Photo collection of Seiichi Nishiji (National Keirin Champ, 1960, ranked 7th overall with 897 career wins) & son Kousuke Nishiji (10+ yrs. S class)

by Tim Potter (except where noted)

Contact: bikes@msu.edu

Japanese Keirin Stars


Caption : Kousuke (lead) & Seiichi Nishiji on a training ride, Shiga, Japan, 1985, Seiichi's last & 35th year racing. Seiichi was Japan Natl. Keirin Champ in '61 & Tim's father-in-law. Kousuke made it to the top 10 for a few years in late 80's. Photo from pace car.	Caption : Before or after a group training ride on a quiet Lake Biwa road; from left: Tim's brother-in-law's father-in-law Tatsuo Nakayama, Tim with his purple Vivalo set up for road training, brother-in-law Kousuke Nishiji, father-in-law Seiichi Nishiji, Tim's uncle-in-law Hiroshi Yozai. Taken with tripod.
Caption : Kousuke in one of the major keirin events of the year, the Biwako Cup, June 1985.	Caption : Kousuke Nishiji (#2 rider in black) at the start of one of the major keirin events of the year, the Biwako Cup (aka Takamatsu Miehai) at the Hama-Otsu Keirin-jo, June 1985.
Caption : Seiichi Nishiji leading out the reigning World Champion Italian Antonio Maspes in the 1960 World Championship (Seiichi lost this race by a very narrow margin). The Italian ended up taking 5 or 6 world pro-sprint 200 m titles which held until Koichi Nakano broke his record in the '80s on his way to taking 10 world sprint titles. Signature is Seiichi's. Photographer unknown. Click here for World Championship statistics (courtesy of Bike Cult)	Caption : Seiichi Nishiji (blue) finishing 2nd place in one of his last keirin races; 1st place finisher (white no. 1) was born when Seiichi took his Natl. Keirin title in '61! Photo by Tim Potter
Online Resources Related to Keirin related stuff: • Keirin Racing Association, Official site (Japns. only) • NJS, official site (Japns.) • Keirin Land (NJS sponsored, Japns.) • Tomity - Keirin guru (English, great keirin relt'd pics) • Video interview with Tomity (English, 18 min.) - very thorough review of the sport, NJS certification process, technology, etc. Excellent • Keirin Cycle Culture Cafe (English, based in Berlin, Germany; great general info.) • Keirin Culture (English): US based (where? hard to tell) keirin eqpt. retailer. Cool keirin-themed t-shirts too. • Official 1996 Japan Keirin Association brochure (English translation) • FrameBank (Japns. only- used keirin frames/ parts; stopped exporting) • sashae-framebank: American importer of keirin frames/ parts; wonderful photos. • NJS Frames & Parts Blogspot (English): apparently Japan-based keirin eqpt. exporter; very active selection of NJS stuff. • Tokyo Skids (English): cleverly done rip-off of the Tokyo Drift movie but with fixie kids doing amazing skids; pretty hilarious; don't try it at home!	Note: Sorry for the terrible reproduction of some of the above photos; will try rescan from the prints again someday soon on a better scanner.