The annual National High School Baseball Tournament, popularly known as “Koshien” after the Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture where it takes place, is familiar to many people in Japan, but unknown to most outside the country.
So it was unexpected, if entirely deserved, that “Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams,” Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s compelling and illuminating documentary on the tournament, would air on American sports network ESPN in June at what would ordinarily be the peak of the Major League season.
But this is not an ordinary year and “Koshien” is not a typical Japanese sports documentary. Yamazaki not only presents an easy-to-follow primer on the tournament’s history for newbies, but also focuses much of the film on a struggling team, Yokohama Hayato, that last went to Koshien in 2009.