Download or read book Baseball Samurais written by Rob Rains and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-09-17 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sportswriter Rains takes an in-depth look at seven-time batting champion for Japan's Pacific League Ichiro Suzuki, who went on to play for the Seattle Mariners and led the team to its best start in franchise history. Rains also looks at the new wave of talented Japanese players, including last year's Rookie of the Year Kazuhiro Sasaki, and others.

Download or read book Samurai Shortstop written by Alan M. Gratz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-02-14 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. But he grieves for his uncle, a samurai who sacrificed himself for his beliefs, at a time when most of Japan is eager to shed ancient traditions. It's only when his father decides to teach him the way of the samurai that Toyo grows to better understand his uncle and father. And to his surprise, the warrior training guides him to excel at baseball, a sport his father despises as yet another modern Western menace. Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family's samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a Western game that stands for everything he despises?

Download or read book The Chrysanthemum and the Bat written by Robert Whiting and published by Avon Books. This book was released on 1983-05-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains the importance of baseball in the national life of modern Japan and the ways in which the Japanese have brought some of the traditions of Bushido and Kabuki to this American-born game

Download or read book Contesting the Myths of Samurai Baseball written by Christopher T. Keaveney and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost right from the introduction of baseball to Japan the sport was regarded as qualitatively different from the original American model. This vision of Japanese baseball associates the sport with steadfast devotion (magokoro) and the values of the samurai class in the code of Bushidō, in which greatness is achieved through hard work under the tutelage of a selfless master. In Contesting the Myths of Samurai Baseball Keaveney analyzes the persistent appeal of such mythologizing, arguing that the sport has been serving as a repository for traditional values, to which the Japanese have returned time and again in epochs of uncertainty and change. Baseball and modern culture emerged and developed side by side in Japan, giving cultural representations of this national pastime special insights into Japanese values and their contortions from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Keaveney explains the origins of the cultural construct “Samurai baseball” and reflects on the recurrences of these essentialist discourses at critical junctures in Japan’s modern history. Since the early modern period, writers, filmmakers, and manga artists have alternately affirmed and debunked these popular myths of baseball. This study presents an overview of these cultural products, beginning with Masaoka Shiki’s pioneering baseball writings, then moves on to the long history of baseball films and the venerable tradition of baseball fiction, and finally considers the substantial body of baseball manga and anime. Perhaps what is most striking is the continuous relevance of baseball and its values as a point of cultural reference for the Japanese people; their engagement with baseball is a genuine national love affair. “A fascinating study of samurai baseball and the culture it represents viewed through historical and contemporary literature, poetry, manga, and movies. An important, original work that is full of insights. Christopher Keaveney has put enormous effort into researching this book and he is to be congratulated. I learned a lot by reading it.” —Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa and The Meaning of Ichiro “Keaveney’s book offers a nuanced introduction to the Japanese model of samurai baseball along with an analysis of many of the works that treat the guiding principles of that model. A fresh look at Japan’s national pastime.” —Bobby Valentine, former MLB player and manager and former manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball “Christopher Keaveney effortlessly combines a thorough knowledge of Japanese baseball—its players, managers, fans—with the cultural productions surrounding it. The result is a nostalgic trip through history and an edifying survey of literature, film, and manga.” —David Desser, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Download or read book The Samurai Way of Baseball written by Robert Whiting and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2005-04-06 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ichiro...Nomo...Hasegawa...Hideki Matsui...one by one they have come to America and made their mark as incredibly gifted and popular ballplayers. But this new wave of athlete-led by the sensational Ichiro Suzuki, whom many refer to as the best all-around player-is just the tip of a fascinating iceberg. Illuminating a deep and very different tradition of baseball, Whiting shows why more Japanese players will be coming to America...and how they will forever transform the way our game is played. Grandly entertaining and deeply revealing, The Samurai Way of Baseball is a classic book about sports, business, and stardom-in a world that is changing before our eyes.

