Circa 1898-1903 Japanese Baseball Menko

I've seen this woodblock-printed menko on a few occasions before, but have never been able to pick up a copy.  A few weeks back it came up in a large lot of other menko from this woodblock set (the set contains somewhere around 30-50 menko), luckily with some sumo wrestling menko that I needed from the same set.  I haven't been able to nail down an exact year for the set, but it is somewhere between 1898-1903 according to the sumo wrestlers that are depicted.  All the menko in this set are absolutely gorgeous with crisp, black lines, vivid red and pinks, and gold gilded ink to highlight parts of the menko.  It measures about 1.75" in diameter.  This particular menko shows three kids playing baseball...one getting ready to pitch, one batting, and one which looks to be a catcher.  The large word in the middle is Marinage, 毬なげ, or playing catch.  I love the gold gilding on the clothes and bat.  According to Baseball Reference, "Horace Wilson introduced baseball to Japan sometime between 1867 and 1873 in the early Meiji Era.  Wilson was a professor at Kaisei Gakko (now Tokyo University).  In 1873 Albert Bates, an American teaching at Kaitaku University organized he first game."  It makes sense that baseball would be depicted on the card as it seemed to be gaining popularity during this time and paper menko were becoming popular as well.  More to follow and I'll post some other menko that I picked up from the set.

1895-1899 Japanese Murai World Smokers

The 1895-1899 Murai Brothers World Smokers is one set where I have picked up a few cards here and there.  I definitely don't expect to complete it, but it is fun to dabble in these low-grade examples.  Plus the Japanese connection with the Murai Bros brand helps keep my interest even though supply is extremely low.  These 4 cards come courtesy of eBay and put my total cards in this set at 9 total now.  I am not a smoker, but every once in a while I like to have a good cigar.....and when someone is smoking a pipe it always smells so good.  Anyone else collect these or like to have a good cigar now and then?

My first sumo wrestling CDV...circa 1900

Sumo wrestling collecting material has all but dried up for the 1950s and 1960s, so I have turned my purchasing focus to the older stuff as well as the modern BBM cards.  There are still great sets to be had from the 1930s and postcards are always popping from the 1920s, but you very rarely see these 1800 CDVs (carte de vista) cards come up for auction.  This CDV is from the late 1800s and has a photograph of Ozeki Hoo (pronounced Hoe Oh).  Although no photographer is associated with this particular CDV (It looks like it says Fine Photographic 7), it could have been one of the more established companies in Tokyo as these likely would have been very expensive to manufacture.  I am hoping to gather more of these up in the future to hopefully be able to catalog them.