Masae Kasai (河西 昌枝 Kasai Masae, 14 July 1933 – 3 October 2013) was a volleyball player from Japan, who was a member of the Japan Women's National Team, Oriental Witches,[1] that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics.[2]
| Masae Kasai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Masae Kasai standing in the center of podium as team captain, 1964 Tokyo Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Masae Kasai Nakamura | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 14 July 1933 Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, Japan | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 3 October 2013 (aged 80) Tokyo, Japan | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Volleyball information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Honours
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Masae Kasai was born in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, and started playing volleyball when the sport was still played with nine players a side in Japan (six are used internationally). She joined the Nichibo fiber spinning company right out of high school, first playing for corporation's Ashikaga (Tochigi) team, later for the one from Kaizuka (Osaka). The latter team dominated the women's sport in the late 1950s and 1960s, and when the Japanese started playing according to international rules, Nichibo Kaizuka's players formed the national team.
Kasai and her team mates débuted at the 1960 FIVB World Championship in Brazil, finishing behind the Soviet Union. Two years later, the Japanese won the World Championship title, defeating the Soviet squad before a Moscow audience. When volleyball made its Olympic début in Tokyo, they lived up to high expectations by again beating the Soviet Union in the final round-robin match, in straight sets.
After the Olympics, team captain Kasai met with the Japanese prime minister and complained to him that she had not been able to find a husband because of the difficult training regimen. The Prime Minister set her up with a date and the two later married. She later went on to become a volleyball coach in Japan and China, and sat on the board of the Japanese Volleyball Association.
In 2008, Kasai was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.[2][3]
Personal life and death
editMasae Kasai (who changed her last name to Nakamura after she married) died on 3 October 2013, in Tokyo from intracranial hemorrhage.[4]
References
edit- ^ Klein, Jeff Z. (23 May 2008). "Remembering Volleyball's 'Oriental Witches'". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ a b Kano, Shintaro (9 March 2021). "Masae Kasai: What it took for women to lead in 1960s Japan". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "Masae Kasai". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "中村昌枝さんが死去 バレー「東洋の魔女」主将". Nikkei Shinbun (in Japanese). Retrieved October 3, 2013.
