I don't often use the word "Museum Quality" when it comes to sumo menko. However, the early 1900 woodblock prints that were coming out of Japan at the time are nothing short of remarkable. There are different qualities of woodprinters no doubt, and the artists that were making menko at the time were likely not skilled enough to compete with many of the heavy hitting artists. Nonetheless, the quality and intricacies they devoted to the woodblock menko of the time was tremendous. The woodblock set below is the R051: 1905 Priest, Gun, Fox Back 0. Maybe more importantly than it's 116 years in existence, is the fact that it has two extremely, extremely rare menko of Osaka Yokozuna Okido and Wakashima. At the time, there were two factions of sumo both in Tokyo and Osaka. The one is Osaka struggled and eventually folded into the Tokyo Association, but for a brief time talented rikishi were competing there. They don't nearly get the love and most artists seemed to have associated in Tokyo more so not many menko were produced of the Osaka rikishi. These menko are printed on thin cardboard-like paper and are about 1" x 1 3/4". Someday these will be in a museum!
I hope everyone came back same from the holiday and has a great week. Sayonara!
Wow, those are amazing! I've never seen Japanese cards that old before.
ReplyDeleteI have a small collection of 19th century woodblock prints which I really love. The sumo ones are really fascinating, I've bid on a few before on Yahoo Auctions but never won one.
I’ve see a few older, but not by much. Woodblock printing is so fascinating!
DeleteThese are gorgeous. Glad someone took the time to preserve these over the years and that you're now the one giving these guys a good home.
ReplyDeleteThese are pretty cool, no doubt!
DeleteWhat's the deal with the images on the back?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Not quite sure the true purpose.
DeleteThose are remarkable!
ReplyDelete