Most
U.S.
modern card collectors grew up with bubble gum inserted along with their
trading cards. In fact, in the early
days of collecting in the U.S.
it was actually the cards that were inserted along with the gum. Gum was the primary product and cards were
issued along with them to help sell the gum.
Later on it was the gum that was inserted in an attempt to sell more
cards. However, in Japan issuing
candy with cards and menko was very rare.
In fact there are only 4 known sets of sumo cards issued with candy and gum and
those will be explored in a little more detail below. There are several more single cards out there
The
first known sumo set to be issued with candy is the 1959 Karuso Cookie Set which
was issued with boxes of cookies. These
were color cards printed on thin paper and meant to be collected and then
redeemed for prizes or more cookies. Unfortunately,
there are no names on the cards so some rikishi are almost impossible to
identify. There were several ways to win
prizes. The first way was to collect 4
cards that when put together would form a picture of a cartoon character called
Tankuro which was a sort of samurai character.
These could be traded in for a box of cookies according to the back of
card. Also, each of the cards has
certain points on them and if you collected enough points you could trade them
in for different prizes. For example, if
you collected 70 points you could win a pocket knife and for 100 points you
could win a ball pen. For 200 points you
could win a baseball.
Picture
1: A591 - 1959 Karuso Cookie
A
few years later in 1961 the Kabaya Candy Company issued a set sumo cards along
with sticks of gum. These cards are
relatively small (1” x 1.25”) to any other cards produced during this time. Additionally, these cards aren’t full color
and use only three colors on the front: pink, red and black. The backs come in either red or green
ink. The backs indicate that there are 2
Yokozuna cards, 6 Ozeki/Sekiwake/Komusubi cards and 22 Maegashira cards for a
total of 30 cards in the set. However,
these cards are very hard to find and there has yet been a Yokozuna/Ozeki/Sekiwake/Komusubi
card to surface since I have been collecting.
Picture
2: A611 - 1961 Kabaya Gum
The following year in 1962 the
Kabaya Candy Company issued another set that was very similar in size and shape
as the 1959 Karuso Cookie set. It is
unclear what product they were issued with, but most likely gum like the
previous year’s issue. These cards are printed in color on thin paper and each
of the cards has points on the front that could be redeemed for prizes if you
collected enough of them. Because of
their scarcity I have only seen 30 and 50 point cards, but there would have to
be higher denominations since some prizes required 100,000 points. Some of the prizes that could be won are a
clear file for 1,500 points, an eraser for 5,000 points or a globe for 50,000
points.
Picture
3: A631 - 1963 Kabaya Candy
The
last candy card set was issued in 1964 by the Morinaga Gum Company. These cards are very large, approximately
3.5” x 5.5”, and are printed in full color.
What is unique about these cards is there are made to be stand-ups and
have die-cut backs in order to stand them up.
The backs contain information about how to pop the stand out and display
the cards. These cards are extremely
hard to find and are expensive when they do come up for sale. It is unclear exactly how they were issued
because of their large size. It might be
that kids would get a winning wrapper with their gum and could redeem it for
one of these large cards.
Picture
4: A641 - 1964 Morinaga Gum
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