Culture of Japan - Sports and Leisure

Sports and Leisure

Main article: Sport in Japan

In the long feudal period governed by the samurai class, some methods that were used to train warriors were developed into well-ordered martial arts, in modern times referred to collectively as koryū. Examples include kenjutsu, kyūdō, sōjutsu, jujutsu, and sumo, all of which were established in the Edo period. After the rapid social change in the Meiji Restoration, some martial arts changed into modern sports, called gendai budō. Judo was developed by Kanō Jigorō, who studied some sects of jujutsu. These sports are still widely practiced in present day Japan and other countries.

Baseball, football, and other popular western sports were imported to Japan in the Meiji period. These sports are commonly practiced in schools, along with traditional martial arts.

Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. Football is a popular sport in Japan, after J League (Japan Professional Football League) was established in 1991. In addition, there are many semi-professional organizations, which are sponsored by private companies. For example, volleyball, basketball, rugby union, table tennis, and so on. The motorsport of drifting was also invented in Japan.

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Famous quotes containing the words sports and, sports and/or leisure:

    “Sports and gallantries, the stage, the arts, the antics of dancers,
    The exuberant voices of music,
    Have charm for children but lack nobility; it is bitter earnestness
    That makes beauty; the mind
    Knows, grown adult.”
    —Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    “...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
    —Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)

    “There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)