A Study on the Japanese Reception of Lawn Tennis : The Early Rules in the Books of Sports and Games from 1883 to 1888

Abstract

This study aims at clarifying the Japanese reception of lawn tennis through analysis of the lawn tennis rule in the period when it began to be introduced into Japan. The following four historical materials are used as the primary sources, which are 1) Outdoor Games (1883) written by F. W. Strange, 2) Seiyo Kogai Yugiho (1885) written by Yasuhiro Shimomura, 3) Kogai Yugiho (1885) written by Gendo Tsuboi and Seigyo Tanaka, 4) Kaisei Kogai Yugiho (1888) written by Gendo Tsuboi and Seigyo Tanaka. Moreover, two tasks of this study were set up, which 1) to clarify the original rule which each reference referred to, 2) to clarify the feature and meaning of Japanese reception in early stages of introduction of lawn tennis. The result of this study is as follows: 1) Outdoor Games and Seiyo Kogai Yugiho referred to the "2nd revised rule of MCC and AEC & LTC", or the "3rd revised rule of MCC and AEC & LTC". Kogai Yugiho referred to the "Wimbledon rule of AEC&LTC", and the "1st revised rule of MCC and AEC&L TC". Kaisei Kogai Yugiho referred to the "Cavendish rule", the "Wimbledon rule of AEC&LTC", the "1st revised rule of MCC and AEC&LTC", the "2nd revised rule of MCC and AEC&LTC", and the "3rd revised rule of MCC and AEC&LTC". 2 ) Outdoor Games was the reference, by which the lawn tennis rule was introduced for the first time into Japan. This book extracted 11 articles from the English rule that consisted of 40 articles, and succeeded to build the foundation of Japanese tennis rule description of books on sports and games. 3 ) The lawn tennis rule was introduced in Japanese for the first time by Seiyo Kogai Yugiho. The contents were fundamentally the Japanese translation of Outdoor Game, but it was more detailed. 4 ) Kogai Yugiho used traditional weights and measures for the rule, and specified it flexibly. Here existed, the intention by which a beginner can understand and practice this game easily. 5 ) And in Kaisei Kogai Yugiho, the doubles court was illustrated for the first time. Directly, this assumed activity in the school, which needed activity by a lot of people. Essentially, the spirit of cooperation and the educational suggestion, which are expected in lawn tennis, were shown. Moreover, the directivity to which the lawn tennis of Japan based on doubles games progresses was determined. It can be said that formation of the soft tennis based on doubles games was started from the early stages of the lawn tennis introduction into Japan. 6 ) It was common in all references, and the rule relevant to, 1) coat division, 2) service, and 3) score ring method, is recognized as a rule item which should be introduced positively. Such Japanese reception form of lawn tennis could be called subject matter suitable for explaining the context of the cultural theory "reception of culture is created in the change."