Tateyama Training Camp

2018/07/31

The Athletic Association Tateyama Training Camp is a facility facing Shiomi Beach in Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture. It consists of three single-story wooden buildings—a men's dormitory, a women's dormitory, and a director's building (with a total floor area of approximately 728 square meters and a total capacity of 127 people)—in addition to a gymnasium.

To understand its establishment, we must touch upon the history of the Hayama Division of the Swimming Team, which uses the Tateyama Training Camp as its base for activities during long school holidays and whose activities are centered on long-distance ocean swimming.

The Keio Swimming Team originated with the first swimming practice session held in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1902 (Meiji 35). In 1915, the Athletic Association Hayama Dormitory was completed, becoming a training base in an era without swimming pools. As competitive swimming, water polo, and diving became more specialized and the Sailing Team became independent from the Swimming Team, the Hayama Division took its name from its place of origin, refining its activities while preserving the tradition of ocean-based training.

Hayama, which had once been a quiet coast, by the early Showa 30s (mid-1950s), when Shintaro Ishihara's "Season of the Sun" became a bestseller, "the beaches of Shonan-Hayama were so crowded with young people there was hardly room to stand, and girls would make a fuss during warm-ups and at the end of practice," an alumnus recalled in the Swimming Team's centennial history. Under these circumstances, due to misconduct by some members, the Hayama Division's activities were suspended, and the Hayama Dormitory was closed.

After several years of suspension, a search for a new training camp site was conducted with the approval of the Keio authorities, and the current location in Tateyama was chosen. A few hours from Tokyo, the uncrowded beach on the calm Tateyama Bay, also known as Kagami-ga-ura (Mirror Inlet), was said to have seemed like a utopia.

Through this course of events, the Tateyama Training Camp was established in 1962 (Showa 37) with the completion of the current women's dormitory. The men's dormitory and the director's building were added in 1966, and the gymnasium was completed in 1969, bringing the facility to nearly its present form.

Many may be skeptical of a 50-year-old wooden building. Those from the generation of current team coaches might have heard that Tateyama had pit toilets and not even electric fans. While it remains a wooden structure, to put it elegantly, it has a construction that exudes the warmth of wood, and major renovations over the last decade or so have seen the installation of flush toilets and air conditioning, so it no longer comes as a surprise to first-time students. Furthermore, for members of the Athletic Association, the cost is a very reasonable 3,500 yen for one night with three meals, and access has improved dramatically, with the facility being just a five-minute walk from the express bus stop from Tokyo Station. There was a time when Keio Yochisha Elementary School students came for summer swimming, but now, in addition to training camps for clubs like the Wrestling Club and the Cycling Club, its use has gradually expanded to include seasonal marine sports activities since 2006 and beach volleyball since 2014.

The Tateyama Training Camp is a second home to us alumni of the Hayama Division, and we sincerely hope that it will be used by more and more Keio students in the future.

(Masahisa Nakamura, Keio Girls Senior High School Office)