Rugby football was introduced into Japan for the first time in 1899 to students at Keio University by Edward B. Clarke, one of the English instructors. He had experienced playing rugby at Cambridge University.
The first Japan Rugby Football Championship was held in 1918. The championship was suspended during World War II, but revived after the war. Nowadays, rugby championships for high school and university students and working adults are actively held both inside and outside Japan.
Edward Bramwell Clarke
Born in Yokohama in 1874, Clarke entered England's Cambridge University in 1893. He returned to Japan after graduating and secured a post at Keio University in 1899. He taught his students rugby as a sport that instills a strong spirit of fair play and gentlemanship. He did this with the help of Ginnosuke Tanaka, a Japanese friend from Cambridge, who later became the first chairman of the Japan Rugby Football Association.
After teaching at Keio until 1910, he also taught at Japan's first university preparatory "higher school" (the present Tokyo University), the Tokyo Teacher's School (the present Tsukuba University) and Kyoto Imperial University until his death in April 28 of 1934 at the age of 61.
Grave of Professor Clarke
No.24, Block DI at Shuhogahara Foreign Cemetery
Shimo-tanigami, Yamada-cho, Kita-ku, Kobe City
Name: Edward Bramwell Clarke
January 31, 1874~April 28, 1934
Painted in 1874
British people playing rugby at the foreign settlement in Yokohama and Japanese locals watching the game with curiosity.
Members of Doshisha University at the first match with Keio University in 1912.