1874)
In November 1873, the Japan Weekly Mail covered a drawn “English Vs the Scotch and Irish” match by this illustration. “Mr. Gubbins ‘dribbled' the ball capitally and Mr. Abbott played half-back in excellent form; Messrs. Hamilton, Abell, Hill and E. Fraser were conspicuous amongst the forward players; while Messrs. Melhuish, Dare and Wheeler were also equally most useful.” It said the next game would be “the return match of The Services and The Settlement” the following Wednesday.
The place where this match was held seems to be, not the swamp ground or around China Town, but a sport field located in Yokohama Park prior to its completion. The third volume of "Yokohamashi Shi (The History of Yokohama City)" says: "This park was nearly completed as of 14 September 1874, and trees are currently being planted." Another record says that there was a cricket field about 81 m long and wide, built within an about 63,000-square-meter park, and it was turfed within 1872. People might have played cricket or rugby before the park was officially completed. Therefore, this place was probably depicted as the field in this illustration with the YFBC flag swaying in the wind.
4. First Victory after 7 Years from the First Match of Keio University in 1901
Edward Bramwell Clarke, who was born in Yokohama as the son of the once thriving Yokohama Bakery, graduated from Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge, and then started to teach English at Keio University. In 1899, he and his friend Ginnosuke Tanaka taught rugby to students who had a need for exercise during their free time in the winter season. Their first match was kicked off with YC&AC at the sport field in Yokohama Park on 7 December 1901 at 2 pm. Clarke first met Ginnosuke at Victoria Public School located in Yamate, Yokohama, where he studied before moving to England to continue to his studies.
(E. B Clarke) (Asahi Sports, on 15 May 1934)
(The first match of Keio University Rugby Football Club) (Reprinted edition of Jiji Shinpo, Rykoku Shosha, 8 December 1901)
Although Clarke and Ginnosuke joined Keio, they were roundly defeated by a score of 41-5 (according to "The 100-Year History of Keio University"). After the 20th minute in the second half, the match actually turned into a practice session where the players from both teams mixed. The above copy on the left is an article about this match with no records of the score. The "local amateur football club" appeared in this article indicates YC&AC. FW Masao Matsuoka, who played in this match, is assumed to be the referee for a match held seven years later where Keio gained their first victory. As a side note here, around that time, there was an interesting rule other than tackling which was called "held", where a scrum had to be formed when a player was caught.
Clarke concluded on the train back, saying: "Our short legs are the cause of our loss. But we can do nothing for it so far, so we have to let our children sit on chairs, not on tatami mats, in order to make their legs longer."
Since dribble was the primary offense strategy in those days, he must have gnashed his teeth with the fact that longer legs had advantages for possessing the ball.
I have to describe an episode on how Keio University gained their first victory. I found an interesting article about a match with the same teams, Keio and YC&AC, which was held in the Mitatsunamachi field in November 1906. "Kaisaku Miyagawa of Keio successfully made a drop goal, and Keio led the opponent team 4-3 in the second half. Even though as twilight drew on, the referee did not blow his whistle for full time. Unusual voices calling "time-out, time-out!" echoed from the spectators surrounding the touch line; however, the referee did not listen to their voice. [...] In the meantime, Keio conceded a try on the right corner which brought an end to the match. Foreign players of YC&AC celebrated Keio by loading Miyagawa onto a handcart and pulled it to the campus in Mita from Tsunamachi." (Asahi Sports, 1 February 1936). After a great struggle, the players of YC&AC made a thoughtful arrangement to give credit to Keio's MVP by carrying him to the campus. If the match had ended punctually, Keio could have gained their first victory on this day.
They met again for another match held at the Mitatsunamachi field in the autumn of 1908, where Keio finally won by a score of 12-0. The main cause for this victory was adopting the seven system, referred to as the New Zealand System, after all the team players read D. Gallaher's book entitled "Complete Rugby Football". This book was about the tour of the All Blacks in England.
Jiji Shinpo dated 15 November 1908 ran an article about Keio's victory. The referee, Masao Matsuoka, was warmly treated with the title cup presented before the match started. In this match, Keio overwhelmed YC&AC with tries made by BK Iizuka and FB Miyazawa, ending the first half by a score of 6-0. In the second half, FW Shibata and BK Takeno bravely played with a great performance, leading the team to win 12-0. The Keio baseball club players presented the rugby players with flowers as congratulation of this victory.
