1993 Sumo Wrestling POGs - Konishiki & Musashimaru

A little over a year ago I stumbled upon some POGs from 1993 that depicted the famous Hawaiian sumo wrestlers Musashimaru, Akebono, and Konishiki.  Their popularity coincided with the American POG craze of the mid-1990s and were subsequently captured on several sets.  I was recently able to pick this POG set up from a friend that features then Ozeki Konishiki and then-Sekiwake Musashimaru with the latter going on to attain sumo's highest rank, Yokozuna.  Scans don't do the images justice, but the pictures are a combination of blue and gold foil.  For Musashimaru's POGs they say "Ring Champ" and "Fiamalu Penitani - Waianae's Pride Hawaii, 1993".  For Konishiki's POGs they say "Ambassador of Sumo" and "Salevaa Atisanoe - Nana Kuli's Son Hawaii, 1993".  Both Waianae and NanaKuli are areas in Hawaii.  The backs say these POGs were printed in Hong Kong as well as lists a telephone number "955-7109" although I haven't been able to determine what business/person this phone number is associated with after doing a quick Google search.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

When Sumo Wrestling Came to Hawaii in 1993 - Akebono, Konishiki, Musashimaru

In the summer time between tournaments, rikishi go on traveling tours around the country (and around the world) to give fans a chance to interact with the wrestlers and to promote the sport.  It has been a while since they have come to America.  In fact, the last time they were here was in 2009 in LA.  However, once upon a time when Hawaiian wrestlers were dominate in the sport, they went to Hawaii for a special two-day tournament.  In June of 1993, dozens of wrestlers descended upon the Hawaiian Islands to give the fans a true taste of this ancient sport.  And since Yokozuna Akebono, Ozeki Konishiki, and Sekiwake Musashimaru were at the top of the sport, this caused slight hysteria across the islands.  Spoiler alert, according to the July 1993 edition of Sumo World, Sekiwake Musashimaru was the tournament winner as described in the attached article.  Coincidently, the massive POG craze was going on at this time as well and this piece of history was captured on a set of POGs.  I got out of cards right when the POG craze hit so I missed getting absorbed in the collecting frenzy and missed collecting some great sets.  Luckily I was able to recently pick this up and will be cataloguing in future editions of my book.

These three rikishi were so famous that it inspired the famous Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwa'ole (Of the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" fame) to write a song about them called "Sumotori".

Did anyone else get caught up on the POG craze?