On February 6, 2022, Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama, Wakaba Higuchi, Kaori Sakamoto, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara and Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto became the first Japanese skaters to win medals in the team event at the Winter Olympic Games. Their historic success followed in the footsteps of great champions like Midori Ito, who was the first figure skater from Japan to win an Olympic medal thirty years ago. Japanese skaters have won six medals at the last four Olympics, three of them gold, but ninety years ago when the country made its debut on international sport's biggest stage, participation was the real victory.
Photo courtesy Densho Digital Reposity, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions.
Today we'll be exploring the story of Ryuichi Obitani, a Japanese figure skating pioneer who was one of the first two competitors from Asia at the Winter Olympic Games and World Championships in 1932. A very sincere thanks to the reference team at the National Diet Library in Tokyo and Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies at Keio University for their immense help with this piece.
Born September 4, 1908 in Sumiyoshi, Kobe in Japan's Hyōgo Prefecture, Ryuichi Obitani was the eldest son of Densaburo Obitani, an Osaka Stock Exchange trader who served as President of Osaka Securities Trading and Obitani Densaburo Shoten. His grandfather was Bunbei Sakai, a leading fish wholesaler in Osaka.
Ryuichi Obitani (middle row, far left) with a group of students at a training camp in Morioka. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
In his youth, Ryuichi taught himself to skate outdoors on a frozen pond. He had no instructor. He learned the basics of figure skating through trial and error, interpreting diagrams in Shirō Kawakubo's translated editions of English books.
Yukichi Kaneko, Ryuichi Obitani, Kichizo Wada and Torazo Hayashi at Matsubara Lake in 1927. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
During the winter of 1929/1930, Ryuichi placed fourth in the newly-formed Japan Skating Association's National Championships, held on a manmade pond on the grounds of the Kanaya Hotel in Nikkō. The following winter at the age of twenty-two, he placed second to Kazuyoshi Oimatsu in the Japanese Championships held in Sendai City, earning a spot on the country's first Olympic figure skating team the following year in Lake Placid.
Top: Ryuichi Obitani (top row, far right) with a group of Japanese athletes. Photo courtesy Densho Digital Repository, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions. Bottom: Ryuichi Obitani (middle row, third from right) with Professor Sono and the founding members of Keio University's skating in club in 1927. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
The journey to America was quite an adventure for Ryuichi. Along with his friend and teammate Kazuyoshi Oimatsu and Japan's ski jumpers, speed skaters and cross-country skiers, he travelled aboard the Nippon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha ocean liner Hikawa Maru. The ship made its transpacific voyage by way of Hawaii, arriving in Vancouver in December of 1931. Ryuichi then travelled by train through Vermont to Lake Placid, arriving just before Christmas with precious little time to prepare for the Winter Olympic Games.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
In the weeks leading up to the 1932 Winter Olympic Games, four-time World Champion Willy Böckl gave Ryuichi a few pointers, but he and Kazuyoshi Oimatsu were largely left up to their own devices. He placed dead last in the Games, nearly thirty points back of the eleventh place finisher. The editors of "Skating" magazine remarked, "Obitani and Oimatsu speak only Japanese and understand very little English. One might find them standing modestly in the background of any group of skaters, trying to add to their store of knowledge. Their interpreter, Mr. Iida, was always greatly interested in what went on and promptly conveyed it all to them. Through him we learned that neither of these skaters had ever witnessed in action their 'betters,' nor acquired their skating knowledge other than from books and photographs; yet their exhibitions were truly good, and under such conditions, remarkable! From these skaters we gathered various facts on skating in Japan, among them that the only artificial ice rink is about one fifth the size of our hockey rinks, that they skate mostly on lakes in the mountains. As yet they have not attempted pair skating but have four or five young girls who are quite promising. There are no figure skating instructors in Japan."
Photo courtesy Densho Digital Repository, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions.
