抄録
This study aims to analyze various aspects of the activities of Japanese high school baseball players during the COVID-19 pandemic, and consider the possibility that these activities may cause fluctuations and changes in Japanese high school baseball culture. The COVID-19 pandemic caused “discontinuities to everyday life” in Japanese high school baseball. Analyzing the thoughts and activities of the players at that time helps us to acquire insights into the fluctuations and changes in high school baseball culture.
Previous studies on Japanese high school baseball culture have examined the historical context in which beliefs such as “collectivism,” “spiritualism,” and “victory supremacy” have been considered exemplary of high school baseball. Further, these studies have examined how “narratives” symbolizing these beliefs have been shared in society and have defined people's interpretation of Japanese high school baseball. However, these studies have not examined fluctuations and changes in Japanese high school baseball culture.
This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 former Japanese high school baseball players who experienced high school baseball during the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzed the data obtained on the players' activities through coding. The results of the analysis were considered from the theoretical perspective of the cyclical and prescriptive relationship between cultural “rules” and “practices” as proposed by the theory of cultural reproduction.
The analysis generated five conceptual categories for the “practices” of the players during the COVID-19 pandemic: “disciplined and habitual infection control for the team,” “merits and demerits of reducing ‘excesses,’” “individualization and voluntary activities,” “uncertainty of prospects and redefinition of value,” and “fluctuation of the image and ‘authenticity’ of Japanese high school baseball.”
Each of these “practices” had two aspects: one was strongly bound by the “rules,” whereas the other was produced flexibly by questioning the meaning of those “rules.” The results suggest that the “practices” of the players during the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to fluctuations in Japanese high school baseball culture through the ambivalent effects of preserving and reinforcing cultural “rules” and promoting changes in them. These fluctuations may accelerate the reflexivity of the “correctness” and “authenticity” of Japanese high school baseball, leading to a continuous cultural change in high school baseball.
