The ‘Masculinisation’ of Basketball in Japan during the Meiji, Taisho, and Early Showa Eras (the 1890s–1930s)

Abstract

Sport has the character of a physical practice that is based on rules. Originally, these rules and practices did not harbour gendered characteristics such as ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity.’ Sport, however, has frequently been described in connection with masculinity and femininity. Baseball, football, and rugby, for example, have long been synonymous with masculine sports in Japan, although the number of female competitors has increased in recent years. Artistic swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, and naginata, in contrast, are representative of feminine sports. Historically, one game has drastically transformed from a ‘feminine’ play to a ‘masculine’ sport in Japan. Previous studies have suggested that basketball developed from a women and children’s game to a full-fledged men’s sport during its introduction to Japan. In the late Meiji period (the 1900s), basketball was a physical activity played as part of physical education classes by schoolgirls and female students from middle-class and upper-middle-class families. However, in the early Showa period (the 1930s), it transformed into a sport where male athletes representing their nation sought to win international supremacy in Far Eastern and Olympic competitions. This article aims to provide historical research into what was happening behind the phenomenon of what might be called the ‘masculinisation’ of basketball.