1936 Sumo Wrestling Stadium Set - S361: 1936 Kokugikan Color Set

This is one set I have been excited to scan for a while as it is one of the early S-Series sumo wrestling card sets out there.  Why was I excited?  Well, this set contains the earliest color card with an actual picture (not a cartoon drawing like on the R-Series rikishi) of legendary Yokozuna Futabayama.  And sprinkled throughout are other wrestlers that have only appeared in this set as far as I can tell.  Maegashira Bochozan....never heard of him until today and he only spent 5 tournaments at the very bottom portion of the top division.  Same with Maegashira Oyashima...6 tournaments barely scraping by in the top division.

These S-Series sets were sold at the Kokugikan as souvenirs with the intent of taking them home and using them as visual reference as fans listened to the tournaments over the radio as that was a popular way way to catch the tournament without actually going to the stadium.  As you can imagine, these sets had to have survived the fire-bombings of World War 2 as well as the test of time and to be able to land and catalogue one of these sets is a real honor!  Cards are somewhat small at 1.75" x 2.75" and usually come 32 cards to the set.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and stays safe!  Sayonara!

The GOAT touched my sumo wrestling card!

Every sport has a Greatest Of All Time (GOAT).  Baseball has Ruth, Basketball has Jordan, Hockey has Gretsky, Football has Brady, Soccer has Pele.....the list can go on and on for all the sports.  In sumo wrestling, the arguably GOAT is current Yokozuna Hakuho.  Here are a few reasons why he has been given this title by many fans...

- 43 Career Championships.....10 more than the next closest wrestler
- 15 Perfect (0-loss) Championships.....7 more than the next closest wrestler
- 1147 Career wins...100 more than the next closest wrestler
- 75 tournaments ranked as a Yokozuna...12 more than the next closest wrestler

I could dig up more statistics, but Hakuho's lifetime of achievment is staggering.  If these aren't GOAT statistics, I don't know what is.  He looks as if he could compete for 3-4 more years easily and be competitive in each of the tournaments he competes in. 

For those that know me, I don't chase autographed cards...or at least go out of my way for any, but the one that I always would compromise on if I found it was a good, authenticated Hakuho signed card.  For reference, there are 4 ways to get authenticated BBM signed cards of sumo wresters:

1. Pack Issued - Sticker autos with serial numbering issued in BBM's annual card releases
2. Official Event Signed - Gold ink, on-card autos with embossed seals given as prizes at official BBM card events around Japan
3. Kokugikan (Sports Arena) Signed - On-card autos encased in a red and white-colored acrylic case with the BBM and Kokugikan logos.  They also come with two acrylic legs to prop it up on your desk
4. In-Person Signed

In July 2017, Hakuho surpassed Ozeki Kaio for the most career wins (the record at the time was 1147 wins).  The Kokugikan and BBM collaborated to release a special signed 2017 Tamashi card where Hakuho wrote "1050 勝" "1050 wins" along with his signature on one of the Kokugikan-Signed cards.  One of my collecting buddies happened to have two of them and was thinning his collection a bit and I knew this was the card that needed to be in my collection.  I'm not sure how many of these are out there, but likely fewer than 100.  Regardless, the GOAT has touched and signed this card!

I hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl! 

When Sumo Wrestling took over a Baseball Stadium

     Sumo Wrestling and Japanese baseball have been linked throughout the sports' histories.  Athletes from both sports have shared special friendships throughout the years, Japanese baseball turns to sumo wrestlers to throw out the first pitches of the season on a regular basis, and in the 1940s at the height of World War 2, the Nihon Sumo Kyokai "took over" the Korakuen Stadium to hold two of its tournaments since the Japanese Army commandeered the Sumo Kokukigan Stadium to make bombs.  Intrigued?  Read on for a few more minutes.

      Most of us have heard about the destruction that Tokyo endured during World War 2.  Sumo was not immune to it.  Sumo wrestlers were called to duty to fight in the war, sumo stables were destroyed during the fire bombing, and the military took over the Kokugikan to make bombs in 1944.  By 1944, Japan was all but defeated in the war and the preparations to repel a land invasion by the Allies was a top priority.  Consequently, this left sumo without a home to hold its tournaments.  Likewise, Japanese baseball was severely affected by the war and by 1944 could only muster a 35-game season in leaving its Korakuen Stadium open to the Nihon Sumo Kyokai which borrowed it for their May and November 1944 tournaments.  I've heard of this event happening, but I have never before seen pictures of it until a recent eBay auction that I won had me doing more research.  I picked up this circa 1946 Photographic Views of Japan: SUMO booklet that was printed for the Occupation Forces to teach them about Japanese culture.  It is part of a 10-booklet series on various subjects and written in English. 

What photos lie within?

And the Korakuen Photos:

Close-up photo of the scoreboard

Some further research let me to this picture which shows the sumo dohyo (ring) situated on none other than the 3rd-base line!

Dave at the Japanese Baseball Cards blog did a nice write up last year on the Korakuen Stadium.  Take a look at it here.

Thanks for stopping by!

1944 Kokugikan Set (S441)

I was doing some touch up work on this set and thought it would be good to share it here.  The S-Series of cards, or Kokugikan Cards, were produced to give fans an opportunity to have their favorite wrestlers of the day through these small card sets.  They were presumably sold as souvenirs at the Kokugikan (the building where tournaments are held in Tokyo).  At this time in Japan there was no TV so the only way to watch a tournament was to attend during one of the two annual tournaments in Tokyo or see the wrestlers when they went on tour around the country in between the tournaments.  Since there was no TV and most matches were broadcast on the radio, this would have been a handy set to have to visualize the wrestlers.

 The 1944 Kokugikan Set (S441) was produced towards the end of World War 2.  As you can imagine, cards/menko/bromides from during the War are excruciatingly/extremely rare to find.  The quality of this set is very low as you can see from the scans above and likely due to the very poor and worn out printing presses at the time.  Most all industry was focused on the war effort so any product that wasn't benefiting the war was likely produced in low numbers.  An unknown printer made this set, but the back of the box does say "Made in Aomi, Tokyo".  Aomi is a small area in southern Tokyo right along Tokyo Bay at the southern end of the Rainbow Bridge and this area was pretty much decimated in 1944/1945 during the fire bombing raids of World War 2.  Likely the company that produced this set was destroyed as well, but even more amazingly this set has survived all the bombing raids, reconstruction, and recovery during the 70+ years after the war.   Almost all of the S-Series sets came in small cardboard boxes like the one below.

This set does have one of the last known cards of the great Yokozuna Futabayama along with some really rare cards of low ranking Maegashira wrestlers whose only cards appear in this set.  I have the current checklist at 23 cards, but I have a feeling it should be 25 as a few high-ranking wrestlers are missing from my set (Sagamiiwa, Terunobori).