If you have high blood pressure patients around you, you may be very familiar with the two drugs of Hexin Shuang and Hebei Shuang, which are produced by Tianjin Tianbian Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The protagonist of this issue's review is the soccer team of Tianjin Tanabe Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., the major shareholder of Tianjin Tanabe Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (now Tanabe Mitsubishi Pharmaceutical). Born in 1927, this team is full of the obsession of a big boss's brother-in-law for football.
(Later Jitaro)
The brother of a big company
Tanabe Pharmaceutical is a long-established enterprise, as early as 1678, Tanabe family engaged in wholesale business of medicinal herbs in the Osaka area. The successive leaders of this family business are known as "Tanabe Gobei", and it is the 14th generation here with the protagonist of this article, Jitaro Tanabe.
As the eldest son of the family, it is fate to inherit the family business when he grows up. But everyone has their own ambitions, and Jitaro is most interested in football. While attending Momoyama Junior High School, he became obsessed with the sport. Later, he was admitted to Osaka University of Commerce and did not forget to return to his alma mater to teach his students various football knowledge. During his college years, he also participated in the operation of the "High School Soccer Tournament" and traveled extensively to establish the Kansai Football Association.
(Jitaro of the Middle School Era, third from the left in a row)
In 1927, Gitaro gathered football-loving employees in the company to set up a soccer department. In 1930, he participated as a staff member in the Far Eastern Games of that year. Three years later, he joined the board of directors of the family business, but he still couldn't put down football in his heart, and he raised money for the Japanese men's football team to participate in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. During this period, he continued to participate in the popularization of football in Japan, and it is not too much to describe him as a football fan. In 1941, Jitaro's father passed away, and he officially took over as chairman of the family business.
(Japanese men's soccer team participating in the 1936 Olympic Games)
Tough king team
Jitaro, who served as vice president of the Football Association after World War II, began to exert his fists and feet. First of all, he decided to grow the football department that has been born for almost 20 years. Since his student days, Jitaro has tried to contact various British football publications and understand European football, which makes his understanding of football very advanced in Japan at that time. At that time, baseball in Japan had just been born as a professional competition, but football was still a desert. Jitaro aspires to be able to rely on his family business to bring together the best players in Japan and invest heavily in improving the level of the football department. This has the shadow of modern local tycoon bosses engaged in football.
(Historical materials of the Football Department in the Tanabe-Mitsubishi Pharmaceutical Museum)
On the basis of the original veteran players such as Takaharu Miyata and Kenji Taneda, the football department has successively introduced players such as Taro Kagawa, Isamu Kinoshita, Noboru Terajima, Keiji Tsuda, Yoshihiko Matsubara, Masaken Kushita, Kei Okamura, and Tatsume. Jitaro himself took command. Beginning in 1948, asahi Shimbun hosted the All Japan Industrial League Championship, and Tanabe Pharmaceutical won the second place in its first competition. In the 3rd tournament in 1950, the team defeated the first life 2-0 in the final and won the championship for the first time.
(Report on the final of the first "Industrial Group Conference")
Since then, with this super lineup, Tanabe Pharmaceutical has achieved 6 consecutive championships in this event and reached the final for 8 consecutive years. In 1956, Tanabe Lost 0-4 to Toyo Industries in the final, and the following year he returned to the championship 2-0 to win the championship again, completing the feat of 6 championships in 8 years. The most exaggerated thing is that during the six consecutive championships, Tanabe Pharmaceutical remained undefeated and became a super giant in Japanese football in the 50s.
According to the team's elder Takaharu Miyata, the main members of this team are very fond of football, but the evil war has kept them away from their beloved football, and they never expected to be able to continue to play football after participating in work. Jitaro's idea is simple: he hopes to popularize and revive football in Japan — first to make his team a super team, and then to drive other companies to invest in football.
(Tanabe Pharmaceutical, who participated in the 7th National Sports Conference football tournament in 1951 and won the championship)
Due to the defeat of Japan, the army was disbanded, which gave great convenience to the development of football. Young people no longer have to die, but return to the campus and society, and the selection of materials has expanded a lot. Conditions in the 1940s and 1950s were poor, players were corporate employees, even international players, and football was only a side hustle. Called by Jitaro, these soccer-loving people practiced at night in a stadium that was not lit. In order to be able to see more clearly, they painted the ball white, and what supported them was to enjoy the joy of football.
