Caricatures are fun...especially with sumo wrestlers!

Caricatures are always good time at fairs and carnivals.  I am always amazed by how quickly and relatively accurately artists are able to develop and draw these out for patrons.  I am not artistic so I always applaud and admire people who are.  Did you know some of the earliest caricatures were done by Leonardo da Vinci?  Makes sense since he was such a brilliant engineer and really used the right side of his brain to the betterment of a whole generation of artists, engineers, scientists, and craftsman.  Anyway, I digress....we are talking caricatures because of this set as it is almost truly unique in the world of sumo.  Normally, many sumo menko are drawn to approximate a rikishi's face, but this set does have the appearance of overexaggeration.  Before cameras and photographic reproduction were main stream on sumo menko, there must have been a small army of artists cranking out material.  I don't think this set was meant to be humorous or funny, but 84 years later it does bring a smile to my face.  Catalogued as the R3713: 1937 Caricature 4 set, these are fairly large at 1.5" x 3". 

Have an awesome week and sayonara!

c1937 Sumo Wrestling Menko - R3712 Rikishi Double Arch 4

There are still dozens of uncatalogued 1930s R-Series sumo wrestling menko sets waiting to be discovered.  During the 1930s and early 1940s, the paper sumo (kami zumo) boom was in full force in Japan and these R-series menko were extremely popular.  In the latter half of the 1930s Japan was at war with China and many sumo wrestlers had their ceremonial aprons adorned with war-themed images: planes, tanks, ships, and artillery.  This R3712: 1937 Rikishi Double Arch 4 set that I recently stumbled across exemplifies this turbulent time in world history.  Previously uncatalogued, the checklist now stands at 3 with #7207 - Maegashira Katsuragawa, #6713 - Maegashira Tsurugamine, & #5431 - Maegashira Dewanohana.  These might be some of the only ones of this set in existence.

 

I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe out there.  Sayonara!

What is Rare? - 1937 Sumo Menko Edition

Japanese card collecting is still somewhat of a novelty outside of Japan.  Even within its borders, Japan has not produced a comprehensive guide to collecting older sports cards, nor does it have a catalog to capture set checklists.  Doing so has mainly been a non-Japanese endeavor.  The two tomes that try to conglomerate this information are the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide (by Engel) and my Sumo Menko and Card Checklist.  One interesting and useful bit of information is what Engel calls the "Scarcity Factor" and what I've called the "Availability Rating".  Our goal is to try and give readers/collectors an idea of how hard some of these cards/sets are to find.  Engel's approach is to try and estimate how many cards in a particular set are still in existence.  Here is Engel's Scarcity Factor scale applied to each baseball set:

NS (not scarce)--More than 1,000 copies known of most cards.

R1--between 250 and 1,000 copies known of most cards.
R2--between 100 and 249 copies known of most cards.
R3--between 11 and 99 copies known of most cards.
R4--between 5 and 10 copies known of most cards.
R5--5 or fewer copies known of most cards

 My approach is from a slightly different angle and I have calculated/estimated/guessed how hard it would be to find a sumo menko/card if you wanted to go out and purchase one today.  My scale is from an auction or purchasing point of view and basically how long it would take for one to pop up at auction if you were looking today.  He is my Availability Rating scale applied to each sumo set:

Common - Menko from this set are easy to obtain, available every month or two.
Scarce - Menko from this set show up from time to time, available a few times a year.
Rare - Menko from this set are hard to come by, available only once every few years.
Extremely Rare - Menko from this set are almost impossible to find, available only a few times in a lifetime.


Here are menko from the Extremely Rare R378: 1937 Rikishi Gunbai 5 set.  In almost 20 years of searching, here are the only 4 menko that have showed up while searching.

Mitsubishi Ki-1 Bomber & 1937 Sumo Wrestling Cards

The Japanese were in a full-out war with China in 1937 and the nationalistic pride of waging the war spilled over into the national sport of Japan, sumo wrestling.  During this time, there was evidence of the war everywhere.  Images of military vehicles, weapons, and personnel adorned the ceremonial "kesho-mawashi" aprons of sumo wrestlers and one such image was placed on Maegashira Komanosato's R375: 1937 Dai Rikishi Thin 5 menko card.  After a little research I determined the aircraft was the Mitsubishi Ki-1 Heavy Bomber that saw action in Manchukuo and Northern China during the mid to late 1930s.  Whether or not these images were actual on the wrestler's aprons or just on the cards remains to be seen, but a pretty cool merging of history and card collecting.

