The first rugby football championships tournament was held in 1918 and hosted by Osaka Mainichi Newspaper Co., Ltd. At that time, soccer was also called "football". So the two kinds of football were distinguished by calling soccer "A-style" and rugby "Ra-style."
The term "rugby" was officially used from the 9th tournament in 1926 and region-based preliminary rounds were also adopted from the same year.
Keijo Teacher's School accomplished three consecutive wins including the 13th tournament. They took the champion's flag back to the Korean peninsula - at the time a Japanese overseas territory - for the first time.
At the final match in the 17th tournament between Anzan (Manchuria) and Taipei First (Taiwan) schools, both of them won the championship - a remarkable event in rugby history.
Rugby as a sport survived the turbulent postwar period and the Hanazono Stadium subsequently hosted the annual National High School Rugby Tournament since 1963 (the 42nd tournament) until the present day. It is fair to say that the history of Japanese rugby was primarily driven by high school rugby.
Article about "The 1st Japan Football Championships Tournament"
It was called "football" because there were few rugby teams at the time so it was being held as a joint event with soccer teams (association back then).
Doshisha University, (Kyoto's) Third High School, Kyoto Municipal First School of Commerce, and Keio University (retired) participated in the tournament. The result was a victory for Doshisha University.
The 60th champions, Fushimi Kogyo High School
An emotional HC Yamaguchi surrounded by the excited fifteen
An article about the rules of rugby
An article about the semifinal matches during the 11th tournament
The article reported about the stand spectators, characteristics of each team, and the highlights of the matches.