Official

If you have seen the past questions of the Chuo-ku Tourism Certification, or if you have challenged the Chuo-ku Tourism Certification de Time Attack, you may know.
In the third test, there were the following problems.

The first athletic meet in Japan is said to be a competition that was held in 1874 at the Naval Military Dormitory in Tsukiji. It is said that 18 types of competitions were held in this amusement event, but one of the following was not held at that time. ※The options are based on modern competition names and expressions.

A: Two-person tripod A: Equestrian battle U: Long jump d: High jump

The correct answer is "A: Equestrian Battle"!
The correct answer rate is 14%, which can be said to be a difficult question for the Chuo-ku Tourism Certification.
It's surprising because it's just a military dormitory, so the equestrian battle seems the most correct answer.

Let's take a closer look at Japan's first athletic meet while keeping down the characteristics of the naval military dormitory that came out in the question sentence.

The Navy Dormitory was predecessor of the Naval Training Center, founded in 1869, and was later renamed Naval Academy.
The most distinctive feature is the Western-style building called clay roof tile on the sea rat wall!
For this reason, it is said that it has attracted the attention of the people at that time.

(The site of the Naval Army Dormitory and the site of the Naval Medical School near the National Cancer Center Hospital)

Japan's first athletic meet was held in the Nenjo ground (grassba), which was in front of the naval military dormitory with such an impressive appearance, began with the idea of Colonel Archibald Lucius Douglas, the leader of the U.K. Teachers' Team invited in 1873.

After the arrival of the Kurofune, a mission (35 members) led by U.K., who held hegemony at sea despite being a small island nation similar to Japan, was invited to modernize the Sea of Japan's army.
He grew up in Quebec, but as you can see from his last name, his father was born in Scotland!
At the age of 14, his parents were allowed to join the British Navy, and at the age of 31, he came to Japan with his wife, two children, and nanny.
There is a record of living in the Tsukiji settlement and being treated by the government, and sometimes difficult for foreigners to live only in the times, so there is a record that he slept with a loaded shotgun.

Colonel Douglas (Source: The Douglas Archives) drawn on a postcard

Colonel Douglas, who coached the Navy at the Naval Military Dormitory, was about to spoil the spirit of the British Navy and the custom of the samurai more than I had expected at first.
However, in order to build a common ground, he invited Admiral Nelson, a hero of the British Navy, and made it an informal belief in the Navy's dormitory, and seemed to have been accepted easily.
Heihachiro Togo, a student with the most expectation, was called the "Nelson of the Orient" because of his success in the Battle of the Sea of Japan in 1905 (the Battle of Tsushima offshore).

By the way, when I return the story to the athletic meet, in addition to those included in the test options, in the events at that time, `` race '', `` ball throwing '', `` competition to hold the tail of running pigs '', `` It seems that there was a competition to put a water tub above and put 20 chicken eggs in each yard and pick them up. "

The referee at that time was called Gyoji, and the officer of the teacher's team was in charge.
At the award ceremony of the 1st or 3rd place, Hendel's "Look, the hero returns (Original title: See the conquering hero come)" was performed as in modern times!
I thought that the culture of playing this music at the award ceremony was established after the war, but I was surprised that it had been performed since the first athletic meet in Japan.

Until now, I have never thought deeply about the beginning of the athletic meet 145 years ago, but not only many events and music are the same as modern times, but Japan's first athletic meet was started by an employed foreigner, There was also a discovery of the child relationship between Colonel Douglas and Togo.
The more you know this, the more interesting the stroll in Chuo-ku will continue tomorrow.

Tsukiji Reservation Study Group "Tsukiji Reservation" Vol. 3 (Aki Shobo, 2004).
Shannon, Anne (2012) Finding Japan: Early Canadian Encounters with Asia. Vancouver: Heritage House Publishing Co.