Download or read book Baseball Samurais written by Rob Rains and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2001-09-17 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Baseball Samurais, take a look back at Ichiro Suzuki's sensational rookie year...from the top spot in Japan to the Seattle Mariners' right field. Seven-time batting champion for Japan's Pacific League, he was a paradoxical combination of modesty and ego, calling himself simply "Ichiro." But when the Seattle Mariners signed him to a fourteen-million-dollar contract, scoffers said the 5-foot-9 inch, 156-pound Ichiro wasn't even in the ballpark. He proved them wrong. With fast legs and an even faster bat, he led the Mariners to their best start in franchise history. Now, sportswriter Rob Rains takes an in-depth look at Ichiro and the \wave of talented Japanese players, including former Rookie of the Year, Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Seattle Mariners, and Hideo Nomo of the Boston Red Sox, former Yankee Hideki Irabu and Mets outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo. American fans are learning what the Japanese already know--these amazing players are already mapping out baseball's future, proving that this grand slam Asian invasion is here to stay... Includes 8 pages of thrilling photos.

Download or read book African Samurai written by Thomas Lockley and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the first foreign-born samurai and his journey from Africa to Japan is “a readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life” (The Washington Post). When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society. In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries and cultures offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan. “Fast-paced, action-packed writing. . . . A new and important biography and an incredibly moving study of medieval Japan and solid perspective on its unification. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Eminently readable. . . . a worthwhile and entertaining work.” —Publishers Weekly “A unique story of a unique man, and yet someone with whom we can all identify.” —Jack Weatherford, New York Times–bestselling author of Genghis Khan

Download or read book Making Japan s National Game written by Blair Williams and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers written by William W. Kelly and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baseball has been Japan's most popular sport for over a century. The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers analyzes Japanese baseball ethnographically by focusing on a single professional team, the Hanshin Tigers. For over fifty years, the Tigers have been the one of the country’s most watched and talked-about professional baseball teams, second only to their powerful rivals, the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. Despite a largely losing record, perennial frustration, and infighting among players, the Tigers remain overwhelming sentimental favorites in many parts of the country. This book analyzes the Hanshin Tiger phenomenon, and offers an account of why it has long been so compelling and instructive. Author William Kelly argues that the Tigers represent what he calls a sportsworld —a collective product of the actions of players, coaching staff, management, media, and millions of passionate fans. The team has come to symbolize a powerful counter-narrative to idealized notions of Japanese workplace relations. The Tigers are savored as a melodramatic representation of real corporate life, rife with rivalries and office politics familiar to every Japanese worker. And playing in a historic stadium on the edge of Osaka, they carry the hopes and frustrations of Japan’s second city against the all-powerful capital.

Download or read book Seeing Stars written by Dennis J. Frost and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Seeing Stars, Dennis J. Frost traces the emergence and evolution of sports celebrity in Japan from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries. Frost explores how various constituencies have repeatedly molded and deployed representations of individual athletes, revealing that sports stars are socially constructed phenomena, the products of both particular historical moments and broader discourses of celebrity. Drawing from media coverage, biographies, literary works, athletes’ memoirs, bureaucratic memoranda, interviews, and films, Frost argues that the largely unquestioned mass of information about sports stars not only reflects, but also shapes society and body culture. He examines the lives and times of star athletes—including sumo grand champion Hitachiyama, female Olympic medalist Hitomi Kinue, legendary pitcher Sawamura Eiji, and world champion boxer Gushiken Yokoō—demonstrating how representations of such sports stars mediated Japan’s emergence into the putatively universal realm of sports, unsettled orthodox notions of gender, facilitated wartime mobilization of physically fit men and women, and masked lingering inequalities in postwar Japanese society. As the first critical examination of the history of sports celebrity outside a Euro-American context, this book also sheds new light on the transnational forces at play in the production and impact of celebrity images and dispels misconceptions that sports stars in the non-West are mere imitations of their Western counterparts."

