【Time Passes】Memories and History of the Waseda-Keio Rugby Games: Reflecting on the Birth of "Soul Rugby" Following the 100th Anniversary Match

2024/02/19

Photo: The 100th Waseda-Keio Rugby Games (November 23, 2023, Japan National Stadium)

Following the 100th anniversary match of the Waseda-Keio rivalry on November 23 last year, the Rugby Football Club celebrated its 125th anniversary this year. I would like to turn back the clock to the Showa era when I was an active player, reflecting on the eve of the Waseda-Keio rivalry and the behind-the-scenes stories centered around the head coach at the time.

"Think of them as Waseda and eat them all up!"

The famous head coach Takashi Shibata (Class of 1956, former All-Japan player), known as "Gonroku," stood tall like a Deva King, glaring at the cold dinner while shouting encouragement. It was an autumn evening in 1977, during my junior year, when the forwards, dragging their heavy bodies after intense practice, finally made it up to the training camp dining hall at a very late hour.

Even off the field, the head coach would question the members. "Why are you playing rugby at Keio?" The coach's Zen-like questioning continued until the correct answer was given: "To defeat Waseda."

At the time, there were about 60 members, and almost none had experience at Hanazono (the national high school tournament). The Juku, which included members starting rugby from university and was inferior in experience, physique, physical strength, and technique, was built up to a level equal to Waseda and Meiji through intense practice. The "conviction" that they would surpass them with mental strength was maintained by the coaching staff and alumni as the pride of the founding school.

The forwards were thoroughly forged by a demon coach who was the incarnation of conviction. In my freshman year, I was a ball boy on the back main stand side during the Waseda-Keio rivalry; from my sophomore year, I became a reserve player and received my baptism of coaching as a forward member alongside the senior regular players. It was an extraordinary sight: steam rising from the moving scrums formed endlessly on the dark dirt ground in the autumn chill, with the hot-blooded coach watching over us in tears. Even after the hellish summer training camp at Lake Yamanaka, intense practice without any tapering continued until late autumn.

It was much later that I realized and was struck by the fact that this was the Rugby Football Club's version of "First form the animal body, then cultivate the human spirit." The coach's plan to "eat Waseda" was steadily building up. For some reason, the five characters of "Defeat Waseda" written in bold ink and displayed in the training camp were easier to absorb than many words, and we fell completely for the Showa-era leader's transparent visualization.

On November 23, 1977, at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, the long-awaited Kanto University Rugby League match and the 54th Waseda-Keio Regular Rugby Match took place. The small but well-trained steel forwards in black and yellow jerseys moved dynamically with quick, low support, pushing back the mass of red and black jerseys in the scrums. The backs repeated piercing tackles, resulting in a double-score victory of 34 to 17. It was an undisputed victory for the first time in 15 years and a feat that blocked Waseda's 60-game winning streak in the league. With the final whistle, Rugby Football Club members in school uniforms flooded onto the field, hugging whoever was near and choking back tears of joy. I have never seen the Juku Rugby Football Club like this before or since in my memory.

Amidst the Keio stands in a whirlpool of joy, the hot-blooded coach immediately barked at the captain on the field, "It's disrespectful to the Waseda team, get off the field quickly!" The members came to their senses and left the field. A commentary in the Waseda-side bulletin stated, "The coach's stoic attitude of not being intoxicated even by a sweeping victory was strangely refreshing to behold." The coach's remarks: "We were blessed with luck and were able to win today. Waseda was a very good team. I am happy to be able to add to the students' pages that they can do it if they try. Today's victory is due to teamwork and the efforts of the members working behind the scenes. We are happy to have been able to play games without regrets against teams with different colors like Waseda and Meiji. I would like to play against Waseda and Meiji again in the New Year."

From then through the New Year, the rapid progress toward becoming the best university in Japan continued. We defeated Hosei in an exchange match, advanced to the University Championship, beat Doshisha in the first round, and won a comeback victory against Nippon Sport Science University in the semifinals to reach the final. The final match against Meiji, held after the New Year with snow remaining from the previous day, ended in a narrow 6-7 loss, and we ultimately missed the championship. The coach's remarks after the defeat: "If power is Meiji's characteristic and skill is Waseda's, then Keio's is 'Soul Rugby'." The next morning's newspaper headline featured the losing school as the protagonist: "Keio's Soul Rugby Blossoms." Seventy-eight years after the club's founding, "Soul Rugby" became socially recognized and a synonym for the team from that moment. Despite being the root school of Japanese rugby, it is the gritty challenger's attitude that resonates with everyone who supports Keio rugby.

Now, regarding the alumni, why does the passionate devotion and blood bond of the Kokukokai members persist even after graduation? This is the assessment of former President Tadao Ishikawa: "When I think of the tradition cultivated over many years by the people who studied at this Juku and loved and nurtured rugby, I am struck by an exquisite sense of harmony. This is because the factor that creates tradition is not physical 'time' itself, but 'people'—or to be more precise, it is nothing other than the accumulation of 'souls'."

I was greatly encouraged to have the President evaluate our tradition as an "accumulation of souls," which hits the heart of the matter.

What were the early days of the Waseda-Keio rivalry like? Before the first Waseda-Keio match, the ban on sports exchange between the two schools, triggered by cheering trouble during a Waseda-Keio baseball game in 1906, lasted for 16 years. Four years after the founding of Waseda Rugby, the first Waseda-Keio Rugby Games finally took place in 1922, thanks to the proactive spirit of Waseda and the strong will of Keio in its leadership position. The thawing of sports relations between the two schools began with the bond of Waseda-Keio rugby. The second match was held on November 23, the date decided in the first match for its high probability of good weather, despite the Great Kanto Earthquake occurring in September and public opinion largely favoring cancellation, with the belief that "it is meaningful to hold it during such chaotic times." The match at Waseda Totsuka Ground breathed the spirit of reconstruction into all of Japan. The third match was held as Japan's first paid match after long and difficult discussions between Waseda, which proactively proposed the issue of paid matches, and Keio, which maintained its stance on amateurism. This match became the starting point for Japanese rugby today.

The pioneers of Waseda-Keio rugby opened up and ran through the era as leaders not only of rugby but of society. After retiring, Coach Shibata joined the supporters' side, and from the front stands of Chichibunomiya, which erupted in joy, he would shout encouragement—this time to the grandchildren's generation. He became a hot-blooded cheerleader shouting "Keio Forward!" and was a Keio fixture for a long time. As students of Coach Shibata and as participants in the period when the reputation of "Soul Rugby" was established both internally and externally, we must ensure that we pass this on to the younger generation. With the human drama hidden in each of the 100 matches and the souls of all generations as our strength, I hope to lead and open up the coming era while contributing to the development of amateur university rugby. Just as I was taught in the era of leather balls, I want to throw the ball firmly into their chests.

Waseda-Keio rivalry total record: 20 wins, 7 draws, 73 losses.