Born in Harutomi village, Tamana district, Kumamoto (now Nagomi town), the seventh of eight children. His name Shisō ("forty-three") is said to have come from his father being 43 when he was born. As a small child he was weak and is said to have often run fevers. No one yet imagined he would become the man who opened the way for marathon running in Japan.
Around this time he ran every day to his upper elementary school, about six kilometers each way from home. Running there and back gradually made him strong, and he is later said to have recalled that running to school trained his legs. The breathing method he worked out while running also served him later in the marathon.
He entered Tokyo Higher Normal School (now the University of Tsukuba). Its principal was Kanō Jigorō, founder of judo, who was working hard for Japan to take part in the Olympics. Achieving good results in the school's long-distance races, Shisō awakened to the joy of running.
Trials to choose athletes for the Olympics were held at Haneda in Tokyo, and Shisō won the marathon in 2 hours 32 minutes 45 seconds, far beyond the world record of the time (some say the course distance was not accurate). With this result he was chosen to represent Japan.
He competed in the Stockholm Olympics, the first in which Japan took part, together with the sprinter Mishima Yahiko. But exhausted by the long journey by ship and rail and by unusual heat, he lost consciousness midway through the race, collapsed, and was cared for at a nearby house. His withdrawal was never reported, and he was listed as "missing."
Using defeat as a spur, he trained hard while also working to improve his running gear. Consulting with Kurosaka Shinsaku of the Harimaya tabi shop in Tokyo, he devised tabi with thick, durable soles. Later the rubber-soled "Kanakuri tabi" was born and used by many runners.
He kept training for revenge at the next Games in Berlin and was improving his times, but the Games were cancelled because of the First World War. Losing the chance to run when he was at the peak of his strength was a great sorrow for Shisō.
Japan's first ekiden relay was held along the Tōkaidō from Sanjō Bridge in Kyoto to Ueno in Tokyo, with teammates handing on to one another, and Shisō ran the anchor leg for the Kantō team. This event, in which runners pass on a sash to cover a long course, later spread throughout Japan.
Wanting to develop long-distance runners who could compete with the world, he planned with others a university relay race from Tokyo to Hakone and back, and the first race was held. This was the beginning of the Hakone Ekiden, which continues today. That year he also ran the marathon at the Antwerp Games and finished sixteenth.
He ran the marathon at the Paris Games but stopped partway. His challenge as an athlete ended there, but afterward he taught physical education to children as a teacher, and devoted himself to spreading sports for girls and to coaching marathon runners.
Invited to an event marking the 55th anniversary of the Stockholm Olympics, he ran slowly around the stadium and broke the finishing tape. His time was announced as "54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds." Shisō is said to have remarked, "It was a long journey. Along the way I had five grandchildren."
He died in his home prefecture of Kumamoto at the age of 92. Shisō, who turned his Olympic disappointment into spreading the ekiden and marathon and training those who came after him, is called the "father of the Japanese marathon." The most outstanding runner at the Hakone Ekiden still receives the "Kanakuri Shisō Cup" today.
Nakayama ShinpeiKikuchi KanKagawa ToyohikoKishida RyūseiAkutagawa RyūnosukeIchikawa FusaeItō NoeMiyazawa Kenji
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.