Download or read book Ichiro Suzuki 2nd Edition written by David S. Leigh and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese position player (non-pitcher) to make it into the American Major Leagues. People thought that the Japanese couldn’t handle the power and speed of American pitchers. Ichiro proved them wrong. Now in his fourth season, Ichiro has shown that he can hit anything thrown his way and is as good, if not better than many of his American contemporaries. His love of the game, amazing skill and crowd pleasing antics have won him a following of fans around the world.

Download or read book Japanese Sports written by Allen Guttmann and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2001-05-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first synthetic, comprehensive survey of Japanese sports in English, the authors are attentive to the complex and fascinating interaction of traditional and modern elements. In the course of tracing the emergence and development of sumo, the martial arts, and other traditional sports from their origins to the present, they demonstrate that some cherished "ancient" traditions were, in fact, invented less than a century ago. They also register their skepticism about the use of the samurai tradition to explain Japan's success in sports. Special attention is given to Meiji-era Japan's frequently ambivalent adoption and adaptation of European and American sports--a particularly telling example of Japan's love-hate relationship with the West. The book goes on the describe the history of physical education in the school system, the emergence of amateur and professional leagues, the involvement of business and the media in sports promotion, and Japan's participation in the Olympics. Japanese Sports Trivia Quiz (openli)Japan's first professional baseball team was founded in 1921. When were the Central and Pacific Leagues established? a. 1930; b. 1940; c. 1950; d. 1960 (openli)Oh Sadaharu hit 51 home runs in 1973 and 49 in 1974. How many did he hit in his lifetime? a. 597; b. 602; c. 755; d. 868 (openli)Sugiura Tadashi pitched 42 games for the Nankai Hawks in 1959 and won 38. How many games did he pitch and win against the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series that same year? a. 1; b. 2; c. 3; d. 4 (openli)The first Japanese radio broadcast of an entire sports event occurred at the national middle-school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium in 1927, with a Ministry of Communication censor standing by since the script couldn't be approved in advance. The national middle-school tournament was suspended in 1941. When was it resumed? a. 1945; b. 1946; c. 1947; d. 1948 (openli)In 1791 Shogun Tokugawa Ienari observed a new ring-entering ceremony similar to that now performed by yokozuna. When did the Sumo Association officially recognize the rank of yokozuna? a. 1789; b. 1890; c. 1909; d. 1951 (openli)Which famous sumo rikishi won 69 successive bouts over the course of 7 tournaments, the longest winning streak ever recorded? a. Futabayama (Sadaji); b. Wakanohana (Kanji); c. Taiho (Koki); d. Chiyonofuji (Mitsugu) (openli)When the first karate dojo was established in Okinawa in 1889, the characters for karate were written 'Chinese hand'. When were they first written 'empty hand'? a. 1889; b. 1922; c. 1929; d. 1935 (openli)Only one major school of aikido holds competitive tournaments. When did the name aikido first appear on the list of government-sanctioned martial arts. a. 1883; b. 1890; c. 1931; d. 1942 (openli)In 1951 Tanaka Shigeki became the first Japanese runner to win the Boston Marathon. When was the first Fukuoka Marathon held? a. 1927; b. 1937; c. 1947; d. 1957 (openli)At the infamous 1936 "Nazi Olympics" in Berlin, Japanese athletes won gold medals in track and field, swimming, and diving. In what event did a Korean win the gold for Japan? a. marathon; b. triple jump; c. pole vault; d. 1500-m freestyle Answers: 1. c. (the Pacific League was the expansion league); 2. d. (Japanese ballparks are shorter than U.S. parks, but the season is also shorter); 3. d. (his arm never recovered from that year); 4. b.; 5. c. (the rank "yokozuna" first appeared on the banzuke ratings in 1890; and the first solo ring-entering ceremonies by wrestlers wearing the "yokozuna" rope was in 1789); 6. a.; 7. c. (by members of Keio's karate club who were impressed by a Zen priest of the Rinzai sect); 8. d. (its founder Ueshiba Morihei was born in 1883); 9. c. (the year after the first footrace around Lake Biwa); 10. a.

