1953 Paper Sumo Wrestling (Kami Zumo) Game (G531)

These kami zumo (paper sumo) games are quite interesting.  The playing pieces for the game are not technically cards, but they are ephemera and can be quite collectible.  This 1953 kami zumo game falls into one of those categories of things I like to collect along with my menko and cards.  Kami zumo is quite simple to play; take these paper game pieces/figures, fold them so that they stand, and then lean them against each other on the paper sumo ring (see ring below).  Once they are leaning against each other, tap the table or board that the ring is sitting on in order to vibrate the game pieces and make one of them fall over on top of the other or push the other piece out of the ring.  It can be quite fun and provides that indoor entertainment we all need during COVID.

This 1953 kami zumo game had at least three different color inks used to print the game pieces: red, pink, and brown.  Interestingly, they also came with a small sword to give to the winner as a prize as well as a gunbai (fan) for the referee to point to the winning side.  Measuring about 2" x 2.25" I've only ever seen pieces from this set in almost pristine condition and not played with...not sure why, but I guess all the used pieces were thrown away over the years.  As you might expect, this 68-year old game is quite hard to find and I recently came across 3 "new" pieces to add to my collection.  I now have only 5 in my collection after almost 17 years of searching.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

The Day After Valentine's - Heart Broken Sumo Wrestling Game

A lot of my friends and family are actually celebrating Valentine's Day on Saturday this year since yesterday was a workday.  Us too, we are heading out to our favorite happy hour joint later today.  So I consider this Valentine's Weekend as a whole.  And like many other bloggers, I feel like I should get up a Valentine's Weekend post.  Today I highlight the 1959 3-Part Trump Set (Catalog #G591).  These awase "matching" sets are popular even today since a host of games could be played with them.  We see a variety of them in the United States as kids games.  Most commonly, they are used in Japan as playing cards, or trump as it is known in Japan.  They are also used as a matching game where you put the cards face down and try to find the corresponding cards to form the wrestlers' image in this case.  There are 16 wrestlers total in the G591 set with 48 total cards coming in the box.....surprisingly, these sets are not all that uncommon and so you can pick them up here and there for reasonable prices throughout the year.    I pulled out the 4 wrestlers that bear the heart pips in honor of Valentine's Day to give you an idea.  Coincidently, these are the 4 highest ranked wresters in the set: Yokozuna Wakanohana, Yokozuna Asashio, Yokozuna, Tochinishiki, and Ozeki Kotogahama. 

1968 Japanese Sumo Wrestling and Soccer Playing Cards (G681)

Late 1960s sumo cards are virtually non existent.  In fact, it is easier to find sumo cards that were made during World War II than it is to find sets that have sumo wrestlers in them from the late 1960s.  In 1968, man was getting ready to walk on the moon, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City brought together athletes from around the world.  Also in 1968 Shonen Book, aimed at elementary school kids, produced this trump/playing card set with famous Japanese athletes.  Included are 13 baseball players, at least 3 sumo wrestlers, soccer stars, pro wrestlers, and a variety of athletes from other sports.  I was able to snag three sumo wrestlers and two soccer stars from the set as shown here.  Given the rarity of this set, these might be the only ones I come across in the next decade.

The three wresters are the great Yokozuna Taiho, Taiho's arch rival Yokozuna Kashiwado, and future Yokozuna Tamanoshima who would later die as an active wrestler at the age of 27 from a blood clot.