Keio played rugby at that time only with foreign rugby clubs in Yokohama and Kobe, but they enjoyed rugby within the university by holding some rugby tournaments. The second domestic rugby club was then established in Daisan High School in Kyoto in cooperation of Keio University. It was 1911 that they played their first match against each other. I feel it is totally fateful that the final of the RWC 2019 will be held here in Yokohama where the Westerns brought those oval rugby balls back more than 150 years ago.
1. Oldest Asian Rugby Club Approved by the World Rugby Museum in England
In 2015, the World Rugby Museum in Twickenham, England approved Yokohama Football Club was the oldest rugby club in Asia and sent this document as follows.
An early form of the game synonymous with modern Rugby Union has been play in Asised by students at Rugby School, Warwickshire and a number of other British public schools since at least the 1820's. Many of the students of these schools went on to careers in the armed forces and travelled around the world on trade and other ventures. It was common for these sailors, soldiers and merchants to form informal, and formal, sports clubs in the places that they were based. Sports such as cricket, football and rugby were often played by the British expatriate communities. Consequently it is very difficult to state definitively when these sports were first played in these places.
As of August 2015, to the best of our knowledge, the oldest verified rugby football club in Asia is that formed in Yokohama, Japan in 1866. The article printed in the Japan Times newspaper on 26th January 1866, that was supplied to us by Mr Mike Galbraith in January of 2013, makes reference to the establishment of this club.
In subsequent articles, also brought to our attention by Mr Galbraith, reference is made to ‘catching the ball' and ‘drop-kicking' as a means of points scoring. This, coupled with earlier mention of participants being alumni of Rugby and Winchester Schools suggests that the Yokohama Foot Ball Club were playing a version of football in general accordance with the rules, established at Rugby School, that would form the basis of the game now known as Rugby Union.
As things stand, we therefore believe that the evidence shows Yokohama Foot Ball Club to be the oldest rugby football club in Asia and one of the oldest anywhere in the world. We would welcome any further information or opinions on the subject.
These records tell us that Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC) was established in 1868 mainly based on cricket, but the football club had been already active two years before YC&AC was set up.
2. Organisational Meeting of Yokohama Football Club (YFBC) and Namamugi Incident
Before the establishment of YC&AC, Britain and France decided station their forces in Yokohama in May 1863, 10 months after the Namamugi Incident occurred in 1862. The Namamugi Incident was an assault of a British, Charles Richardson, by armed Satsuma retinues. There had been similar incidents caused by the exclusionists targeting foreigners, such as the assassination of the interpreter, Henry Heusken, of Townsend Harris in January 1861, attacking of the British legation, and killing of British Navy sailors (of the destroyer Renard) in front of the British legation. Under such a situation, British and French troops demanded to protect their residential areas and their communities.
This led to the stationing of French Army Forces based in Yatobashi, Yokohama. The British Army Forces dispatched a detachment of the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment from Hong Kong in December. In January of the following year, one Light Infantry Battalion of the Royal Marines with 550 soldiers arrived. In total, 1,200 British garrison forces set up their camps in Yamate, Yokohama. They must have also brought rugby balls with them.
Here is an article that ran in the Japan Times about the YFBC organisational meeting: "At 2 pm, an organisational meeting was held at a racket court lodge in 127 Yamashitacho, Yokohama, along with another meeting in order to select the organisational committee members. As a result, as proposed by W. H. Smith and Campbell, Captain Rochfort and Captain Bront from the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment, and other members were appointed to the committee (three seats) to determine the club regulations by majority vote. Baker, a cooperative person with the skill of communication, was appointed as the honorary secretary, while Monk was appointed as the honorary chairman. YFBC consisted mainly of British troops and foreign residents."
3. An Illustration of a Rugby Match Depicted in The Graphic
(Source: The Graphic April 18,1874)
In November 1873, the Japan Weekly Mail covered a drawn “English Vs the Scotch and Irish” match by this illustration. “Mr. Gubbins ‘dribbled' the ball capitally and Mr. Abbott played half-back in excellent form; Messrs. Hamilton, Abell, Hill and E. Fraser were conspicuous amongst the forward players; while Messrs. Melhuish, Dare and Wheeler were also equally most useful.” It said the next game would be “the return match of The Services and The Settlement” the following Wednesday.