 

New Sumo Wrestling Set / 1937 Rikishi Left Box 5 (R3711)

I was able to finally remove one of my lone sole cards and match it to this new set that I picked up.  This is the 1937 Rikishi Left Box 5 set (Catalog # R3711).  It has one of Yokozuna Minanogawa's first Yokozuna menko in it and Shinkai's last menko as well.  It also contains a rare gyoji card.  Each menko measure about 1.0" x 2.25" and has some pretty cool gold gilding on the front.  Unfortunately some ambitious kid wrote on the back of them, but it definitely gives them character.

Happy 91.5 Birthday Queen Elizabeth II - Her Majesty's Rookie Card?

Today the Queen celebrates her 91 1/2 birthday being born on 21 April, 1926.  I have had a lifelong fascination with the British Royal Family.  Maybe it is because my Great Grandfather x13 immigrated from England in the 1700s, or because of the opulence that Royal Family represents, but they really are intriguing.  Our recent trip to London only fueled my interest and I ended up picking up this 1937 Wills's Cigarette King George VI/Queen Elizabeth "Our King and Queen" set off of eBay.  My main interests were of the Princess Elizabeth cards (Current Queen Elizabeth II).  My main goal with picking up sets like these is to find her rookie card...the very first card she was depicted on that was available to the public in quantity...and not a postcard.  I've seen other mid-to-late 1930s sets, but not sure which contains her earliest.  For now, I'll claim this set!

Queen Elizabeth II has actually been a fairly popular Queen and she is the longest service British Monarch in history.  She celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 2012 marking 60 years of reign.  Call it lucky, but when the Queen was born, she wasn't slated to take over the throne at all.  Her Uncle, King Edward VIII was actually in line and after a brief time as King, he abdicated the throne to his brother, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth now had rights to the throne when her father passed away in 1952.

The main focus of this 1937 Wills's "Our King and Queen" set was on Princess Elizabeth's parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I.  In 1937, they had only been in reign for a year so they captured some interesting moments in the 50-card set.  Princess Elizabeth is shown on three cards in this set.

Card #2 (The Royal Family) shows her with her sister and parents
Card #4 (The Royal Princesses) shows her with her sister
Card #50 (The Princesses and their Miniature House) shows her with her sister

One of each of these cards came in a pack of cigarette's and they were meant to be glued inside of an album.  Several albums are for sale on eBay and I may end up picking one up one of these days.

R377 - 1937 Rikishi Gunbai 4

  There is nothing nicer, and more popular, in my opinion than a 1930s R-series sumo menko set.  R-series menko were nothing new in the 1930s and, in fact, had been around since the turn of the century, but a huge resurgence of sumo popularity was spurred by the great Yokozuna Futabayama.

The 35th Yokozuna Futabayama (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

  Futabayama hit his stride in the mid-1930s and eventually made it to yokozuna which kicked off a flurry of sumo menko sets production.....and timing is everything as there was also a surge in overall menko popularity in the 1930s.  These two factors have made for a treasure trove of sets to chase and pursue from this era.  1930s R-series menko are not that rare (obviously some more than others) and surprisingly a vast majority of them survived the war through fires, bombings, and paper drives.  It is unimaginable how many must have been produced to still see them come up for auction today.  One such set is the R377 - 1937 Rikishi Gunbai 4 set that was produced by an unknown company likely trying to capitalize on Futabayama's dohyo prowess.  As is somewhat common for this era, registration can be spotty at best for these sets and the quality of paper used was often poorly produced.

  This particular set is unique in the fact that there were two colors of ink used to print the back: blue and purple.  My only two guesses for this is the manufacturer likely used whatever color was available (maybe scarcity of certain colors) or they were produced regionally and standardization wasn't addressed.  As with all R-series sets, this one is die-cut and uses nice and vivid colors on the fronts to depict the kesho mawashi aprons used as part of the ring entrance ceremony.  Registration, especially noticeable with red, is quite poor with the R377-2 Type 2 Purple Backs, but seems to have been cleaned up when the R377-1 Type 1 Blue Backs were printed.  There are too few of these out there to make any definitive conclusions though.  Unfortunately, I haven't located a Futabayama from this set yet, but I'm sure there is one out there.  I do like the clean and simple design on the back dominated by a large referee fan with the wrestler's name in the middle and rank at the very top.  The bottom shows the wrestler's weight with a 4-digit fighting number at the very bottom.  Overall, most menko are about 1.5" x 2.25".

Here is the checklist so far from this set:
8958 – Maegashira Takanobori
8901 – Maegashira Nayoroiwa
8702 – Maegashira Itstsushima
7256 – Sekiwake Asahigawa
6728 – Komusubi Yamatoiwa
4860 – Yokozuna Minanogawa
2812 – Sekiwake Taikyuzan