Ekiden
Definition
An Ekiden (??), originally referred to a post-
horse or stagecoach which transmitted com-
munication by stages, and now usually refers
to a long-distance relay race[1][2], typically a
road race.
History
The term originated in Japan, although the
concept of a long distance relay race is prob-
ably not original or unique to any country.
The first ekiden race was sponsored by the
Yomiuri Shimbun in 1917, and was run over
three days between the old Japanese capital
of Kyoto and the modern capital of Tokyo, a
distance of 508 km, to celebrate the an-
niversary of the moving of the capital to
Tokyo.
The popularity of ekiden in Japan is unsur-
passed in any other country, and its popular-
ity has spread around the world with races
run in Australia, New Zealand, Canada,
Spain, the Netherlands, China, Germany,
France,
the United States, Korea, and
elsewhere.
As written in Japanese, Ekiden combines
the characters for "station" (?) and "transmit"
(?). This name was coined by the poet Toki
Zemmaro (1885-1980), who was head of the
Yomiuri Shimbun’s Social Affairs Department
at the time. The original concept of the race
hearkens back to Japan’s old Tōkaidō commu-
nication and transportation system in which
stations were posted at intervals along the
road. In the race, each runner on a team runs
the distance from one "station" to the next,
and then hands off a cloth sash, or tasuki, to
the next runner.
The lengths of ekiden can vary greatly, as
can the number of runners on a team. For ex-
ample, in the national junior high ekiden
championship, 5 girls cover 12 kilometers
and 6 boys cover 18 kilometers. The national
high school championship involves 5 girls in
a 21 kilometer race and 7 boys in 42.195 kilo-
meter race. In the national inter-prefecture
championships, 9 women run 42.195 kilomet-
ers and 7 men run 48 kilometers. For the
collegiate Hakone ekiden, a 2 day event, 10
male athletes run 219 kilometers.
Ekiden in Japan, a first
glance
One of the most popular modern ekiden in
Japan is the Hakone Ekiden, whi