Vol. 1: Olympians of Keio University / Tennis Club — Ichiya Kumagae and Takeichi Harada

2020/04/24

Image: Ichiya Kumagae (Collection of the Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)

Exactly 100 years ago in 1920, Ichiya Kumagae, an alumnus of the Keio University Athletic Association Tennis Club, won a silver medal at the Antwerp Olympics. This was a glorious event as it was Japan's first-ever Olympic medal.

Kumagae was born in 1890 in Omuta Town, Fukuoka Prefecture, and encountered tennis as early as elementary school. After attending Denshukan Middle School and Miyazaki Middle School, he entered the preparatory course of the Keio University college department of political economy in 1910 and joined the Tennis Club.

At the time, there were almost no organizations in Japan that played lawn tennis (hard-ball tennis), and the Juku Athletic Association Tennis Club, founded in 1901, also played soft tennis. However, in 1913 while Kumagae was a student, the club switched to lawn tennis at the strong recommendation of Tsuneyoshi Asabuki, who would later become the first president of the Japan Tennis Association, and Kumagae gradually adapted.

The year after graduating from the college department of political economy in 1916, Kumagae took a job at the banking department of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha. This was because he was "ordered" by Asabuki and other Keio seniors to join Mitsubishi Bank as a choice that prioritized tennis, and he followed their mediation. A few months later, he was assigned to the New York branch, placing him in an environment where he could compete in the United States. He soon achieved excellent results at tournaments across America using his powerful left-handed drive as a weapon, quickly rising to become a top-class player. In 1919, he was ranked 3rd in the United States.

It was under these circumstances that the 1920 Antwerp Olympics arrived. Japan first participated in the modern Olympics, which began in 1896, at the 1912 Stockholm Games; the Antwerp Games were held after a cancellation due to World War I (1916 Berlin). Due to his overwhelming track record, Kumagae was selected for the national team without a trial and entered Europe directly from New York.

Leading American players such as B. Tilden and B. Johnston did not participate as the dates overlapped with tournaments in their own country. Furthermore, Europe had a blank period due to the long-running World War I. Therefore, Kumagae was regarded as a top favorite for the singles title alongside Australia's G. Patterson, with the New York Times reporting on August 14, just before the opening, that "Patterson and Kumagae Are Favorites in Olympic."

In fact, he won all five matches in straight sets (3-0) to reach the final. However, in the final against South Africa's L. Raymond, although he won the first set, he lost 1-3 and finished with a silver medal. He also lost the doubles final the following day. Kumagae looked back on this defeat as being "filled with tears of indignation and deep regret" and "the greatest blunder of my entire tennis life."

The following year, when Japan lost all matches to the United States in the final of its first-ever Davis Cup (an international team tennis competition), he reflected that even though it was another runner-up finish, "it could be said to be a scene worthy of decorating a man's life." Compared to this, his sense of regret regarding the Olympics is clearly felt. To Kumagae, the two silver medals were not "glory."

While Kumagae was active in the United States, future Olympian Takeichi Harada entered Keio University. Born in 1899 in Nakasu Village, Tsukubo District, Okayama Prefecture (now Kurashiki City), Harada began playing tennis seriously after entering the college preparatory course in 1917. At the time, there was a court at the dormitory in Tengenji, and Harada recalled, "Starting life in the dormitory was the biggest reason I began playing tennis." In 1922, Shinzo Koizumi became the director of the Tennis Club, which eventually grew to be called the "Keio Tennis Kingdom," and Harada led its earliest period. After winning the All Japan Championships in 1923, he dropped out of Keio University the following year after seven years of enrollment and repeated failures to advance (he became a Special Keio University alumni in 1931) and moved to the United States. Based in America as a special student at Harvard University, he competed at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics (1924).

Harada advanced to the fifth round (quarterfinals) in the singles. However, he lost to Italy's U. Morpurgo and was eliminated in the best eight. He also lost in the doubles and failed to win a medal. Rather, Harada's peak came after the Olympics, and in 1926, he was ranked 3rd in the United States.

Afterward, the Tennis Club continued to produce Davis Cup players such as Jiro Yamagishi, Jiro Kumamaru, Goro Fujikura, and Osamu Ishiguro. However, because Olympic tennis was removed from the competition program after the Paris Games in which Harada competed, they did not have the opportunity to participate (it was reinstated at the 1988 Seoul Olympics).

The Tennis Club cultivated the frontier of lawn tennis, and the seeds they sowed bore fruit in the form of the birth of two Olympians. It was a success story from the dawn of Japanese tennis that will be remembered forever at Keio University.