NEWS

2023.12.14

【Report】The 62nd AJI Frontier Seminar was held! Dr. Takaya NEGISHI, “The Significance of ‘Japanese Baseball’ in East Asia”

The 62nd AJI Frontier Seminar was held online on December 12. This time, Dr. Takaya NEGISHI (Visiting Researcher, Kinugasa Research Organization and Assistant Researcher, Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University) gave an interesting presentation titled “The Significance of ‘Japanese Baseball’ in East Asia.”

In the first half of the presentation, he discussed the theory of baseball as a visual culture based on his doctoral thesis. In the second half, he discussed Japan’s unique baseball culture and its dissemination to East Asian countries. Regarding the theory of baseball’s visual culture, it was shown that baseball constructs its own “visual culture” through various media such as magazines, TV broadcasts, cartoons, and games.

Following the above discussion, he explained the physical culture of Japanese baseball in relation to Bushido in TOBITA Shuishu (飛田穂洲; 1886-1965), who was a coach of a baseball club as well as a baseball reviewer and journalist. In addition, based on prior research, he presented how the “baseball” culture developed in Japan has been accepted in East Asian countries, especially Korea and Taiwan.

A Q&A session followed Dr. Negishi’s exciting presentation on Japanese baseball. There were lively discussions on various issues, such as how the moral principle based on "Shuyo（修養)", which means nurturing a moralistic personality based on the examples set by historical figures in the past, has influenced Asian baseball, historical changes in the visual culture of baseball, and relationships between baseball players and viewers.

Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/