“The most noticeable game in the university is boating. Each college has its own crews, and the inter-collegiate boat-race, held on the second Saturday of April, every year, on the River of Sumida which is famous for the cherry trees on its banks, is one of the most interesting and exciting athletic events of the year.

“Crews rowing for the inter-collegiate boat-race wear jackets of colors representing their own college: law, green; medicine, red; engineering, white; literature, yellowish brown; agriculture, violet. This year, the white won the race after after a continuous defeat for the last twelve years.”

– The Sibley Journal of Engineering, Vol. XXIII, “The College of Engineering of the Tokyo Imperial University,” 1909