The two soccer stars are Yuichi Sugiyama who played on the Japan National Team in the 1968 Olympics and won gold.  And the all-time leading goalscorer for Japan, Kunishige Kamamoto, and another member of the 1968 bronze gold-winning Olympic Team.

c1977 Sumo Tonton Game Cards (New Set G771)

I've been eyeing this set for a while and pulled the trigger the other day as I have never held a card in hand before.  It is a late 1970s Tonton unopened taba bundle with 55 packs (50 regular + 5 bonus packs).  I am assuming there are 5 winner packs randomly in the bundle so you would get a bonus pull if you pulled one of these winner packs...thus the 55 total packs.  These cards are awesome in hand and the bundle is quite thick.  The manufacturer is unknown, but likely one of the big companies from the late 1970s like Yamakatsu, Marusho, or Bull Mark.  Each pack contains two game cards which are intended to be folded and used to play Tonton sumo.  The likeness of each wrestler is used and their shikona is written on their mawashi along the middle. Tonton sumo is a tapping game where you place the pieces in front of each other and tap the table or playing board and the wrestlers move and push each other.  The first piece to fall over is the loser.  Each card is about 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" unfolded.  I was particularly attracted to this bundle because it has the famous Takamiyama card attached to the front which was used to show kids and example of the card they could pull from the packs.  I opened up one of the packs and folded the piece to show you what they look like.  The arms can be folded into different positions as well to try and gain an advantage over your opponent.  Good stuff!

1957 Kami Zumo Set (G571)

Here is a fun set from 1957 called Kami Zumo or "Paper Sumo" in English.  Paper figures of sumo wresters, as seen in the photos below, at placed standing facing each other in a ring made of cardboard....the wrestlers are made to stand by bending their legs or folding their arms.  Players then make the wrestlers move by tapping the outside of the ring with their fingers and the winner is the one who forces their opponent out of the ring or to fall over.  This 1957 Kami Zumo Set came with two wrestlers and a cardboard sword...I am assuming for the losing paper wrestler to commit ritualistic suicide if he lost.   Each of the wrestlers in this set are about 2 1/4" tall and they each have an actual photo of the wrestler's head superimposed on the paper body.  Pretty cool.  I also did a review on the 1961 Ito Kami Zumo Set.  Here is a YouTube video of two people playing kami zumo.

1961 Ito Kami Zumo (G612)

This is a fun set printed at the very end of 1961 presumably in preparation for the January 1962 tournament.  Up until recently I thought it was printed later in 1962, but I discovered the Maegashira Matsunobori card and could narrowed it down to late 1961 since he retired following the November 1961 tournament.  I was fortunate to pick up a partial taba pack of these (9 packs) and realized it was printed by Ito which made various paper products in the 1950s and 1960s.  For cataloging purposes that is important because it will hopefully help fill in holes and help identify other sets with similar printing styles.

Kami Zumo (Paper Sumo) games are really easy to play as kids would stand up their cards on a paper ring on top of a card board box or something that vibrated.  With this set, these cards were meant to be rolled and secured on the ends by tabs.  Then each kid would tap the cardboard box which in turn caused the paper wrestlers to move and push against each other.  The one that fell over or was pushed out of the ring was the loser.  For those that grew up in the 1980s, do you remember the vibrating football games?  Same concept.  The 1961 Ito Kami Zumo set is interesting because it has actual photographs of the wrestler's head superimposed on the paper to give it a more realistic feel.

This G621 set came in taba packs (see photo below) that were hung up from the ceilings by a string. In this case a kid would pay 5 yen (about 2 cents in 1961) and pull a cellophane pack down....each taba pack contained 30 individual packs.  Inside each cellophane pack were a paper ring, 3 cards and as well as trophy and referee fan.  The trophy and fan cards could come in any of these three colors: purple, pink, or red.  Each of the wrestler cards, however, came in only one of those three colors, although I am not 100% certain on that.

Here is a good YouTube video of how it's played.

Here is the latest checklist at 19 cards.

o   Yokozuna Wakanohana

o   Yokozuna Asashio

o   Yokozuna Taiho

o   Yokozuna Kashiwado

o   Ozeki Kitabayama

o   Ozeki Wakahaguro

o   Sekiwake Tochinoumi

o   Sekiwake Tochihikari

o   Komusubi Iwakaze

o   Komusubi Fujinishiki

o   Maegashira Hagurhana

o   Maegashira Yutakayama

o   Maegashira Fukudayama

o   Maegashira Annenyama

o   Maegashira Wakachichibu

o   Maegashira Tokinishiki

o   Maegashira Maedagawa

o   Maegashira Matsunobori

o   Maegashira Wakanoumi

There are two key cards missing from this checklist - Ozeki Kotogahama and Sekiwake Sadanoyama so I am thinking there are probably closer to 25 in the complete set.

