![]() ![]() The debate between these two keen observers of Japanese baseball speaks to the larger debate within Japanese studies about the issue of national character. Kelly finds “samurai baseball” an inadequate and misleading term, one that dresses up in the regalia of tradition what is essentially a set of traits that are modern in origin and function. ![]() Over the years, Whiting’s views on baseball and national character have drawn sustained criticism from William Kelly, an anthropologist at Yale University. In Japan, baseball is much more than a game. The frenzied year-round media coverage and the organized fan groups reflect an obsession with the game that peaks during high school baseball tournaments. In Whiting’s view, one can understand aspects of national character in the way Japanese practice and play baseball. He has referred to this approach as “samurai baseball”-a term meant to convey succinctly and evocatively the discipline, devotion and sacrifice that can be seen on diamonds all over Japan, from school playgrounds up through the professional leagues. In his work he has suggested that there are some distinctive traits and characteristics that Japanese ballplayers exhibit in their approach to the game. He draws on his experience of living in Japan for some four decades, and on thirty-five years of reporting on Japanese baseball for the Japanese press. In this essay Robert Whiting does what he has done in best-selling books such as You Gotta Have Wa and The Chrysanthemum and the Bat -use baseball as a window on Japanese society. The Samurai Way of Baseball and the National Character Debate ![]()
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