A few years go I put together this list of English-language books on sumo wrestling. I am sure there probably have been a few more that have been released, but for the most part this is a nearly comprehensive list. Almost all these books cover a similar amount of material, but all usually specialize in something more than the others (history, heya life, personal stories). As you can see most were released in the 1980s and 1990s when sumo interest really took off overseas. For the beginner fan I would recommend the Big Book of Sumo.
1. The Essential Guide to Sumo by Dorthea Buckingham (1994)
2. Gaijin Yokozuna by Mark Panek (2006)
3. Sumo from Rite to Sport by P.L. Cuyler (1979, revised 1985)
4. The Book of Sumo by Doug Kenrick (1969)
5. Sumo Wrestling by Bill Gutman (1995)
6. Grand Sumo by Lora Sharnoff (1989)
7. The Big Book of Sumo by Mina Hall (1997)
8. The Giants of Sumo by Angela Patmore (1990)
9. Rikishi: The Men of Sumo by Wes Benson (1986)
10. Takamiyama: The World of Sumo by Jesse Kuhaulua (ghostwritten by John Wheeler) (1973)
11. Dynamic Sumo by Clyde Newton (1994)
12. Sumo by Andy Adams and Clyde Newton (1989)
13. Sumo: The Sport and Tradition by J.A. Sargeant (Tuttle, 1959)
14. Sumo Watching by S.W.A. (1993)
15. Sumo: A Pocket Guide by Walter Long (1989)
16. Sumo: A pocket Guide by David Shapiro (Tuttle, 1995)
17. The Joy of Sumo by David Benjamin (1991)
18. Sumo by Lyall Watson "A Channel Four Book" (1988)
19. Sumo: A Fan's Guide by Mark Schilling (1994)
20. Grand Sumo Fully Illustrated by PHP Institute Inc
21. Sumo Showdown: The Hawaiian Challenge by Philip Sandoz
22. Jesse: Sumo Superstar by Adams and Schilling
23. Makunouchi Rikishi of the Showa Era by Clyde Newton
24. Sumo - Japanese Wrestling (Tourist Library 34)
25. I am a Rikishi by Reiko Yokono
26. Makunouchi Rikishi of the Showa Era by Clyde Newton
Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Saturday, January 23, 2016
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).
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).
Friday, January 22, 2016
1976 Kodansha NST Sumo Stamp Set
The 1976 Kodansha NST Stamp Set has had me intrigued for quite a few years mainly because it's been elusive and a difficult set to put together. Single stamps from this 288-stamp set are almost nonexistent and packs and albums rarely come up for sale. If they do at all they are usually sold at a premium. Unlike the baseball guys who have numerous stamp sets to choose from over several years, sumo collectors only have the 1976 stamp set so auctions will usually command high interest among collectors from around the world.
The back of the album had an order form for kids to order any single stamp for 7円 as well as a checklist as seen below to keep track of the individual cards they had. This last page also explains the process for turning in 168 of your doubles for a special present. What that special present is, I am not sure, but will have to do more research on that.
Here are scans of the front and back of a regular and sample pack.
The auction I purchased also had a full size copy of a reproduction poster that would have hung in the window of the toy shop. It's quite attactive and I only wish it was an actually original instead of a copy.
I was quite curious on the NST brand and did a 30 minutes search trying to research the company. I came up empty handed and really started examining the album more for clues as well as look at other albums from the different subjects. As it's written on everything, the sumo stamps (as well as baseball stamps) were manufactured under the supervision of Baseball Magazine Sha (SSM) and issued/published by Kondansha International NST Project Office. Kondansha International was the English-language publishing house of Kondansha, but there are no clues to NST Kikakushitsu (Project Office). So the chase was on and I went out and researched other kikakushitsu organizations. It turns out all the references I found dealt with the publishing world in the form of "Modern Project Office", "Parenting Series Project Office", "Kobe City Project Office" and "Neko Project Office", etc.... All of these project offices released a distinct set of publications. Clearly the NST Project Office had the authority to use their logo instead of Kodansha so my guess is NST was a division of Kondansha that was tasked to produce the whole series of stamp sets (approximately 15-20 by my estimate) during this era. Likely NST stands for something like Nihon Stamp Team, Nihon STamp. I'm hoping someone else will be able to weigh in on this as well.
