Hello and thanks for
stopping by my blog. I used to write for Sumo Fan Magazine several years
ago.....although my passion for collecting sumo wrestling menko and cards
really outdid my skills as a writer; but it was a nice outlet that allowed me
collect with a purpose. After lurking on a bunch of websites and blogs (Many
thanks to the Japanese card fans on the Collectors Universe forums, NPB Guy on
the Japanese Baseball Cards blog, Sean at the Baseball Cards in Japan blog, Ryan at the This Card is Cool blog, & Tanner at TanManBaseballFan blog), I've decided to jump on the blog
train and throw my knowledge out there on Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and
Menko. Everyone has a story when it comes to card collecting; mine
is no different.
I started collecting
football cards at the end of 1986 and grew into collecting baseball cards in
1987. It was easy to get hooked on the beautiful 1986 Topps Football set
and the amazing designs of all the 1987 baseball sets. My brother worked
at the local card shop and I eventually took over for him when he went off to college
in 1991. Compiled with me leaving for college and with the baseball
strike in 1994, I stopped collecting for while. In 1999, I was fortunate
to enough to get selected for the JET Program in Japan and went and lived there
for two life-changing years. While there, I discovered sumo menko, but
never really collected seriously (one of my few life regrets). I picked up a few menko and cards here and there for the next few years, but it wasn't
until 2004, while browsing eBay, that I discovered a 1954 Sumo/Baseball karuta
set. I got into a bidding war and won it for a pretty hefty price, but
after that I was hooked on the collecting bug again. Since then, I've
added several thousand sumo menko and cards to my collection, wrote a sumo menko/card book
(already on the 3rd edition), and continue to discover new things about the
hobby every week.
There are few sumo menko and
card collectors in the English-speaking world. Over the past 15 years,
I've seen several come and go. A few of the pioneers in the hobby, Chuck
Finberg here in the US and Kentaro Ohtani in Japan, are still around, but sadly
don't actively collect anymore. Hopefully my writings will inspire a few
more. Comments are always welcome!
Over the next few weeks I'll continue to work with the formatting of the blog and get more content uploaded and edited. Right now it's still a minor work in progress.
I'm glad you are still passionate about collecting and you're sharing your knowledge and collection with the world. Online resources for Japanese collectibles are few and far between, especially from really in-the-know collectors.
ReplyDeleteWhere were you during your Jet experience?
Thanks for the reply Ryan. I definitely love collecting this stuff. I was in Gunma Prefecture. Were you in the program?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't, though my friend was. She was up near Aomori, though. I'm currently in Koshigaya, which is in Saitama. Somehow, I've never made it to Gunma.
ReplyDeleteGood deal. It was a great program and a life-changing job. Koshigaya sounds familiar. I think the Tobu-Isesaki Line ran through there, unless they've renamed it. My host family's daughter lives in Soka so I am always there when I come through.
ReplyDeleteIt still does, though the portion between Tobu Zoo and Asakusa is now the "SkyTree Line" - I travel through Soka when I head to Tokyo. It's pretty close to here, actually.
ReplyDeleteI`m late with this, but great blog (and thanks for the shout out)! Actually we share some bizarrely specific biographical points. I started collecting cards in about 1986 too, also went to work at a baseball card shop in 1991 (until 1993), and also moved to Japan to teach English in 1999 (GEOS instead of JET for me).
ReplyDeleteVery similar indead. We even have 4 letters in our first name! I enjoy reading your blog and starting in Aug, I'll be able to post several times a week now that I am switching jobs.
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