I saw the most interesting thing the other day, and wondered if anyone knows what this is all about. I was watching a Japanese high school team play a Taiwanese high school team at a baseball tournament the other day, and after the game, the usual “thank you” to the opposing team was down with bows and handshakes and high fives by both teams, as a gesture of sportsmanship. Of course, the pro teams do it in Japan after each game, too.
But here’s the interesting part. After that normal thank you to the opposing team, the Japanese team did one more thing: the boys, age 14 or so, went to the third base line, stood on the line, and then bowed TO THE FIELD and say ThANK YOU to the dirt, to the diamond, to the field of Shinto Dreams! I never saw this before, not in Japan, not on TV, not anywhere, until yesterday.
My question to baseball experts out there: is this a Shinto ritual? And it is performed only by schoolboy teams, or do pro teams do it also?
One expert I queried told me in an email:
“If they were facing the field, they were probably paying their respects to
the diamond…. Kind of like the way judo guys bow before then enter or leave the
dojo. Shinto? Could be…. But more like bushido, which was how baseball was
treated when it first came to Japan…..Even some professional baseball players, when they first come onto to the field for the day from the dugout and when they go into the dugout at the end of the day will face the diamond, doff their caps, and bow respectfully.”
I am going to ask this guy!
RE:
Lecture: ‘Men at Work’: What Does Professional Baseball Demonstrate In Contemporary Japan?
by Professor William Kelly (Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, Department of Anthropology, Yale University)
“The Spirit and Spectacle of School Baseball: Mass
Media, Statemaking, and ‘Edu-tainment’ in Japan, 1905-1935,” in Umesao Tadao, William
Kelly, and Kubo Masatoshi (eds.), Japanese Civilization in the Modern Times …
Check this movie.
I think there is an answer about amateur sportsmanship and Japanese tradition.
http://www.projectilearts.org/kokoyakyu/high_school_baseball.html
Tomojiro54, that is a great image, the coach taking off his hat and bowing deeply for a long time to the field, to the Shinto gods of the field. THANKS for that!
NOW; last question : is that bowing to the field, Shinto or Bushido?
Could be sort of both, since I think Bushido is definitely influenced by Shinto. I do know that in Aikido there is lining up and bowing to: (a) O-Sensei, (b) Sensei, (c) partners, before and after, in seiza before but if tired or in a hurry maybe standing at end. The last may be significant because the communal bow to partners is basically to the empty room–your baseball players may be paying their respects to their team members as much as to the field. But in Aikido it’s usual at the end to seek out partners and bow or shake hands personally too. And of course, on entering or leaving the dojo–and that one seems to be a combination of paying respect to (a) O-Sensei, (b) the assembled people who might be there, and (c) the room itself. But, whatever it is exactly, the behavior of these baseball players doesn’t seem unusual in Shinto-influenced Bushido terms at all!
Yes, seems to be a lot of familiar tradition in Japanese baseball, including a fair amount of hat-tipping too. Some American kid whose father was in the Navy says the following about practicing with a Japanese baseball team:
“Every time we play catch, we have to bow to the person we are playing catch with. We all line up, and the captain yells, “Kyotsuke” (stand straight), “Re” (Bow), then everyone says one “Gaishimasu” … the coach would have a short meeting with us. Then we had to bow to the field and then bow to him … Every time we left the field or entered, we always had to bow.”
I would ask a Karate sensei. They do that same bow first thing when opening class. Also bow when they walk into a Dojo and when they exit too. Maybe the baseball field is their dojo?
As Paul says, both would be the correct answer (Shinto and Budo, or Bushido which is related to Budo). The problem is that both Shinto and Budo (Bushido) are systems created in modern times (in the 19th century).
First, in Japan there is a common belief that could be related to Sharmanism, that certain places , or things have souls or are inhabited by gods if you want ( whether to ask if it’s souls or gods which inhabited these things or places is in my opinion not that important. In the Japanese context it could be both or both could be the same). Bowing to the Baseball field apparently comes from this tradition or belief.
The Japanese have adopted modern sports and other physical recreation, but they have adopted and translated them in their own logic, so to speak. In other world, physical recreation like sports became a tool to enhance one’s physical and mental ability, like that which is emphasized in Zen, or Budo. Especially for a long time, sports were treated as if it was a kind of Budo. More so in Baseball which in Japan has a long tradition on its own, but less so in soccer (therefore the famous story of Sadaharu Oh who, to enhance his batting ability, trained with sword and Aikido).
Budo itself, adopted some tradition from what we call Shinto, and Confucianism. Respect for the senior (Confucian), and the belief that training halls are inhabited by souls(gods), and even sword and other weapons used in training also are inhabited by gods or have a soul.
Well, its been a too long post so I will stop there, but the more complex and interesting is that Shinto and the so called Bushido is also a kind of invented tradition during the end of 19th century, and in the beginning of the 20th century.
tomojiro54: I have two young sons inside of the Education and Sports system of Japan.
(any opinion/viewpoint on that - is of interest and value.)
“Well,its been a too long post so I will stop there,…..”
I would’ve kept going !!