The draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan will be held at the Kyoto State Guest House in Kyoto on Wednesday.
The draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan will be held at the Kyoto State Guest House in Kyoto on Wednesday.
Executives from each participating national side will visit Shimogamo-jinja shrine, which is regarded as the birthplace of rugby in the Kansai region and is also a designated UNESCO World Heritage site.
The representatives will attend a ceremony at a monument in the precincts of the shrine that commemorates the birth of rugby in the region. Members of one of the local rugby clubs are hoping the visit will promote the sport in Japan, with a representative saying, « We want to spread the fact that Kyoto is still one of the spiritual homes of rugby in the nation. »
Japanese rugby is said to have started in 1899, when a British language teacher introduced the sport to students at Keio University in Tokyo.