Stickers/seals/stamps became popular in the 1970s likely due to the success of the Panini brand from Italy. The sumo stamp set was among numerous different subjects produced by Kodansha NST (more on Kodansha later) during this time including baseball, animals, trains, tv shows and even Guiness Book of Records. All sets came with an album that cost 200円 and with packs that came 8 stamps to a pack for 50円 a pack. I also have several "sample" packs that were given to stores to be used as promotional giveaways and the store owner had the opportunity to write in his business's name on the back of the packs to guide kids, and their money, his way. These came 3 stamps to a pack. The stamps are approximately 2" x 3".
The sumo set I own has been glued to the pages of an album aside from the handful of loose packs I've picked up along the way. Those will stay sealed....for now at least. The front has a nice shot of Ozeki Takanohana who was extremely popular in 1976 and used on a lot of the packaging items(see below).
As mentioned in numerous blogs the stamps were intended to be glued into the album into their corresponding slot/area. There is a little strip along the top where the glue was to be applied and so you could still flip the stamp up and read the tidbit of trivia and information that was usually printed there (see below with several open slots).
The set is broken up into 19 subsets, although none of the subsets are more difficult to complete than the others.
Here is the list of subsets:
- Combat Rivals
- Famous Rikishi of Eastern Japan
- Famous Tall Rikishi of the 36 Bales
- Our Heroes/Yusho Winners
- Jungyo Scenes in your Town
- Inside Takanohana's heya (stable)
- An array of Present Day Star Rikishi
- Kitanoumi's different winning kimarite (winning techniques)
- Famous Retired Yokozuna
- Inside Shitake Heya
- Dohyo Support Personnel
- Scenes from the Dohyo
- Edo Beauty / Sumo Nishikie
- Sansho Prize Winners
- Action Sequence of Clashing Star Rikishi
- Famous Light Rikishi of the 36 Bales
- Famous Heavy Rikishi of the 36 Bales
- Famous Rikishi of Western Japan
- Takanohana 9-piece Picture Puzzle
The back of the album had an order form for kids to order any single stamp for 7円 as well as a checklist as seen below to keep track of the individual cards they had. This last page also explains the process for turning in 168 of your doubles for a special present. What that special present is, I am not sure, but will have to do more research on that.
Here are scans of the front and back of a regular and sample pack.
The auction I purchased also had a full size copy of a reproduction poster that would have hung in the window of the toy shop. It's quite attactive and I only wish it was an actually original instead of a copy.
I was quite curious on the NST brand and did a 30 minutes search trying to research the company. I came up empty handed and really started examining the album more for clues as well as look at other albums from the different subjects. As it's written on everything, the sumo stamps (as well as baseball stamps) were manufactured under the supervision of Baseball Magazine Sha (SSM) and issued/published by Kondansha International NST Project Office. Kondansha International was the English-language publishing house of Kondansha, but there are no clues to NST Kikakushitsu (Project Office). So the chase was on and I went out and researched other kikakushitsu organizations. It turns out all the references I found dealt with the publishing world in the form of "Modern Project Office", "Parenting Series Project Office", "Kobe City Project Office" and "Neko Project Office", etc.... All of these project offices released a distinct set of publications. Clearly the NST Project Office had the authority to use their logo instead of Kodansha so my guess is NST was a division of Kondansha that was tasked to produce the whole series of stamp sets (approximately 15-20 by my estimate) during this era. Likely NST stands for something like Nihon Stamp Team, Nihon STamp. I'm hoping someone else will be able to weigh in on this as well.
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