New Set: 1958 All Star Matching Game (G582)

This is one set I've had my eye on for quite sometime.....probably 3-4 years or so. The same auction would always come up and it never seemed to sell, but I finally pulled the trigger and was lucky enough to end up with 5 sheets of this new set.  I've labeled and catalogued this new set in my book as the 1958 All Star Matching Game (G582). I'm still working on the company that produced these and have cross checked the set in Engel's book, but he doesn't have it listed there. This set is easy to nail down as being from 1958 as it shows Asashio ranked as an Ozeki, but he promoted to Yokozuna in late 1958. It also has 4 rookie cards of the baseball player Nagashima as he started playing in 1958. So we have 4 previously unknown and uncatalogued rookie cards of Shigeo Nagashima which is a pretty amazing find as well for the Japanese Baseball Card collectors.

The back explains several ways to play, but the common way is to play it like memory game. Put all the cards face down and try to match pairs (合せ in Japanese). There are a variety of ways to do this with this set: number, person, playing card suit, playing card number, season kanji, color kanji....  These cards could also be used as a regular playing card deck.

There are 54 cards in the set...52 regular cards and 2 jokers.  Each card has pictures of a famous person from 1958 and each person has four different cards (Same playing card number, but 4 different suits).  Quick public math verified by photos results in 13 different people depicted in the set with 4 cards each. Sadly, I'm not versed in 1958 Japanese actors or music stars so I don't know who the majority of the people are(yet), but I do know the 3 sumo wrestlers and 2 baseball players (thanks NPB Card Guy for the help on Masaichi Kaneda).  It's not surprising that the established Yokozuna weren't included in this set as they were nearing the end of the prime and the new youngsters and popular wrestlers in Wakanohana, Asashio, and Kotogahama were in much better favor.

The sheet is printed on thin cardboard stock, about like construction paper, and measures about 12.25" X 18.25".  Each card measures about 1.5" x 2 5/8".  There is a lot going on with each card and a lot of distinguishing features. For the purpose of the checklist, I chose to identify each card by playing card number & suit followed by background color.

Here is the current checklist:

KD - Unknown Actor - Red Background
KS - Unknown Actor - Blue Background
KH - Unknown Actor - Pink Background
KC - Unknown Actor - Green Background
QD - Unknown Actor - Red Background
QS - Unknown Actor - Orange Background
QH - Unknown Actor - Green Background
QC - Unknown Actor - Red Background
JD - Unknown Actress - Blue Background
JS - Unknown Actress - Red Background
JH - Unknown Actress - Pink Background
JC - Unknown Actress - Green Background
10D - Unknown Actress - Green Background
10S - Unknown Actress - Blue Background
10H - Unknown Actress - Red Background
10C - Unknown Actress - Pink Background
9D - Unknown Actor - Red Background
9S - Unknown Actor - Yellow Background
9H - Unknown Actor - Red Background
9C - Unknown Actor - Yellow Background
8D - Masaichi Kaneda - Yellow Background
8S - Masaichi Kaneda - Green Background
8H - Masaichi Kaneda - Red Background
8C - Masaichi Kaneda -Blue Background
7D - Shigeo Nagashima - Blue Background
7S - Shigeo Nagashima - Green Background
7H - Shigeo Nagashima - Pink Background
7C - Shigeo Nagashima - Red Background
6D - Unknown Singer - Red Background
6S - Unknown Singer -Yellow Background
6H - Unknown Singer - Blue Background
6C - Unknown Singer - Red Background
5D - Unknown Actor - Red Background
5S - Unknown Actor - Green Background
5H - Unknown Actor - Pink Background
5C - Unknown Actor - Yellow Background
4D - Ozeki Asashio - Colored Circle Background
4S - Ozeki Asashio - Red/Yellow/Blue Background
4H - Ozeki Asashio - Colored Flower Background
4C - Ozeki Asashio - Blue Background
3D - Unknown Actor - Red Background
3S - Unknown Actor - Green Background
3H - Unknown Actor - Yellow Background
3C - Unknown Actor - Red Background
2D - Ozeki Kotogahama - Wave Background
2S - Ozeki Kotogahama - Star Background
2H - Ozeki Kotogahama - Circle Background
2C - Ozeki Kotogahama - Fan Background
1D - Yokozuna Wakanohana - Orange Background
1S - Yokozuna Wakanohana - Red Background
1H - Yokozuna Wakanohana - Blue Background
1C - Yokozuna Wakanohana - Pink Background


