Abstract
This is an attempt to articulate the characteristics of the school athletic games in Japan, a kind of school-sponsored athletic activities which has no counterparts in European and American school activities. The tentative conclusions derived from this study are as follows: 1. The athletic games were originated on purpose to supplement and promote the physical education. And this orientation had been maintained rather purely during the first several years. 2. From about 1890, the athletic games had been used for non-educational purposes, because of their own popular mobilizing nature, and were necessitated a transformation of their nature from one of school activities to one of community activities. 3. From 1900, this transformation had been under a growing criticism which aimed at the restoration of original educational orientation of the athletic games. But by that time, they had acquired the attributes which were beyond the framework of education, and therefore, in spite of many educators' efforts, their non-educational perversion continued without substantial changes.
