The Origin of Ekiden

              My name is Kosuke Namiki. I am in the depatment of chemistry at Tsukuba Univerese. And I belong to track and field circle.

Ekiden is long distance relay. Players run long distance with tasuki and they pass tasuki next player. Today, I want to tell about the origin of ekiden.

Ekiden was made by Tiyosaburo Takeda. He was a vice-president of Japanese physical education association. He got the idea from Tokaido 53 tugi. Tokaido 53 tugi is Japanese road and 53 inns in the Edo period. And the word “ekiden” come from “station” and “transmit”. “Station” means transfer point between a capital and country. Tokaido 53 tugi have a lot of stations. Stations have horses and inns. If people arrive at station and they want to go to next station, they ride another horse. This system was called “Tenma.” He thinks people run between stations and they pass the baton to their successor at station. And they carry “tasuki” to next runner. Tasuki is a cloth shaped a loop. People tie back their sleeves with a sash. In this way, ekiden completed. This is idea of ekiden. Well, what kind of event the first ekiden was? The first ekiden was held April 27, 1917. This event was held by Zenmaro Toki. He was head of the Yomiuri Shinbun’s social affairs department. And this event’s name was “Tokaido 53 tugi ekiden race”. This race’s start was Sanjo Ohasi Bridge in Kyoto, and goal was Shinobazunoike Pond in Tokyo. People run about 508 kilometers a team of 23 members. They started April 27 at 14:00 and they goaled April 29 at 11:34.they are running for two days. This race was competed by east Japan team and west Japan team. East Japan members were Daiichi high school, Tokyo high school and Waseda University students. West Japan members were Aichi Daiichi junior high school people who were 15 years old students, 52 years old principal and so on. From the above, this race was held between high school students or university students and junior high school students. So, East Japan won by a huge margin. On the other side, few people cheered runner the first day. But as time passed, people were interested in this race. The last runner was welcomed a lot of people. They waved their handkerchiefs and hats and so on. In that way this race succeeded.

             

            Ekiden is famous in Japan but it isn’t famous all over the world. International ekiden is held in Japan at present. But this competition isn’t famous all over the world. About 16 countries took part in this competition before but about 10 countries took part in it now. Moreover Japan enter in it three team. These are team for participating teams. In that way, ekiden doesn’t spread all over the world. A relay is famous all over the world for example, 400-meter relay race of track and field and 400-meter medley relay of swimming. Ekiden is also relay. People all over the world are sure to be interested in ekiden. So, I want to tell about what ekiden is. And I want people all over the world to be interested in ekiden.

reference materials

http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~takefuku/e_memo/m_back.html

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A7%85%E4%BC%9D%E7%AB%B6%E8%B5%B0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekiden

http://www.inter-chibaekiden.jp/