Kiyoshi Oshikawa

Kiyoshi Oshikawa (Oshikawa Kiyoshi, 押川清, 1 January 1881 – 18 March 1944) was a Japanese baseball player, executive and the founder of the first Japanese professional baseball team.

Early life and education

Oshikawa was born in Matsuyama City (although other sources say Sendai), and grew up in Sendai, Japan, where his father was a Christian minister. He attended Waseda University in Tokyo. After college he was in the Japanese military for a year.

Baseball career

Oshikawa was a star baseball player at Waseba University and a student of Professor Abe Isō, who has been called the "Father of Japanese baseball." In 1920 Oshikawa, with two former Waseda classmates, founded the first professional baseball team in Japan, the Nihon Athletic Association (NAA, 日本運動協会). By 1921 there were four teams. Oshikawa's first team was made up of former Waseda players with good academic credentials and excellent personalities, model players. His goals were the development of baseball in Japan, dispel negative attitudes toward the game, and to ensure, through athletic competition, "that the spirit of cooperation and unity, fairness, and cheerful spirit required by the present age will be planted in the human heart." His concept of baseball was consistent with the then existing bushidō spirit of Japan, and he helped define and popularize baseball as bushidō like. This plan collapsed in the wake of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake. There was only minor damage to the stadium, but on 1 September 1923, Shibaura Stadium was requisitioned by the Kanto Kaigen Command and the Tokyo City Social Affairs Bureau. It became a supply depot for food and equipment to deal with the earthquake's destruction, and no baseball was played again at the stadium. With no income from tickets and no commercial support, financial distress led to the NAA disbanding in 1924. The team moved to Takarazuka where it reorganized as the Takarazuka Undo Kyokai; in 1929 it ceased operations because of financial problems. All professional baseball in Japan ceased during the depression years of 1929–1934, predecessor of the Chunichi Dragons; and, in 1937 Oshikawa founded the Korakuen Eagles, built a stadium for them and became team president.

Personal Oshikawa's father was evangelist Masayoshi Oshikawa, who was the model for the NHK drama series "Hanekomo." Oshikawa was in the same dormitory at Waseda Junior High as Mitsuyo Maeda, one of the first MMA artists of the modern era and studied with him at the Kodokan Judo Institute. Oshikawa died of esophagal cancer at age 63.