Masakazu Nakai, a Kyoto School aesthetician who discussed sports as philosophy, considered the concepts of “type” and “common sense”. The influence of Yasukazu Fukada, Nakaiʼs aesthetic mentor, and Kitaro Nishida is important in interpreting Nakaiʼs insights. It can be observed that Nakai references Nishidaʼs discourse on “type”, highlighting its connection to “common sense”. He then expands the discourse by referencing Fukadaʼs reflections on aesthetic aspects related to “Mood” (Stimmung).

The concept of “type” that Nakai refers to does not signify the extension of the parts preceding the whole but rather the intension of the whole preceding the parts. This becomes evident as Nishida focuses on “order type” as concrete universal, and Fukada emphasizes a differential “Mood”. Nakai identifies features that the intension is discovered as a common sense through the body. Furthermore, Nakai identifies features of intension in Heideggerʼs fore-structure (vor-struktur) and mood (stimmung), examining them within the context of sports mood (stimmung).

However, there is a distinction in the interpretation of intension between Nishida and Nakai. Nakai views Nishidaʼs type as a static intension with an absolute foundation. On the other hand, Nakai seeks a dynamic intension. Consequently, Nakai considers types not solely as an end but also as a means to generate new types. In Nakaiʼs concept of a perpetual means-ends scheme (purposiveness without a purpose), we discern the influence of “Aesthetic Disinterestedness” that Fukada found in Kant.

The purpose of this study is to harness the viewpoint of Takehiko Daikoku's virtual society theory, which clarifies the concepts of reality and virtuality in the modern media paradigm, to consider the position of reality in media sports.

According to the perspective of virtual society theory, contemporary reality is organized in the following way. Reality consists of reality in the physical arena and actuality in the social arena. The former is composed of presence, and the latter is composed of experiential reality and informational reality. Of these, the former, experiential reality, is backed up by verifiability, whereas the latter, informational reality, is backed up by the reliability of mass media and Technology. Concerning communication, in the sense that society is comprised of communication, communication possesses reality. However, different tones of reality exist for different kinds of communication.

For example, E-sports lack the reality of athletes, but communication occurring through this has realism in the sense that it has actuality. However, this has a tone that is different from an actual soccer match. Additionally, media sports like marathons in which the overall situation can only be viewed in its totality through television broadcasting inverts the relationship of original = real and copy = virtual, and VAR (Video Assistant Referee) and the Hawk-Eye System create a society in which reality is measured based on informational reality instead of experiential reality. As seen in these examples, reality is not in the process of disappearing in media sports, but instead in the process of changing.

Sports are competitions and matches determine the winners and losers. The participants must play for their own win to determine who is stronger. Today, this perception appears to be widely accepted; however, there is scope for further consideration. If a sport excludes matches or determining winners and losers, can it not be a sport at all?

For example, sandlot baseball, basketball played on the street, or a practice game do not necessarily determine the winner and loser of the match. However, they remain baseball or basketball games, because, we can find a "competition" that maintains a zero-sum structure and pursues some type of excellence. However, we cannot say that these are not sports activities.

In these "games," each player plays to achieve his or her own success and inhibit the success of his opponent(s), although not competing to win or lose in a match. These games do not require fixed rules as official games, and all rules can be flexibly determined on a case-by-case basis, including the number of players, duration of the game, and gender distinctions. A match can only be realized when it is based on the premise of such games. If these games are termed "original-game," then a match is a composite with "original-game" as its unit.

Therefore, sports cannot be defined as an activity that determines winners or losers in a match, nor include the pursuit of a win as the primary norm required of players. From the perspective of "original-game," the primary norm of practice required of sports players is to pursue their own success (and inhibit the success of an opponent's play) in each particular sequence of play. In matches or tournaments, each of these rule-based norms functions in an overlapping manner.