(From left to right: Taro Kagawa, Takaharu Miyata, "Father of Japanese Football" Kramer, former President of the Japan Football Association Shunichiro Ugano)
Refused to participate in the Emperor's Cup
On New Year's Day 1981, the final of the 60th Emperor's Cup began, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries beat Tanabe Pharmaceutical 1-0 to win the championship, which was the closest to the championship. People can't help but ask, if Tanabe Pharmaceutical was so strong in the 50s, why did it never win the Emperor's Cup? According to Shiro Shima, the executive director of the company at the time, the team was too strong at that time, and Jitaro did not want such a team that gathered many international players to steal the scene in this most traditional tournament, leaving room for university students and social teams. As a result, the "Industrial League Conference" of the 1950s became the highest level event in Japan, and "down Tanabe" became the consensus.
The three strongest players in the team at the time were Takaharu Miyata, Taro Kagawa and Masaaki Bustardada. Miyata was over 30 years old at the time, but as a defensive midfielder, he was inseparable from the team, giving two wingers, Taro Kagawa and Masaaki Kuta, great room for breakthrough, and the two became the main players of the Japanese men's football team in the 1951 and 1954 Asian Games and the Swiss World Cup qualifiers, and The Bustard also participated in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games as captain, losing to the host in the first round.
(Hatara (left) and Kakawa preparing to participate in the 2nd Asian Games)
In 1959, the 51-year-old Shotaro resigned as chairman, and Tanabe Bide bid farewell to the family business model, and at the same time he resigned from the relevant positions of the Japan Football Association and the Kansai Football Association and began to promote football in another way. For example, he compiled various Western football materials collected by his youth and began to serialize them for a long time in the publications of the Japan Football Association to popularize football knowledge. On a business trip to West Germany, he saw that black and white football had begun to be used in Europe, so he strongly suggested to the Football Association after returning to Japan that he should keep up with the world trend and use this new style of leather ball, which was adopted after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
In addition, Jitaro vigorously promoted the "High School Championship" and suggested that this event be held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. He also advocated for female referees in women's soccer matches, and in 1970 helped found Kobe FC, the first football club in Japanese football with corporate status, as president, which is still participating in the Kansai Social Football League. In 1972, Jitaro died of illness at the age of 64.
(Kobe FC)
Withers quickly
Telling the story of Tanabe Pharmaceutical Soccer Club is essentially telling the story of Gitaro. After his death, coupled with the gradual retirement of the old internationals of the 50s. The team quickly went downhill.
(1980 Emperor's Cup Final, green jersey for Tanabe Pharmaceutical)
The team began playing in the Kansai Regional League in 1968 and was promoted two consecutive tiers in 1971 and 1972 to the JSL First Division at the time, but was relegated again in 1973. The team did not play in the top flight for the next 10 years. The only highlight of the period was the 1980 Emperor's Cup, a year in which 30 teams participated for the first time in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the tournament. Tanabe Pharmaceutical has eliminated strong teams such as Honda Giken, Yanmar Diesel, Toyo Kogyo, and Yomiuri, and reached the final, but finally lost to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
(Reported by the 1972 upgrade)
On the eve of the professionalization of the Japanese League in 1992, the team was relegated to the Kansai Regional League. And the results fell and fell. Time into the 21st century, the team can only play in the Osaka Prefectural Social League, and has been playing in the 3rd division for a long time. In 2007, with the merger of the group, the team was renamed Tanabe Mitsubishi Pharmaceutical SC. In 2013, the team won first place in Group C of the Osaka Prefectural 4th Division, which was also the last title in the history of the team. At the end of the 2018 season, they finished 8th in Group B of the Osaka Prefectural 3rd Division. At the beginning of the league the following year, the official website of the Osaka Prefectural Football Association could not find the team's information, and the hegemonic team of the 1950s quietly ended its historical mission.
Text/Supine Braces - Yangyuan Zhang