The invention of the "Kano-spirit"

Abstract

Taiwan has a long history of being colonized by foreign powers. Beginning in the 17th century the island was occupied and ruled by Holland, China and Spain, thus many cultural influences were absorbed under the colonization. The occupation by Japan after the war between Japan and China in 1895 had a deep impact on the introduction of modern sports in T叫wan. It can even be said that the history of modern sports and physical education began under the Japanese rule. The development of baseball can be seen within this context. In 1923, a Taiwanese team was sent to the All Japan Middle School Baseball Tournament (Koshien game) for the first time, but until 1930 there were All—Japanese players in the school teams participating in the event. The situation radically changed in 1931, when a team of the Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry School (Kano) reached the final of the 17th Koshien game. The team raised lots of attention and discussion for its combination of players which included Japanese, Chinese and Taiwan Aborigines. Japanese media especially paid attention on Kano baseball team which was composed of Taiwanese in majority, and emphasized the distinction that the team was consisted of three ethnic groups. Due to the victory in Koshien game, in 1937 a student of Kano named Lln Mu-Tson created the term "Kano-spirit", afterward it was also called "Kano-tamashi". The discourse of Kano-spirit had become an expression of identity among students and alumni, the spirit was still embracing and passing on even after the school upgraded to Chiayi University in 2000. This research aims for reconstructing the formation of Kano-spirit, which was initiated by the team coach Kondo Heitaro in the basis of "Model of Japanese spirit". Kano is the most famous and influential baseball team among Taiwan sports during the period of Japanese colonial rule. This paper aims at finding the background and formation of the team identity, namely Kano Spirit. The following are the 3 conclusions: l. Kano Spirit was formed after Kano won the second place at the 17th All Japan Middle School Tournament (Koshien game) in 1931, which was mainly developed by the coach Kondo Heitaro's spiritual baseball, equalitarian, and ability-oriented training concepts. 2. The team was composed of Japanese, Chinese and Taiwan Aborigines. Its excellent performance in the 17th Koshien game was thought to be the best model for Assimilation Policy, which was practiced since 1918 by Japanese Government. 3. The term Kano-spirit first showed on literature in 1937, even though Kano changed its name to Chiayi University in 2000, the spirit passed on continually. Not only limited to baseball, alumni also apply Kano-spirit to achieve personal success in all the other fields in modern society.