Japan Culture Day Celebrates 150 years of Japan-U.S. Baseball Exchange

    To mark the 150th anniversary of Japan-U.S. baseball exchange, the Consulate-General of Japan in Chicago hosted a commemorative event on Sept. 29 at Gallagher Way, adjacent to Wrigley Field on the North Side of Chicago.

     Baseball was first introduced to Japan in 1872, when an American teacher in Tokyo taught his Japanese students how to play the game. After 150 years, baseball today is a national sport in Japan.

 
    The “Japan Culture Day” was held from 11 am to 12 pm, just before the Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies game was scheduled to start at Wrigley Field.

 
    The event, according to the Consulate, was part of its grass-roots efforts to promote understanding of Japanese culture in the U.S., and was organized with support from the Chicago Cubs and local Japanese cultural organizations.

Photo left: Consul General Hiroshi Tajima and Michael Lufrano, Chicago Cubs’ Executive Vice President of Community Affairs, are ready to opening a sake barrel with wooden mallets to celebrate 150 years of Japan-U.S. Baseball Exchange.

    The event’s emcee was Chicago-based Japanese standup comedian Saku Yanagawa. In a display of his love of the game as a former school baseball player, he made a powerful opening announcement.

     Greetings followed by Michael Lufrano, Chicago Cubs’ Executive Vice President of Community Affairs, and by Hiroshi Tajima, Consul-General of Japan in Chicago.

    After Kagamibiraki, a ceremony to celebrate the occasion by opening a sake barrel with wooden mallets, performances followed by the Tsukasa Taiko Japanese drum ensemble and dancers from Shubukai, the Fujima-school of Japanese classical dance.

     In the open-air venue, a set of Japanese samurai armor was on display on a table set up by the Consulate’s Japan Information Center. Brochures featuring Japanese culture were also on the table, ready for interested visitors to pick up.

     A commemorative button with a 150th anniversary logo was given to the first 300 visitors who answered a survey during the one-hour event. The dynamic logo was designed by Hidekichi Shigemoto, renowned Japanese black ink illustrator.

     In his remarks, Lufrano said baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan today, 150 years after American English teacher Horace Wilson first introduced the game. “Now we are standing here, celebrating 150 years of development [of the game in Japan],” he said.

     Over the past decades, the Chicago Cubs has been home to several players from Japan, reminded Lufrano. The list includes Kosuke Fukutome (2008-2011), So Taguchi (2009), Kyuji Fujikawa (2013-2014), Hisanori Takahashi (2013), Tsuyoshi Wada (2014-2015), Munenori Kawasaki (2016), Koji Uehara (2017), Yu Darvish (2018-2020), and Seiya Suzuki (2022- ).

     Consul-General Tajima welcomed visitors and thanked the support from the Cubs and the performers in his greetings.

     “Today, we are celebrating 150 years of friendship between Japan and the U.S. through baseball,” he said. “All goes back to 1872, when Horace Wilson taught baseball to students in Tokyo.”

     Since then, baseball has become the most popular sport in Japan and has cultivated further exchanges between the two countries through mutual love of the game, he continued.

     Japan and Chicago have “very special connections” through baseball, Tajima went on.

     Every five years from 1910 to 1936, the baseball teams of the University of Chicago and Japan’s Waseda University in Tokyo played against each other, taking turns to host the game.

    This exchange helped promote baseball in Japan and, eventually, Waseda University adopted the University of Chicago’s team color, maroon, as its official school color.

     While Chicago is set to celebrate the 50 years of sister-city relationship with the city of Osaka next year, the city’s beloved Chicago Cubs has welcomed nine Japanese players, from Kosuke Fukutome to Seiya Suzuki. The Club also visited Japan to play.

     “[Today’s event is] a small way of honoring 150 years of friendship between Japan and the U.S. through baseball,” Tajima concluded. “I hope that you enjoy a piece of Japanese culture today.”

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Tsukasa Taiko performs to celebrate 150 years of Japan-U.S. baseball relationship at Gallagher Way, adjacent to Wrigley Field.

    In August this year, Japan’s professional and amateur baseball players got together in Tokyo and played against each other to commemorate the 150 years of Japanese baseball.

     The one-time-only professional vs. amateur game was co-organized by the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization and the Baseball Federation of Japan, in collaboration with the nation’s other baseball organizations. The purpose of this commemorative game is to learn the 150-year history of Japanese baseball and honor those who made great contributions to it, while handing down our appreciation to future generations and nurture love of baseball among the Japanese people, according to the organizers.

    For more information about the 150th anniversary events in Japan, visit: https://baseball-museum.or.jp/ (Japanese only).