As mentioned in the first part of Koshien, while Koshien is known for baseball games, it’s also known for the Koshien Bowl, the final for the American football game held in Japan.
Typically football is used to describe soccer in Japan, but there are some universities that have western football teams.
In Japan, Koshien Bowl is the final between the winning teams from the 8 regions throughout Japan that participate in the Japan Nationwide University Football League.
The game is held between 2 universities from East Japan (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto) and West Japan (Tokai, Hokuriku, Kansai, Chushikoku, Kyushu).
The winning team at the Koshien Bowl gets the right to participate in the “Rice Bowl”, a single match against adult American football corporate X-League champions.
The last time a college team had beaten a corporate X-League champion was in 2009 when Ritsumeikan defeated the Panasonic Impulse at Tokyo Dome with the score of 17-13.
The Koshien Bowl is held in December and has been played since 1949 through the present and in 2017, they had their largest audience at 36,000 attendees to watch Nihon University Phoenix beat the powerhouse, Kwansei Gakuin Fighters 23-17.
As you move past the Koshien Bowl area, you then get to see the memorabilia when Babe Ruth played at Koshien Stadium:
The next section you will be visiting is the NPB section that is primarily All-Star related and a considerable section dedicated to the home team, the Hanshin Tigers (which I will focus on tomorrow).
In terms of the All-star Games, you can find the following:
Another section are baseballs signed by celebrities who participated in opening game pitches:
In tomorrow’s post, we’ll check out the Hanshin Tigers portion of the museum!
