2003 Volume 11 Pages 115-127,155
“Baseball Canker Controversy (1911)” was developed in newspapers and many educators and intellectuals involved in the argument at the end of the Meiji Era. Even though former studies of the controversy treated it as a notable event in the history of Japanese baseball, the attempt of this study is to clarify the crucial impact of the controversy on educational system, especially focusing on the development and expansion of educational credentialism.
First, I argue the background of the controversy that was connected with the institutional expansion of the educational system of those days. At that time, there were educational difficulties for adolescents; such as not so many students allowed to enter a high school and schools emphasized on the pursuit of intellectualism. Then, many considered playing a sport as a burden for students in relation with studying. This study represents how baseball became controlled in schools under this circumstance.
Second, the controversy created conflicts between public and private schools. In order to criticize up-coming waves of private schools, educators of public schools targeted at baseball that was increasingly razing in popularity. On the other hand, private schools considered baseball as a distinctive cultural practice to confront with their criticism in the institutional formation of educational credentialism.
Finally, this study clarifies the controversy that was an “educational controversy” as symbolic struggle for a cultural “legitimacy” by using cultural reproduction theory.
