ABSTRACT
For most of modern Japan, the discursive link between sport and literature often centered on the social values demanded by the nation-state. This chapter explains how this relationship was inflected in different historical contexts which are demarcated by imperial reigns from the Meiji, Taisho Showa and the Heisei eras. In many ways, Japanese school children were prepared for modern and imperial national life through both the systems of public education and print media. Owen Griffiths has detailed some of the children stories written by Miyazaki Ichiu in which play was mapped to national duty for Japanese children. The early Meiji Japanese emphasis on the development of moral character would shift in the Taisho Period in which the media focused more on the more flamboyant, social emphasis on consumption and personality. In modern Japan, the print media of magazines and comic books were central to the popularity of sports heroes and sport literature.
