1992 BBM Sumo World Cards

After 18+ years of collecting sumo cards, new and amazing items keep surfacing that I have to have.  This 18-card set came stapled in the center of the 30 June 1992 magazine supplement to Sumo World （相撲界）magazine which was published by BBM.  These cards came in a sheet of 18 cards folded down the middle and are meant to be cut out individually by the buyer.  It is a very interesting set as it shows Akebono as a Sekiwake, but the magazine covers the announcement of his promotion to Ozeki.  There was a span of about 9 months during this time where there were no Yokozuna, but Akebono would soon blow through the Ozeki rank to achieve the highest rank the following year.  It also shows the extremely popular Hanada brothers who still had their original shikona of Takahanada & Wakahanada.  Not all of the Maegashira ranks are included in this set so I suspect there might be additional cards, or BBM only printed the most popular wrestlers.  The cards are about the same size as standard trading cards.

Even though this set came in a magazine, I will catalog it in the BBM section of the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist.

Here is the checklist:

1 - Ozeki Konishiki (Here is a great interview by John Gunning of Inside Sport)
2 - Ozeki Kirishima
3 - Sekiwake Tochinowaka
4 - Sekiwake Akebono
5 - Komusubi Akinoshima
6 - Komusubi Mitoizumi
7 - Komusubi Kotonishiki
8 - Komusubi Musashimaru
9 - Maegashira Terao
10 - Maegashira Takahanada
11 - Maegashira Takatoriki
12 - Maegashira Kyokudozan
13 - Maegashira Wakahanada
14 - Maegashira Mainoumi
15 - Maegashira Wakanoyama
16 - Maegashira Kotonowaka
17 - Maegashira Tokitsunada
18 - Juryo Genkai

Thanks for stopping by!