New Sumo Wrestling Set / 1935 Rikishi 4-6 (R353)

This set popped up the other day and I had never seen it before so I knew I needed it for my collection.  It is definitely hard to find and a nice, early R-series menko set from 1935.  It has Minanogawa and Musashiyama before they were ranked at Yokozuna!  Nothing particularly distinguishable from this set and one of the many from the 1930s that had very similar designs.

1930s Japanese Sumo Menko Lone Soles

Unfortunately, my Lone Sole pile is slowly accumulating more cards than are being matched.  This pile has lone examples of particular sets that I try and hook up a sole-mate to so I can catalogue them in my book.  These past few months, 4 more have entered.....hopefully destined to leave before I do.

First up we have an early 1930s halftone M-series menko of Shinkai.  I would hope I can stumble across more of these as they have a very distinctive back.

 Next is a beautiful gold-gilded drawing of Kagamiiwa in the M-series from the early 1930s.  Another distinctive back.

 I haven't been able to translate this back, but looks like a kimarite finishing move on the front and the style is from the early 1930s as well.

 Lastly, an R-series of Taroyama from the mid 1930s.

1963 Tokyo Yukata Sumo Bromide Cards

Here is another example of more unique and collectible cards that are surfacing every so often.  Enter 1960s Japanese Bromide sumo cards attached to yukata bolts.  Yukata are worn by sumo wrestlers all times of the year and stores sell that same material in bolts to the fans to make their own.  In the 1960s, the patterns were not as intricate so attaching a bromide card to the bolt would let you know which wrestler the material belonged to.  Nowadays, printing technology allows the wrestlers' names to be printed into the actual material pattern, rendering the bromide card unnecessary.  In the 1960s, they not only did this for sumo wrestlers, but other stars as well.  I've seen these cards before, but have not paid serious attention to them until recently.  Having a bolt of the material in hand, as well as the card, is a cool piece of history and a great collectible.  I definitely am hooked...fellow sumo card collector, Paul F., is partially to thank for that!  I have not decided how I am going to categorize them in the 5th edition of my book.....do I give them their own category or do I include them in the BB-series (Black and White Bromide) category?  I have some time to think about it and try to uncover additional cards to see how many are out there.

Here are two bolts I won in the same auction.  I haven't unrolled them (and don't plan on it), but they are probably around 30 feet in length.  You can see them folded up here.  The material and card on the right are Ozeki Tochihikari....the material on the left is attributed to an unknown wrestler.

Here is the inside of the first fold.  You can see the round Tokyo Yukata seal at the bottom.  One of the neat things about Tochihikari's is an attachment for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  I haven't translated that yet to see what it says exactly.

An end on shot here of the bolts....there is a lot of material there!

Thanks to Paul F. for this picture....a bolt that was sold on eBay of Yokozuna Taiho.  You can see the similarity in all the cloth patterns making the bromide very useful and important.




Thanks for stopping by and I hope I am able to share more of these in the future.