Japan’s heritage in Brazilian baseball
As happened in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and even Mexico), baseball in Brazil first began to be played in the hands of American workers coming from electrical and telephone companies that came to settle in that country. Then, baseball in the United States was already the national sport; It was they who painted the first diamonds in Brazil at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, before the Japanese immigrants arrived.
At the beginning of the 20th century, families from Japan arrived mainly in Sao Paulo, whenSoccer was already the national sport in Brazil. In the midst of adapting to the culture, the Japanese practiced baseball during their days off with gloves they brought from their country, handmade bats and in vacant lots or even on soccer fields.
The connection between Americans and Japanese with baseball in Brazil resulted in the creation of the Mikado Sports Club in 1920 in order to promote baseball and other sports such as tennis and table tennis. A year later the rival team was created “Rappa Baseball Team” y Kenji Sasahara, a Japanese immigrant, served as pitcher and catcher; a peculiar pioneer of Japanese baseball at that time.
The Japanese community not only established itself, but grew significantly (more than the North American community) in Brazil. By 1930, they began to celebrate the “All Brazil Baseball Tournament”an inter-Japanese event that marked a new stage of this sport influenced by the passion and interest of the Japanese towards the discipline.
At the same time as the city grew and Japanese and Brazilian culture merged to give Sao Paolo a new bicultural face, the development of baseball continued to rise.
2023-11-07 16:43:31
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