The Oriental Witches: Women, Volleyball and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Macnaughtan, Helen

Abstract

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese women’s volleyball won the gold medal, which in many ways can be viewed as an epoch-making event in Japanese post-war sporting history. I explore the background to that victory, revealing a corporate history of the sport with a prominent role played by Japanese cotton textile companies. I argue that gold medal success at the 1964 Olympics is the result of a history of corporate investment in women’s volleyball, in particular by one company, Nichibō Corporation, and I tell the Olympic story with a focus on the personal recollections of the women’s volleyball team captain, Kasai Masae. Finally, I evaluate the impact that Olympic victory had on the popularity and strength of women’s volleyball in Japan in the decades after 1964.

Citation

Macnaughtan, H. The Oriental Witches: Women, Volleyball and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Sport in History, 34(1), 134-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2013.855651

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Feb 11, 2014
• Deposit Date: Nov 4, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 4, 2013
• Journal: Sport in History
• Print ISSN: 1746-0263
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-0271
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 134-156
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2013.855651