Making a Japanese Baseball/Sumo Wrestling Connection - 1959 Menko

Several days ago Sean over at Getting Back into Baseball Cards....in Japan (BaseballCardsinJapan.blogspot), posted about a new menko find to the baseball community.  It is a new menko of the ever popular Shigeo Nagashima and up until this point had not been catalogued in the Japanese Baseball community.  In the sumo community, I have run across this set only a handful of times.  They are extremely rare and very hard to find since they were printed and sold at the tail end of the menko era when menko popularity was waning.  There is a plain, white-bordered version as well as an even more rare gold-bordered version in the sumo world.  I have catalogued this set as the 1959 Comic 9-10-11 (Catalogue #: M591-1 White Border and M591-2 Gold Border).  The back has the TV anime character "Moonlight Mask" which aired on Japanese television and in theaters in 1958 and 1959 which led me to believe this set was printed in 1959.  Up to this point, it seemed this was a sumo-only set, but what we might be seeing here is a multi-sport set.  And given there are gold-bordered versions, there is a good chance these were issued in boxes with the gold-bordered menko as prizes.  It is great when some of these new mysteries pop up and keep the older Japanese card collecting community on the hunt to try and continually answer some of these decade-old mysteries.

Have a great week!

The Ill-Fated 1958 Japanese Antarctic Expedition and Sumo Wrestling Cards

This Japanese sumo wrestling menko set captures a little-known piece of Japanese history from 1958.  Flash back two years before 1958 to 1956 and the Japanese had established their first research base in Antarctica to world exclaim and was a symbol of Japanese national pride.  When it came time for the replacement team to arrive in 1958, they were unable to get close enough to the research station and the team that was already there was forced to evacuate and abandon the station, but not before leaving behind 15 Sakhalian Husky sled dogs.  Leaving food for the dogs and thinking they would soon be back, the scientists evacuated by helicopter.  Unable to get back for entire year and assuming the dogs would all be dead, the returning scientists were shocked to learn that two of the dogs survived: Taro and Jiro.  These dogs became national heroes and were all over the news.  They eventually got their own stamps and several movies were made about the story!  Below is an actual picture of Jiro and Taro when they were found.  This 1958 menko set, however, was printed to celebrate the 1958 return expedition, before it turned ill fated and the dogs were abandoned.  There are many great-looking scenes from the expedition on the back of the menko that capture the imagination of any kid reading the magazine.  It is so rare that I have only ever seen one of them and don't even know which magazine it would have come out of.  As you can tell from the picture, these would have come as a sheet and each child would have had to cut out the menko individually.  Thanks for stopping by and letting me share a little piece of Japanese history!

Taro and Jiro greeted by the men from the 3rd Expedition that found them.  Photo courtesy of Dogs in History Blog.

2020 Mid-Year Report Card

Well, with the year half over I thought I would do a quick review of where I stand on my 2020 Collecting Goals.  Not going to lie, this has been a tough year with work and COVID-19.  Oddly, my time to even blog has been drastically reduced due to inefficiencies of teleworking and having to spend more time "at work" to make up for the time lost trying to coordinate everything virtually.

I know there are a fair amount of collectors that don't like to do collecting goals...However, I'm one that likes to lay out the year to help me focus and to generally guide my collecting habits.  I seldom vary from my larger collection so I don't have a ton or random collections that are half-started...just expanding my normal collections and then maybe tackle one or two more.  Anyway, looks see how I am doing.

Goal #1: Blog at least once a week - 52 posts this year!  Current Grade - "F"

Oh boy, this has been the toughest to do and I am likely not going to get to the magical 52 posts.  Right now I stand at 23 posts and feel like I am on the struggle bus to even hit 40 let alone post more times than I did in 2016!  I'll keep working at it and hopefully I can find a little bit more time this fall.


Goal #2: Publish the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist - Current Grade - "F"

Yikes, I doubt this is going to happen this year.  I have a ton of newly-discovered sets that still need checklisted and entered into my book.  I need about 40 hours between now and the end of the year to somehow squeeze in to get the sets tidied up, entered, published, and the .pdf sent off to the printer.  I can't see this happening this year unfortunately, but I will still whittle away at updating the draft as often as I can.


Goal #3: Add 5 more Sumo World magazines from 1973-1999 to my collection - Current Grade - "F"

I definitely have not nailed this one either and still need only 28 more to complete the entire run from March 1973 - November 1999.  New auctions for these things have dried up and they are harder and harder to find.  Ugh....so far I am batting .000.


Goal #4: Attend three card shows this year - Current Grade - "F"

Son of a.....well COVID-19 did happen so it is not my fault, right?!  I really was hoping to hook up with Fuji for some Del Taco and cards.  Crap...here we go...0 for 4 at the plate....still at .000 batting average.


Goal #5: Add three more 1973 Calbee cards to my set - Current Grade - "A"

Finally, I am on base.  Not doing bad here...I think I added 3 already and I am easily going to get another 3 or more this year.  Have some orders lined up too that should make this a homer.  Plus to earn me some extra credit, I did discover that this 36-card set was broken up into two series. (Series 1: Cards #1-18 and Series 2: Cards #19-36)  For some reason, Series 2 are much harder to find which makes that much more expensive too!  I did pick up the really hard-to-find binder as well so doing well with Goal #5.  Now batting .200!


Goal #6: Keep rounding out my Japanese yukata fabric bolt & card collection - Current Grade - "A+"

If you would have asked me 6 months ago if this would have been the one goal that I would be overachieving in, I would have laughed at you....but here we are 6 months later and my yukata bolt/card collection is on fire.  I cannot believe all the product that is out there and no one is collecting this stuff.  Unknown sumo wrestling cards, Unknown Japanese baseball cards, Unknown famous singers and actor cards.  And to boot, the material and patterns are so fascinating.  Anyway, this goal has been a grand slam and I can't wait to keep sharing all the bolts that I pick up.  I would love to write a book on these someday!  Now batting .333!


Goal #7: Publish at least 6 BBM Card Set reviews - Current Grade "F"

Well.....this one hasn't had any progress and I am likely not going to have any time this year to do this one.  Plus COVID-19 has reduced the number of sets a bit, so....sorry Goal #7.... dropped to .286.


Goal #8: Add 20 more cards to my Non-Sport Collection - Current Grade "A"

This is another goal that has been on fire!  I have been faithfully working on my Bruce Lee Yamakatsu sets, Myojo Noodle carfds, Zip Zaps, and Airport Trading Cards.  All it all I am well at 20 if not a bit higher.  I am hoping to show case some of my gatherings once I can get some of my international packages from Japan shipped.  Back up to .375


Goal #9: Send out 10 care packages - Current Grade - "C"

I have gotten 2 or 3 of these out this year...not bad, but I need to step it up and somehow stock up my reserves to shoot some more of these out.  I'll call this one a bunt....to bring my average up to .389.

 

Goal #10: Maintain/Improve Google/Yahoo/Bing Search Engine results for Sumo Card(s) & Menko - Current Grade - "B"

Still #1 on Yahoo!
Dropping on Google....uh oh!
Now #1 on Bing!

Final Batting Average = .425

Thanks for letting me walk through my current progress.  I definitely have a little bit of work to do and if I can get my average over .500, I would call that a success.

How is everyone else doing on their 2020 goals?