The birthplace of rugby in Japan is in Yokohama!

  • Kanagawa
  • Sightseeing
The Rugby World Cup 2019 has brought excitement and hope to all of Japan and is the first Rugby World Cup to be held in Asia. Interest in rugby is growing around the world, but did you know that the birthplace of rugby in Japan is actually located in Yokohama?

A monument stating that Yokohama is the birthplace of rugby in Japan is located in Yamashita-cho Park in Yokohama's Chinatown.

It is located on Sekiteibyo Street in Chinatown and is marked by a guardian dog and a Chinese-style pavilion standing at its entrance. On top of the monument is a rugby ball shape!
It is said that the birth of rugby began when British soldiers who came to Japan to maintain security in the Yokohama Settlement brought oval-shaped rugby balls with them. It seems that they enjoyed playing cricket and football whenever there was an open space.
In 1866, the Yokohama Football Club (YFBC), the first football (rugby) club in Japan and Asia, was established in a corner of the Yokohama Foreign Settlement by Westerners, mainly British, living in Yokohama.

And this illustration on the monument is of a football (rugby) game played in Yokohama in 1873 by the British in a British magazine; it is believed to have been a game played by the British in Yokohama Park, similar to today's rugby.

Later, in 1901, Keio University and the Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC), a sports social club for foreigners living in Yokohama, played a rugby match at Yokohama Park. The Keio students were coached in rugby by E.B. Clarke and Ginnosuke Tanaka, English teachers from Yokohama who had studied in England.
It is believed that Keio students were the first Japanese to play rugby in Japan.

If you come to Yokohama, why not visit?
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