Modernization and Identity Creation (1868–1920): The Evolution of Competitive Swimming in Japan

Abstract

Western sports had been increasingly introduced to Japan by the middle of the nineteenth century. Sport became a symbol of the new, modern times and was adopted by the intellectual elite of Japan as a way to participate in and incorporate the physical culture of modernity. As a result pre-modern Japanese body techniques were considered to be inferior to Western body techniques during the first half of the Meiji-period (1868–1912). ‘Traditional’ Japanese forms of exercise were marginalized or modernized according to the needs of the time. From around the 1880s, however, the pendulum swung back to rescue tradition forms of movement: as national, cultural and collective self-confidence grew for modern Japan and culminated in the formation of a national identity, ‘tradition’ re-emerged as central to the nationalist discourse. In the following article, both the evolution of pre-modern Japanese swimming as a form of competitive sport during the modernization of Japan and as a key element of constructing a modern Japanese identity will be addressed. [1]