Hiraoka Hiroshi

Hiraoka Hiroshi was a Japanese industrialist and is also considered as a founder of Japanese baseball. Hiraoka went to America in 1871 and studied railway technology while working for train manufacturers in Boston and Philadelphia. When he returned to Japan in 1876, he brought with him some baseball equipment as souvenirs from America and later formed Japan’s first baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club. He made a significant contribution to the development of baseball in Japan and was the first to enter the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1959, with the man who founded the professional baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants, Matsutaro Shoriki. As he built his fortune by starting up a private vehicle manufacturing company, the Hiraoka Factory, he established the Tomei School of Samisen music, painted works as an artist, and had great knowledge about items from the Edo era..

Hiraoka became a regular player for a baseball team while he was working at a factory in Boston and was a skilled pitcher who could throw curveballs. After returning to Japan, he joined the Railway Bureau of the Ministry of Engineering through an introduction by the politician Hirofumi Ito, who later became the first prime minister of Japan, and when he started working at the Shimbashi Factory, he formed Japan’s first baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club, in 1878, with his colleagues and students. The uniform, consisting of a white cap, knickers, and red socks, was very fashionable back then. It is said that the curveballs thrown by the coach and pitcher Hiraoka were feared as “Makyu” (Magic Balls).