Download or read book Inventing the Way of the Samurai written by Oleg Benesch and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-09-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inventing the Way of the Samurai examines the development of the 'way of the samurai' - bushidō - which is popularly viewed as a defining element of the Japanese national character and even the 'soul of Japan'. Rather than a continuation of ancient traditions, however, bushidō developed from a search for identity during Japan's modernization in the late nineteenth century. The former samurai class were widely viewed as a relic of a bygone age in the 1880s, and the first significant discussions of bushidō at the end of the decade were strongly influenced by contemporary European ideals of gentlemen and chivalry. At the same time, Japanese thinkers increasingly looked to their own traditions in search of sources of national identity, and this process accelerated as national confidence grew with military victories over China and Russia. Inventing the Way of the Samurai considers the people, events, and writings that drove the rapid growth of bushidō, which came to emphasize martial virtues and absolute loyalty to the emperor. In the early twentieth century, bushidō became a core subject in civilian and military education, and was a key ideological pillar supporting the imperial state until its collapse in 1945. The close identification of bushidō with Japanese militarism meant that it was rejected immediately after the war, but different interpretations of bushidō were soon revived by both Japanese and foreign commentators seeking to explain Japan's past, present, and future. This volume further explores the factors behind the resurgence of bushidō, which has proven resilient through 130 years of dramatic social, political, and cultural change.

Download or read book Transpacific Field of Dreams written by Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-04-04 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baseball has joined America and Japan, even in times of strife, for over 150 years. After the "opening" of Japan by Commodore Perry, Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu explains, baseball was introduced there by American employees of the Japanese government tasked with bringing Western knowledge and technology to the country, and Japanese students in the United States soon became avid players. In the early twentieth century, visiting Japanese warships fielded teams that played against American teams, and a Negro League team arranged tours to Japan. By the 1930s, professional baseball was organized in Japan where it continued to be played during and after World War II; it was even played in Japanese American internment camps in the United States during the war. From early on, Guthrie-Shimizu argues, baseball carried American values to Japan, and by the mid-twentieth century, the sport had become emblematic of Japan's modernization and of America's growing influence in the Pacific world. Guthrie-Shimizu contends that baseball provides unique insight into U.S.-Japanese relations during times of war and peace and, in fact, is central to understanding postwar reconciliation. In telling this often surprising history, Transpacific Field of Dreams shines a light on globalization's unlikely, and at times accidental, participants.

Download or read book Almost Perfect written by Joe Cox and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rich, poignant tales of major league baseball’s most hard-luck fraternity—the pitchers of its Almost-Perfect Games From 1908 to 2015, there have been thirteen pitchers who have begun Major League Baseball games by retiring the first twenty-six opposing batters, but then, one out from completing a perfect game, somehow faltering (or having perfection stolen from them). Three other pitchers did successfully retire twenty-seven batters in a row, but are still not credited with perfect games. While stories of pitching the perfect game have been told and retold, Almost Perfect looks at how baseball, at its core, is about heartbreak, and these sixteen men are closer to what baseball really is, and why we remain invested in the sport. Author Joe Cox visits this notion through a century of baseball and through these sixteen pitchers—recounting their games in thrilling fashion, telling the personal stories of the fascinating (and very human) baseball figures involved, and exploring the historical American and baseball backdrops of each flawed gem. From George “Hooks” Wiltse's nearly perfect game in 1908 to “Hard Luck” Harvey Haddix’s 12-inning, 36-consecutive-outs performance on May 26, 1959 (the most astounding single-game pitching performance in baseball history) to Max Scherzer’s near miss in 2015, Joe Cox’s book captures the action, the humanity, and the history of the national pastime’s greatest “almosts.”

Download or read book The American Samurai written by Jon P. Alston and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ichiro Suzuki written by Judith Levin and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When right fielder Ichiro Suzuki signed a contract with the Seattle Mariners in 2000, he became the first everyday position player from Japan to enter Major League Baseball. Few people believed that the small, slender Suzuki, who wore his first name on th