Historical Background
Rugby union was first introduced to Japanese students at Keio University in Japan by Professor Edward Bramwell Clarke (who was born in Yokohama) and Tanaka Ginnosuke, both graduates of Cambridge University, in 1899. It had been played at the treaty ports (Kobe and Yokohama especially) before that, between teams of long-term foreign residents and visiting ships' crews, garrisons etc.
Read more about this topic: Japan Rugby Football Union
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or background:
“Some minds are as little logical or argumentative as nature; they can offer no reason or “guess,” but they exhibit the solemn and incontrovertible fact. If a historical question arises, they cause the tombs to be opened. Their silent and practical logic convinces the reason and the understanding at the same time. Of such sort is always the only pertinent question and the only satisfactory reply.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)