In baseball-mad Japan, fans of the Hanshin Tigers have the mightiest roar

By Simon Rowe
Translation by Amanda Mao

Fear, loathing, admiration, even envy. Ask Japanese what they think of Tora-kichi and their responses will be mixed. Tora-kichi means “crazy about the Tigers” and it is this term which is used to describe the boisterous and highly excitable supporters of one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams.

“Hanshin Tigers fans are cheeky and antagonistic, and they are not slow to pick arguments with fans from rival teams,” says naoki Okumura, an avid Tigers supporter for 41 years. Fellow fan and bar owner Yumi Inazumi adds: “A quiet baseball fan is not a Tigers fan. It is just letting off steam. Tora-kichi are always high-spirited, whether their team wins or loses.”

Love ’em or hate ’em, most Japanese will agree on one thing: their love of baseball is shared by the rest of the nation. Baseball is Japan’s one great sporting passion.

After the strict corporate culture, baseball is considered the most powerful cultivator of wa, or team spirit.

Yakyu (baseball) is currently enjoying even greater popularity thanks to Japan’s victory over south Korea in the World Baseball Classic, held last March in the Us. That a Japanese team should win an american game on american soil is an irony too sweet to imagine for most Japanese. any high school kid will tell you that it was an american (an English professor by the name of Horace Wilson), who introduced the game to Japan in 1873, at Kaisei Gakko, or what is now Tokyo University. a dual league system was devised in 1950 and this remains little changed today. Within each of the Central and Pacific leagues, there are six corporate-sponsored teams who play each other 27 times for a total of 135 games during the april-October season, then the winners from each league battle it out in the Japan series in October to decide the championship team.

Japan’s oldest ball park, and arguably its most atmospheric, is Kōshien stadium, located in nishinomiya city, a short train ride from Osaka. it is also the home ground of the Hanshin Tigers. Built in 1924 and played on by Babe Ruth in 1934, it remains one of only three true grass playing fields still used by the Central league.

On nights when hot winds whirl off the nearby Rokko Mountains, and Kōshien stadium has reached its 55,000 capacity, the restless fans can generate a din that would make a Brazilian carnival seem like a tea party. Fans sing, cheer and clatter plastic megaphones, taiko drums resonate and trumpets blast as white-gloved youths with orange hair lead chants of encouragement for the home side, while a small army of refreshment sellers swarms the bleachers selling grilled squid, octopus dumplings, green tea and icy asahi beer to keep the fans fuelled.

The Hanshin Tigers’ arch-rivals are Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants. Baseball aficionados believe the root of the rivalry harks back to the Emperor’s Game of 1959 when the Tigers took on the Giants at Korakuen stadium, now the site of the Tokyo Dome. With Emperor Hirohito looking on, the Giants’ star batsman, Oh sadaharu, hit a two-run home run in the seventh innings to tie the score at 4-4. nagashima shigeo, the team’s other brilliant tactician, then smashed a ‘sayonara’ home run in the final minutes to take the game.

Even Tigers fans agree, this was baseball at its best.

Stadium

Recent major games: Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (7 June/2pm; 8 June/6pm), Yokohama Baystars (26, 27, 28 June/6pm), Yomiuri Giants (10, 11, 12 July/6pm)

Ticketing: ‘Ivy’ seats (infield seats on the first base and third base sides) cost ¥4,000. ‘Alps’ seats (outfield benches along the lines) cost ¥2,500, and outfield seats are ¥1,900. Tickets can be purchased at the stadium or through the Ticket Pia vending machine system available in most city convenience stores.

How to get there: Kōshien Stadium is reached by Hanshin Electric Railway from Osaka’s Umeda Station.

www.hanshin.co.jp