The place where this match was held seems to be, not the swamp ground or around China Town, but a sport field located in Yokohama Park prior to its completion. The third volume of "Yokohamashi Shi (The History of Yokohama City)" says: "This park was nearly completed as of 14 September 1874, and trees are currently being planted." Another record says that there was a cricket field about 81 m long and wide, built within an about 63,000-square-meter park, and it was turfed within 1872. People might have played cricket or rugby before the park was officially completed. Therefore, this place was probably depicted as the field in this illustration with the YFBC flag swaying in the wind.
4. First Victory after 7 Years from the First Match of Keio University in 1901
Edward Bramwell Clarke, who was born in Yokohama as the son of the once thriving Yokohama Bakery, graduated from Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge, and then started to teach English at Keio University. In 1899, he and his friend Ginnosuke Tanaka taught rugby to students who had a need for exercise during their free time in the winter season. Their first match was kicked off with YC&AC at the sport field in Yokohama Park on 7 December 1901 at 2 pm. Clarke first met Ginnosuke at Victoria Public School located in Yamate, Yokohama, where he studied before moving to England to continue to his studies.
(E. B Clarke) (Asahi Sports, on 15 May 1934)
(The first match of Keio University Rugby Football Club) (Reprinted edition of Jiji Shinpo, Rykoku Shosha, 8 December 1901)
Although Clarke and Ginnosuke joined Keio, they were roundly defeated by a score of 41-5 (according to "The 100-Year History of Keio University"). After the 20th minute in the second half, the match actually turned into a practice session where the players from both teams mixed. The above copy on the left is an article about this match with no records of the score. The "local amateur football club" appeared in this article indicates YC&AC. FW Masao Matsuoka, who played in this match, is assumed to be the referee for a match held seven years later where Keio gained their first victory. As a side note here, around that time, there was an interesting rule other than tackling which was called "held", where a scrum had to be formed when a player was caught.
Clarke concluded on the train back, saying: "Our short legs are the cause of our loss. But we can do nothing for it so far, so we have to let our children sit on chairs, not on tatami mats, in order to make their legs longer."
Since dribble was the primary offense strategy in those days, he must have gnashed his teeth with the fact that longer legs had advantages for possessing the ball.
I have to describe an episode on how Keio University gained their first victory. I found an interesting article about a match with the same teams, Keio and YC&AC, which was held in the Mitatsunamachi field in November 1906. "Kaisaku Miyagawa of Keio successfully made a drop goal, and Keio led the opponent team 4-3 in the second half. Even though as twilight drew on, the referee did not blow his whistle for full time. Unusual voices calling "time-out, time-out!" echoed from the spectators surrounding the touch line; however, the referee did not listen to their voice. [...] In the meantime, Keio conceded a try on the right corner which brought an end to the match. Foreign players of YC&AC celebrated Keio by loading Miyagawa onto a handcart and pulled it to the campus in Mita from Tsunamachi." (Asahi Sports, 1 February 1936). After a great struggle, the players of YC&AC made a thoughtful arrangement to give credit to Keio's MVP by carrying him to the campus. If the match had ended punctually, Keio could have gained their first victory on this day.
They met again for another match held at the Mitatsunamachi field in the autumn of 1908, where Keio finally won by a score of 12-0. The main cause for this victory was adopting the seven system, referred to as the New Zealand System, after all the team players read D. Gallaher's book entitled "Complete Rugby Football". This book was about the tour of the All Blacks in England.
Jiji Shinpo dated 15 November 1908 ran an article about Keio's victory. The referee, Masao Matsuoka, was warmly treated with the title cup presented before the match started. In this match, Keio overwhelmed YC&AC with tries made by BK Iizuka and FB Miyazawa, ending the first half by a score of 6-0. In the second half, FW Shibata and BK Takeno bravely played with a great performance, leading the team to win 12-0. The Keio baseball club players presented the rugby players with flowers as congratulation of this victory.
Keio played rugby at that time only with foreign rugby clubs in Yokohama and Kobe, but they enjoyed rugby within the university by holding some rugby tournaments. The second domestic rugby club was then established in Daisan High School in Kyoto in cooperation of Keio University. It was 1911 that they played their first match against each other. I feel it is totally fateful that the final of the RWC 2019 will be held here in Yokohama where the Westerns brought those oval rugby balls back more than 150 years ago.
(Tsutomu Nagai)