Believe it or not, Upper Deck made a sumo wrestling card set once. Back in 2001, they made a 6-card tribute set for Yokozuna Akebono to celebrate his retirement which he had announced earlier on in the year. The sumo world owed a lot of thanks to Akebono. He helped usher in an era of popularity rarely seen in sumo. He was the key rival to the extremely popular Hanada brothers (Yokozuna Takanohana and Yokozuna Wakanohana) and first foreign-born Yokozuna. Akebono's 6'8" and 500 lb frame made him the tallest and heaviest Yokozuna in history. This massive frame also became his undoing as his knees and body eventually couldn't take all the stress and Akebono decided to retire. BBM (Baseball Magazine) cards have been the king of sumo wrestling since their fist set over 20 years ago, but the fact that Akebono was an American undoubtedly led to Upper Deck securing the publishing rights to make this set. My understanding is that these were made to hand out at his retirement ceremony in the kokugikan on 29 September 2001. The 6 cards are as follows:
CK1 - Checklist
A1 - Yokozuna Dohyouiri
A2 - Akebono Getting Ready to Compete
A3 - Akebono vs A Young Amateur
A4 - Akebono Winning the All Japan Rikishi Championship
A5 - Akebono Kissing the Tournament Trophy
The quality of this set is amazing with gold-gilding and great action shots, but it does look like the Japanese part of Upper Deck made the set with some odd translations and grammar. Here is the Sumo World Magazine that show a photo of Akebono at his retirement announcement press event.
Oh wow, I didn't know that Upper Deck ever ventured into sumo cards, those are pretty cool. Must be hard to find if they were only distributed at his retirement ceremony!
ReplyDeleteThey are somewhat hard to find. Another collector pointed out there is a limited edition signed yukata card as part of the set too. Not sure how many of those that are out there or who got them.
DeleteI'd be really interested in reading an account of Upper Deck's foray into making cards for the Japanese market in 2000 and 2001. AFAIK they did a 250-ish card set for the 2000 Japanese Olympic Team (all sports) and four baseball sets (Victory and Ovation in 2000; Victory and "Upper Deck" in 2001). This is the first time I've heard of them doing a Sumo set - did they do any others?
ReplyDeleteThis is the only sumo wrestling set that I have seen. Yeah, it seems like they might have tried to make a push into the Japanese market in 2000-2001 with all the Ichiro-mania going on. Didn't seem to catch hold.
DeleteIt's a shame because their last set - the 2001 "Upper Deck" set was one of the most beautiful Japanese sets ever
DeleteThese are very cool Never seen or heard of these before... but then again... I don't know much about sumo wrestling. How rare are these Upper Deck cards?
ReplyDeleteThis is the only UD sumo wrestling set out there. One and done so they say. Wish they would have been able to do more.
DeleteI actually have one of the signed yukata cards. I have been looking all over the place for more information on it. I bought it off of another collector, but he had no idea the origins of the card. This six card base set is amazing and I would love to get my hands on a set. Appreciate the post! Let me know if you have any other information on these cards.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, those are really hard to find for sure. Not sure how it was distributed at his retirement ceremony, but maybe to a few of his loyal fans. The 6-card set was issued in a cellophane package.
DeleteWish I was collecting way back when these dropped. They would be in mine for sure. So nice!
ReplyDeleteAkebono was an icon back in the day. This is a pretty sharp set.
DeleteDo you own this set? Was fortunate to pick one up today (fairly inexpensively) at 1100 yen and was wondering if you had a guess as to its worth? I feel like i got an great bargain.
DeleteI've owned a few of these sets. I still have one. That seems about right on price. The autographed cards go for crazy money! Harder and harder to find for sure and they seldom pop up on YJA.
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