2003 Volume 76 Issue 8 Pages 599-615
Since the opening of Japan to the world in 1859, European and North American sports have been introduced. Focusing on both the establishment of yacht clubs and the social characteristics of yacht club members as accepters, this paper tries to analyze the diffusion process of yachts in modern Japan.
Yachts began to diffuse between colonial cities with the development of economic relations and personal communication. With regional economic growth in Yokohama, foreign residents such as diplomats and businessmen employed by trading companies and banks increased gradually after the 1860s. With such accepters, yachting was introduced to the Yokohama foreign settlement in 1870, and the Yokohama Yacht Club was established in 1886.
In the 1890s, a highland resort was developed on the lakeside of Chuzenji Lake by upper-class foreigners living in Yokohama and Tokyo. They organized the Nantaisan Yacht Club in 1906, and thereafter held parties after yacht races every weekend during summer.
Therefore the Nantaisan Yacht Club functioned as a communication channel for the elite in the summer resort in that period. Moreover, the Tokyo Angling and Country Club was established in 1924, also on the lakeside of Chuzenji Lake. The members of this club included Japanese peers and the wealthy as well as foreigners, and international social contact was promoted through such events as fly-fishing and parties.
In the Shonan area, coastal resorts have been developed since the late 1890s, as wealthy Japanese have increasingly built second homes. Japanese cottage owners introduced yachts to this area in 1912 with the intention of promoting their children's health and enjoying themselves. Although Hayama Port was constructed in 1935 as a fishing port as part of the reconstruction after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the port could not be fully occupied by fishing boats. This situation made it possible for yacht owners to berth their yachts in this fishing port, and they organized the Shonan Yacht Club in 1936. A key person in the Shonan Yacht Club, Saionji, was a peer and also joined the Tokyo Angling and Country Club of Chuzenji Lake. Most of the members of the Shonan Yacht Club had kinship linkages or occupational interrelations with Saionji. Consequently, the Shonan Yacht Club restricted its members to the Japanese upper class.
As described above, accepter of yachts was transferred from the foreign upper class living in Yokohama or Tokyo to Japanese peers and plutocrats with the modernization of Japan. With this transfer, yachts spread from foreign settlements to highland resorts and then to coastal resorts.
