Robin Kietlinski's earnest but digestible volume puts the attainments of these athletes in the context of the development of Japanese society over the past 150 or so years, explaining how attitudes to sport, and women's proper place in it, were gradually transformed. But it was the stories of the women themselves, trailblazers nearly all, that most held my attention.

David Owen, former FT Sports Editor, Inside the Games

This book resolves some of the difficulties entailed in researching the history of women's sports in Japan and provides material for making global comparisons regarding the impact of cultural differences on gender issues in sports...[T]he most significant feature of this book is the time-based analysis of the history of women's sports in Japan, an Asian country, from a Western cultural perspective...Because of this feature, Japanese readers may experience a sense of discord. It is precisely this feeling, however, that can create the potential for enrichment of historical research on women's sports in Japan. This cultural difference will provide stimulus to readers who feel a distance between the significance of women's sports in the history of Asia and Japan and themselves.

Raita Kyoko, The International Journal of the History of Sport

This well-written book ... fills a gap in the scholarship on women and sport in Japan - knowledge that has undoubtedly been missing in the past. The book is worthy of the highest praise.

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