I have 5 sheets of these so one or two will likely make their way to eBay.

New Set - 1962 Osato Famous Stars Trump (G622)

1962 Osato Famous Stars Trump

G622

   This is a set I have seen several times in the past few decades, but only recently did I pick up a sheet of the cards and checklist them.  It was made by Osato Gangu in 1962 and the sheet I have features 24 different sport and entertainment stars from the era (note: one card is duplicated on the sheet).  Osato made numerous card sets from the 1950s-1970s and most notably the 1975 Osato Sumo Wrestling Mini Card set.  The cards are printed on study cardboard stock and come in sheets of 25 cards in a 5x5 arrangement.  Gary Engel's Vintage Edition of the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide lists the set (JGA 149) at 44 cards and printed in 1962 or 1963.  The backs are printed in blue ink with a mosaic pattern around the Osato lion head and the fronts feature images of the famous star along with a playing card which is in a horizontal position on the card.  The front images are CYMK halftone printed with each card measuring about 1 3/16" x 2 3/8" and the entire sheet measuring 12" x 5 7/8".  Registration on my sheet is really good with only the blue color being slightly off top to bottom by .25 millimeters or so.

    
Distribution on these is unknown and likely sold by dagashiya in uncut sheets or potentially as a prize sheet for some other set.  It's possible that they might have been inserted in a children's magazine of the era too although all four sides of my sheet are nice and smooth indicating that they weren't necessarily attached inside a magazine.

                                                        Closeup of the halftone print dots




  Here is the checklist that I have compiled so far for this set:


Sumo Wrestling:
     - 4 of Clubs - Yokozuna Kashiwado
     - 5 of Diamonds - Yokozuna Taiho


Baseball:
     - 6 of Diamonds - Katsuya Nomura
     - 5 of Clubs - Sadaharu Oh
     - 8 of Diamonds - Masaichi Kaneda


Pro Wrestling:
     - 8 of Clubs - Rikidozan


American Movie Stars:
     - Ace of Clubs - 101 Dalmations
     - 9 of Diamonds - Jack Hawkins (Ben Hur)
     - 4 of Clubs - Charlton Heston & Sam Jaffe (Ben Hur)
     - 8 of Spades - King Kong
     - Ace of Diamonds - Steve McQueen (Wanted Dead or Alive (Kenju Mushuku))


American TV Stars:
     -7 of Clubs - Chuck Conners (Rifleman)
     - Queen of Clubs - Vince Edwards (Ben Casey)
     - 2 of Clubs - George Reeves (Superman)


Japanese TV/Movie/Music Stars:
     - 9 of Clubs - Kinya Kitaoji
     - Jack of Clubs - Hibari Misora
     - 4 of Diamonds - Unknown Samurai with Eye Cut
     - 3 of Clubs - Kayoko Moriyama
     - 3 of Diamonds - Raizo Ichikawa
     - 7 of Diamonds - Sayuri Yoshinaga
     - 6 of Clubs - Tomoko Matsushima
     - King of Clubs - Akira Kobayashi
     - 2 of Diamonds - Komadori Sisters
     - King of Hearts - Kinosuke Nakamura