Genzaburo Ishikawa
By Emma Lin, Intern 2026
Today, basketball is played all over the world. From the crowds that flock to TD Garden to watch the Celtics play, to Japan’s B.League, the sport has grown to be a global phenomenon; but it wasn’t until December 21, 1891 that basketball was even in existence.
In the early days, there were no professional teams, no hall-of-famers, and definitely no neighborhood rounds of HORSE—it was a barebones, brand new game invented by a phys-ed instructor in Springfield, Massachusetts. Among the 18 students who gathered to participate in the very first game was someone rather unique: a Japanese student named Genzaburo Ishikawa. Even more uniquely, he decided to draw it.
Genzaburo Ishikawa was born on July 27, 1866 in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. At only two years old his father died, and after spending most of his early childhood in Gunma, his family moved to Tokyo. As a teenager, Ishikawa became intrigued by Christianity and made the decision to pursue education in the United States. He left Japan for San Francisco, initially studying at Westminster Preparatory School and later the Pacific Theological Seminary before moving across the country to Massachusetts.
In 1890, Ishikawa enrolled at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, now known as Springfield College. In December 1891, one of his instructors, James Naismith, was trying to create a new indoor game for his students, and Ishikawa got involved. Ishikawa also created a seminal illustration of the first basketball game, which was published in the January 1892 edition of The Triangle, a publication of the International YMCA Training School.
Ishikawa’s drawing gives us a small glimpse of what basketball looked like: two peach baskets with the bottoms still attached and a soccer ball. Each team had nine players, and there were only 13 rules of the game. Sketching this image was a mere moment for Ishikawa and his time in Massachusetts, but for the entirety of basketball history, the drawing memorializes a first-hand account of one of the most famous sports known to man.
In 1892, Ishikawa graduated from Springfield College and returned to California, where he became a director of the San Francisco YMCA. Five years later, he made the choice to continue his education at the University of Wisconsin, before his career brought him back to Japan and later to Germany. He went on to work with Mitsui, the International Wireless Telephone Company, and NHK. In his later life, Ishikawa returned to drawing. He died in Tokyo on December 7, 1956, at the age of 90.
Today, his connection to Springfield remains a link between Japan and the city where basketball began. Springfield College continues to honor Ishikawa as one of its earliest Japanese international students, and he is commemorated in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as one of the very first members to ever play the revolutionary game we know today.
Works Cited
“Biography · Samuro Ishikawa · The First Basket Ball Players.” Basketballplayers.Omeka.Net, https://basketballplayers.omeka.net/exhibits/show/samuro-ishikawa/biography-ishikawa
“Consul General Takahashi’s Visit to City of Springfield, MA (June 9, 2026).” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2026, https://www.boston.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/11_000001_01393.html
“100th Anniversary of Basketball Japanese TV Program (December 22, 1991).” Springfield College: Archives and Special Collections https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/23352/
Jr NBA. “James Naismith and the Invention of Basketball - NBA.Com: Jr. NBA.” NBA.Com: Jr. NBA, 8 Feb. 2017, jr.nba.com/james-naismith-invention-basketball/
