Cheering song - Ouenka

A song sung to boost the morale of teammates at sporting events. In Japan, cheer songs were first sung in the spring of 1890 (Meiji 23) at a boat race held on the Sumida River in Tokyo between First Higher School (now the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo) and Tokyo Higher Commercial School (now Hitotsubashi University). The song was first sung by a cheering squad of First Higher School students. The day before the race, First Higher School student Kinzaburo Akanuma wrote the lyrics, printed them on a konnyaku cutting board on the day, and distributed them to the cheering squad members. The following lyrics are the first part.

"Flowers are cherry blossoms, men are warriors, a thousand young men make a firm vow. Katamachi's high school is the best in both wisdom and virtue, comparable to the lofty peak of Mt. Fuji."
In the early Showa period, the Waseda-Keio baseball game became popular, and as a result of the lively cheering contests between the two schools at Jingu Stadium, the cheer songs of both schools became beloved by many people. Until then, most of the songs sung in unison to support student sports were school songs, but in the case of the Waseda-Keio game, parody songs have been used as cheer songs since it began in 1903 (Meiji 36). For example, Waseda University's "No matter how hard the enemy bases are" is a parody of the military song "No matter how many enemies there are," while Keio University's "The sky is clear, the mind is clear" is a parody of "Washington" (from a 1902 singing textbook).

[Junji Kanda]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スポーツのゲームなどで、味方選手の士気を高揚させるために歌う歌。日本で応援歌が最初に歌われたのは、1890年（明治23）春、東京・隅田(すみだ)川で第一高等学校（現東京大学教養学部）対東京高等商業学校（現一橋大学）のボートレースが挙行されたときで、一高生の応援団によって初めて斉唱された。レースの前日、勝利を願って、一高生赤沼金三郎が作詞、当日こんにゃく版をもって印刷し、応援団員に配布したもの。次の歌詞は最初の一部分である。

「花は桜木人は武士、一千人の青年が
　誓は固し片町の　高き高等学校の
　智徳兼備の第一と、富士の高峰に比ぶべき」
　昭和の初期には野球の早慶戦が盛んになり、神宮球場で両校の応援合戦が華やかに繰り広げられた結果、両校の応援歌が多くの人々に愛唱されるようになった。それまでは、学生スポーツの応援のために斉唱された歌は校歌が多く、早慶戦の場合には1903年（明治36）に開始されて以来、替え歌が応援歌として使われていた。早稲田(わせだ)大学の例では、『敵塁いかにかたくとも』は軍歌の『敵は幾万ありとても』の替え歌、慶応義塾大学の『天は晴れたり気は澄みぬ』は『ワシントン』（1902年唱歌教科書）の替え歌であった。

［神田順治］

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