Paint it Purple - 1938 Japanese Sumo Wrestling Menko Set

Purple as a color is just awesome!  I guess anyone could say that about any color, but there is something about purple that screams elegance and luxury.  Did you know that purple is associated with the Japanese emperor and Japanese aristocracy?  And in England it is used only on special occasions with the Royal Family.  Crazy...anyway, purple came up as I was cataloguing this new set...the R389: 1938 Rikishi 4 set.  The fronts are a high quality picture and the backs are printed, well, in purple.  Not a deep shade of purple, but a good looking one nonetheless.  This set is extremely hard to find and I uncovered 9 menko from the set during the pandemic and am finally able to document it here and in my book.  These could be the only 9 in existence at this point.  These menko are relatively small at 1" x 2 1/8", but they make up for it as real stunners.  The backs originally had a piece of paper glued to it in order to stand them up I reckon to play kamizumo, but not sure.

Have an awesome weekend!

Pre-War Japanese Sumo Menko...I mean pre-WWI!

I don't often use the word "Museum Quality" when it comes to sumo menko.  However, the early 1900 woodblock prints that were coming out of Japan at the time are nothing short of remarkable.  There are different qualities of woodprinters no doubt, and the artists that were making menko at the time were likely not skilled enough to compete with many of the heavy hitting artists.  Nonetheless, the quality and intricacies they devoted to the woodblock menko of the time was tremendous.  The woodblock set below is the R051: 1905 Priest, Gun, Fox Back 0.  Maybe more importantly than it's 116 years in existence, is the fact that it has two extremely, extremely rare menko of Osaka Yokozuna Okido and Wakashima.  At the time, there were two factions of sumo both in Tokyo and Osaka.  The one is Osaka struggled and eventually folded into the Tokyo Association, but for a brief time talented rikishi were competing there.  They don't nearly get the love and most artists seemed to have associated in Tokyo more so not many menko were produced of the Osaka rikishi.  These menko are printed on thin cardboard-like paper and are about 1" x 1 3/4".  Someday these will be in a museum!

I hope everyone came back same from the holiday and has a great week.  Sayonara!

2021 Mid-Year Report Card

Well, with the year half over I thought I would do a quick review of where I stand on my 2021 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, let's see how I am doing.

Goal #1: Blog 60 posts this year! - (26 as of this post) - Current Grade - "C"

This goal has been a little rough these past few months, but I feel like I should be able to catch up and get in a rhythm as things have quieted down at work some.  I think I stand a good chance of getting to 60 and maybe a few more as I have a stack of blogging material waiting....really it is stuff to catalogue for my book and some eye candy for the blog.

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

I am making some good progress on the 5th Edition and really do think I can get it finally published and out the door.  Work should slow down for me later this year for a little bit and if I can get 2-3 hours a week devoted to this goal I should easily crush this.  We'll see how the next few months goes though.

Goal #3: Get to the halfway point with my 1973 Calbee set - Current Grade - "D"

Ugh, I have not focused on the Calbee cards too much this year so far.  Prices for the high-numbers are expensive and I have focused my efforts on the other goals thus far.  I think I can pick up 3-4 more and really get back on track to 50% completion by the end of the year.  It all takes money and that would solve a lot of my problems here.  Ha!
  

Goal #4: Relabel my Binders/Sets and Pass Along Excess "Stuff" - Current Grade - "C"

I'm getting there are relabeling binders and tidying up...it seems like it is a never ending process.  I seem to clean up two piles and another one appears.  I am getting a small stack of cards and menko ready for eBay too which will be great to put a bit of extra money in my pocket!

Goal #5: Expand my 1980s/1990s Japanese Telephone Card Collection - Current Grade - "B"

  

This goal is part of my alt-collection and something fun as I am browsing for sumo auctions.  I have picked up a decent amount of telephone cards so far and am waiting for them arrive from Japan shortly.

Goal #6: Do Something with my Yukata Card/Bolt Collection - Current Grade - "F"

Still have no idea what I am going to do with these......but they are cool!

Goal #7: Continue Giving my Non-Sumo Collections Some Love - Currrent Grade - "C"

Amada Nintendo (NES)/Famicon Mini Cards

No real progress here.....

1983 Myojo Noodle Mechanical (Meca) Cards

I have picked up a crap ton of these cards and lost count how many new ones I now have.  

2014-2020 Airport Trading Cards

Still haven't found one of the "Dirty Five" yet.  Although I missed out on one recently as if flew under the radar before I saw it.

1974 Japanese Yamakatsu Bruce Lee "The Way of the Dragon"

No joy here....

Radio Shack Zip Zap Cards

I have managed to get a few more of these....not too shabby.

Brandon Laird and Yuta Tabuse Cards

Not really making any progress here as new cards rarely pop up that I need.  

Goal #8: Get out at least 1 Care Package a month - Current Grade - "F"

Ummm, I suck...sorry everyone!

Goal #9: Get to The National! - Current Grade - "A+"

VIP tickets purchased, plane tickets in hand, and hotel booked.  Here we go!

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

- Current Grade - "A+"

Sumo Card: Bing #1, Google #2, Yahoo #1

Sumo Cards: Bing #1, Google #2, Yahoo #1

Sumo Menko: #1, Google #1, Yahoo #1

Sumo Wrestling Card: Bing #3, Google #3, Yahoo #3

Sumo Wrestling Cards: Bing #2, Google #2, Yahoo #2

I think I am doing well on this one and hopefully my hiatus these past few months doesn't hurt my metrics.

Thanks for being loyal readers and I hope everyone had a safe 2021 so far and I hope your collection keeps growing.