Writer Profile

Ryuji Takamine
Other : Professor Emeritus
Ryuji Takamine
Other : Professor Emeritus
Image: Around 1970, Japan's first water polo pool was built in the background, and the newly opened Hiyoshidai Student Heights can be seen.
In 1960, as part of the project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Juku, an outdoor Hiyoshi Pool (an officially recognized 50-meter pool) was constructed between the Hiyoshi Stadium and Tsunashima Kaido on the Hiyoshi Campus (the current site of the Kyoseikan Collaboration Complex). I entered the university that very year and joined the Swimming Section of the Athletic Association, and was fortunate enough to practice in this newly established pool from my first year. This pool was demolished in 2006 as part of the 150th anniversary project in 2008 for the renovation of the stadium and the construction of the Kyoseikan Collaboration Complex; the pool is now located in the basement of the Kyoseikan Collaboration Complex.
For 42 years from 1961 to 2003, swimming classes were held every summer at this outdoor pool under the slogan "All ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students shall swim" as part of the physical education practical skills courses, which were a compulsory subject for all ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app students at the time (until 1992). Additionally, during the summer vacation periods until around 1980, the pool was open to the local community and was very lively. In addition to its location just a one-minute walk from Hiyoshi Station, the Hiyoshi Pool had a high reputation as the cleanest pool along the Toyoko Line. It was so popular that entry restrictions were imposed, and queues of people waiting to enter sometimes stretched along the tree-lined path near the Memorial Hall. We members of the swimming club were made to take turns serving as lifeguards.
In the summer of 1961, the Nikkatsu film "Aitsu to Watashi" (He and I), a film adaptation of Yojiro Ishizaka's youth novel, was filmed at that pool. Some of you may have seen the scene where the protagonist, a male student played by Yujiro Ishihara, is questioned by several female students played by Izumi Ashikawa and others, and is accidentally pushed into the pool.
I remember being surprised when I happened to go to the pool that day and noticed Yujiro Ishihara standing in front of the changing room building on the high bank above the poolside, looking out over the pool with several actresses around him. The water in the pool where Yujiro was dropped, as seen in the footage, was a clear, beautiful blue.
There is a photo of female students relaxing on the grass of the Hiyoshi Stadium bank, but at that time, the number of female university students was not large; in my Political Science class, only two out of 60 students were female. It was an era when the dramatic increase in the rate of women going to university, as seen today, was unimaginable.
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.