From Lake Placid, Ryuichi travelled to Montreal to compete in the
World Championships. His effort in Quebec impressed the judges enough that he finished eighth out of nine competitors, ahead of future U.S. Champion Robin Lee. With the help of Mr. Iida, he later penned a letter about his experiences in Lake Placid and Montreal for "Skating" magazine: "I was disheartened at the Olympic Games and thought I never would be able to stand the World's Championships, but remembered that I was far from Japan and if I did not enter it would leave a bad record in my young days. These feelings made me suffer more than the training and I wanted to go away in the woods and forget. I could not sleep and felt as if I was carrying the burden of the world. Every time I came back from practicing I lay on my bed and wondered if I should appear or default, and I could not sleep a wink. After suffering for a week, I gathered courage and told our manager the night before we left for Montreal that I would enter. After I spoke to him my mind eased up and I packed my things and got ready for the trip... At last the first day of the World's Championship came. Knowing my failure at the Olympic Games I decided to use the Japanese way of skating instead of trying to copy the foreign champions' style. The result was that I did far better than at the Olympics. There I went after Mr. [Roger] Turner, who is very skillful at school figures, but this time I came after Mr. [Ernst] Baier. The first day ended about five o'clock and my tiredness reached its peak. I felt very uneasy about the free skating as my feet were cramped and my body was worn out. I was so tired I couldn't sleep, so I paid three dollars for a bath and massage and then was able to sleep... Cecilia Colledge's coach advised me to use a march or fox-trot, rather than a waltz, but I was puzzled which to use. Each skater brought his music and asked the band to play it in turn for him, the Japanese were the only ones who did not know what to use. I stood near the band and listened to all the pieces. Mr. Iida worried about our music, he was so tired that, when we stopped, he was wiping off not only our skates but those of the others without knowing it. This is just an example of how he looked after us, doing every little thing, and we were so grateful... About fifteen thousand people gathered to see the free skating. They were dressed in tuxedos and evening dresses and it was a far more beautiful sight than at the Olympics. I got up early that morning to practice free skating combinations, but I could not spin or jump and was so discouraged I wanted to default. But when I thought it over I knew I could not enter a World's Championship again and would regret not competing. Both the Olympics and the World's Championship were a great suffering for me. I realize that no one should attempt more than they are capable of, but when I look back now, the hard experiences have disappeared and only happy recollections remain."
Ryuichi (back center) and a group of fellow students formed the Keio Skating Club at Keio University. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
Immediately upon returning to Japan, Ryuichi graduated from the Faculty Of Economics at Keio University. After finishing fourth in his final competition, the 1933 Japanese Championships in Tokyo, he hung up his skates.
Ryuichi Obitani (second from right in middle row) with a group of graduates from Keio University. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
After World War II, Ryuichi became active behind the scenes in Japanese figure skating. As a councilor with the Japan Skating Federation, he was in charge of organizing the Japanese Championships during the fifties when Nobuo Sato was competing and in the seventies served as an international judge. When Sapporo played host to the first Winter Olympic Games on Asian soil in 1972, he judged the women's event. At that event, he was the only judge to place Janet Lynn (who won the bronze medal) second. He even gave her higher marks than winner Trixi Schuba on one of the school figures, the counter. His final international judging assignment was the men's event in the first World Championships held in Japan in 1977. In addition to judging, he also did some coaching and served as a director of the Osaka Prefectural Skating Federation. Outside of the sport, he served as a director of Obitani Ryuichi Kitahama 2-chome Sanko Securities Co., Ltd. in Higashi-ku, Osaka. Little is known about his later life aside from the fact he lived in the city of Nishinomiya in his later years. He fell out of contact with the alumni association of Keio University sometime between 1997 and 2002, but his exact date of death is unknown.
Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.
Ryuichi had a front row seat to Japanese figure skating history. As a skater, he was one of his country's first Olympic and World competitors. He judged the first Winter Olympic Games and World Championships held on Japanese soil. Sadly, his contributions to the sport have never been formally acknowledged.
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