EKIDEN
Japan’s Fast Feet: Traveling the Distance with the Ekiden
For those who have spent the New Year’s holiday in Japan, what comes to mind might be the famous NHK singing contest or visiting a shrine. However, a lesser known aspect of the oshougatsu festivities is the ekiden, or long-distance relay road race. One of the most popular modern ekiden is the Hakone Ekiden. This race from Tokyo to Hakone and back is held on January 2-3, and is a popular spectator sport that receives nationwide television coverage. It features 20 specially selected teams from universities in the Kanto area, which is comprised of 8 prefectures near Tokyo. Students from other regions are unable to enter, and for this reason, many high school track runners from other parts of Japan enter Tokyo area universities just for the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden!
The ekiden is based on the Japanese version of the Pony Express, when mail was delivered between Tokyo and Kyoto by riders who passed the post bag to the next rider at the end of each leg. These riders were based at stations along the Tokaido, a road used for communication and transportation. In the modern ekiden, the cloth sash or tasuki that each runner passes to the runner at the next “station” symbolizes the strap of the mail bag. The term ekiden was coined in 1917 and combines the Chinese characters for “station” and “transmit”. The first ekiden was run between the old capital of Kyoto and the modern capital of Tokyo. It took place over three days and a distance of 508 km, and celebrated the anniversary of the moving of the capital.
The lengths of ekiden can vary greatly with local races covering 20-30 km with 5-6 runners on a team, and larger national and international races running a full marathon (42.195 km) or longer. There is even a famous annual ekiden called the Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyushu Ekiden which lasts for 1064 kilometers and is the longest relay race in the world! The popularity of ekiden in Japan is unsurpassed in any other country, but these races have spread to New Zealand, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, China, Germany, France, America and Korea.
Ekiden are experienced by all children during their school days and are also held by corporations. When I worked for a time at Toyota headquarters, I somehow got roped into being part of their ekiden. I joined the training that took place everyday during lunch at Toyota’s outdoor track, where you would find athletes from various departments honing their skills in hopes of their section taking the ekiden that year. In the end, I think it was the camaraderie and reward for hard work that made it such a great experience and are part of what instilled in me a love for running.
The true appeal of ekiden is the idea that all runners are together in thought, as symbolized by the tasuki connecting them. One drama that is often seen is the heartbreaking phenomenon of the kuriage (or step-up) start. Roads are blocked off for the Ekiden, but only for a limited time. Due to this restriction, if the previous runner does not arrive within a certain amount of time the waiting runner is forced to “step-up” and begin his leg. Because he was not able to receive his university’s tasuki he will receive a replacement one from the race organizers, but at this point the chain of the original tasuki which was supposed to link all 10 runners has been broken.
Indeed, it is the emotional catharsis of ekiden that make them so popular. For example, in a marathon if a runner is injured he might drop out in favor of resting for an upcoming race. However, in the ekiden if all members do not finish their legs the whole team is disqualified. As a result, participants often push themselves through pain. This year’s Hakone Ekiden is in its 85th running and a record number of teams are participating, so stay tuned to see what drama unfolds.
——— Reported by Stacy Smith
Watch EKIDEN on TV
TV Japan will broadcast Ekiden matches with the following schedule:
January 10th (Sat) 2:10pm (ET): Highlight of The 85th Hakone Ekiden (First half of race)
January 11th (Sun) 1:25pm (ET): Highlight of The 85th Hakone Ekiden (Second half of race)
January 11th (Sun) 8:10am (ET):
The 27th Inter-Prefectural Women’s Ekiden: Long-Distance Relay Race
January 18th (Sun) 2:00pm (ET):
The 14th Inter-Prefectural Men’s Ekiden: Long-Distance Relay Race
For more information, go to www.tvjapan.net.
B-kyu Gourmet 
