Rugby World Cup: One man’s search into Japan’s mysterious rugby past

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By Becky Grey
BBC Sport in Yokohama
There is a little plaque hidden away in the back streets of bustling Yokohamadifficult to find that the guy must ask for directions.
That man is Mike Galbraith, a historian who has spent the last decade seeking to uncover the facts about the rugby history of Japan.
The plaque is modest in size but, because the World Cup in the town’s arena draws closer with a ball at the top, it could draw in several fans.
And within its inscription establishes the seed of a narrative: one involving an armed cricket game samurai plus a long-running feud about the roots of a game taking Japan by storm. Sometimes history can be more fantastical than just fiction.
The love 72-year-old Briton Galbraith has for his subject is apparent from the moment you meet with him. Our first encounter is to a busy platform in Shibuya station, home to Tokyo’s superbly busy crossing. Where he is historian, He’s promised to take me.
A passionate guy, Galbraith bridles in Japan ago being phased out before this World Cup’s official variant. That he launches into his narrative that is alternative. Occasionally, it’s tough to maintain. We miss our stop.
However, as soon as we make it into the bar – a non – white, rectangular construction being fixed after a typhoon – that begins from the start.
Galbraith helped organise a tour of Japan for a rugby team. A history grad, he also offered to contribute an article on the origins of rugby.
Before he got on the instance, the generally held notion was that rugby had been introduced to Japan by 2 Cambridge graduates, Edward Bramwell Clarke along with also Ginnosuke Tanaka.
However, Galbraith found evidence that it had been played earlier.
An article dated 26 January 1866 speaks of a”soccer” clubas rugby was famous afterward, based in the port of Yokohama.
This was five years ahead of England’s Rugby Football Union was set up and sooner than any known club in Wales came into existence.
Thrilled to have attained the historian’s ultimate goal – finding a new source of proof – Galbraith took his discovery of this Yokohama Foot Ball Club (YFBC) to the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU). However, he says,”they weren’t interested” and”insisted that Western rugby started in 1899″.
And he set out to change their thoughts.
He continued to gather evidence, piecing together the story behind the invention of the first team that was Japanese. Where the samurai have been in, this is.
A Daimyo – a Japanese feudal lord was riding having a procession of his samurai when they came across a British merchant.
“After lords passed , local people would get back on their hands and knees and kiss the floor,” says Galbraith.
“There is some debate about what occurred but the brief version is Richardson did not eliminate his horse as he was supposed to do and the samurai awakened him and he expired.
“Then all pandemonium let loose.”
To end back a little further: For over two centuries, Japan had experienced Japanese people or trade and relations with other countries, not permitting foreigners to input.
A United States Navy Commodore known as Matthew Perry arrived in the 1850s and a treaty had been signed under threat of power to deliver this isolationist policy to a conclusion.
Once Yokohama’s port opened to foreigners, a few soldiers had been sent to safeguard the consulate.
After Richardson’s death, it had been decided a British presence was required to protect lands in the area although there had been navy ships in Yokohama.
According to Galbraith, worries continued to climb before in 1863 there was that a decree issued stating that all foreigners have to leave Japan under pain of death.
This takes us to the cricket match’s story.
Following his discovery of this YFBC, Galbraith discovered another piece of the puzzle involving the Royal Navy. An report describes local people in 1863 and a cricket game between officers.
“The strange thing about the particular cricket game is that the players were carrying weapons since they believed they might be assaulted,” Galbraith says.
“I feel this cricket match was performed on the very first day following the deadline when farmers needed to leave Japan.
“The wicketkeeper was carrying a pistol. He set it behind the stumps, took balls then went down the opposite end.”
As if this sport of cricket weren’t odd enough, the article also states”half the people were playing football”. Galbraith believes”football” here is referring to an early form of what would now be known as rugby.
So 1866 may be the date it appears the game was actually being played 1863, although that Japan’s very first rugby club was formed. However, these two posts were not enough to convince the governing body of Japanese rugby. Galbraith kept hunting.
He discovered a sketch of a match between English and Scottish expats residing at a magazine published in 1874 in Yokohama, three decades after the very first soccer international between the two national groups was played.
As the word football was used to explain both soccer and back some may question which sport the earlier posts were referring to.
But there is no doubt concerning an 1873 post Galbraith found at The Japan Weekly Mail which claims somebody else”caught the ball, made a good run through his competitors and, with a fine drop kick, scored a goal”.
Certainly that would be evidence enough to convince everybody rugby was played before 1899 in Japan? With the help of this year’s World Cup, it may be.
After working as a writer Galbraith currently develops applications to assist workers learn enough English to conduct meetings with foreign customers.
However he says he would rather concentrate on sports history. His enthusiasm for the subject led him to finish a masters in history and civilization within 2017, an experience he describes as”quite hard”.
The start of the World Cup has already done wonders for their own or her cause. After landing by the UK he travelled right to the unveiling of the plaque at Yokohama.
The plaque reads:”The Birth Place of Soccer [Rugby] in Japan – Yokohama. The Yokohama Foot Ball Club was set near this place on 26 January 1866.”
None other than JRFU president Shigetaka Mori, maybe a indication introduced it that Galbraith’s narrative is finally being approved.
An article he wrote on rugby history was distributed to schools in Yokohama, as well as the plaque along with 100,000 copies have been published to be handed out in the city’s stores.
So can Galbraith eventually stop battling now?
A Western proverb is shared by him with me as we walk down the mountain from the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club, of that YFBC became a part in 1884.
“?????????????????????”, which means”three decades sitting on a rock”. It is used to advise folks to become patient.
Galbraith has been . He appeared and has waited to discuss his story. On the day the snow was introduced, he was able to say”I’ve been hanging on a rock for 10 decades and I am very pleased to have the ability to eliminate that stone.”
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