Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko
There are still a lot of unique Japanese sports cards to be found as a lot of them are still unchecklisted and quite rare. Once such card is this new card find of Hulk Hogan from 1983. It is a card that came in a cassette case for what appears to be entrance music for the Hulkster, or Ichiban, as he was known in Japan when he first debuted. It's about the size of a regular trading card and blank backed. Now all I need is a Walkman to listen!
It never ceases to amaze me how many pre-war sets are still out there that weren't destroyed in the war in Japan. I've mentioned several times on this blog that the amount of destruction and devastation, along with paper drives and commodity scacity, would have seemingly wiped out all of the paper products and children's games for the most part. When I uncover sets like this, it makes me realize how important these likely were to families back then and worth keeping. I am glad I am able to document them for history's sake!
This M405: 1940 Circle Back 5 set looks like it was well loved and used in lots of menko games bringing a smile to some child's face. In terms of design it is fairly standard, but with some great background designs on the front behind the wrestler. When these were newly issued, the colors must have been really vivid! The backs contain the standard birthplace, height, weight, favorite technique and stable information with a dominate circle at the top and 5-digit Fighting Number at the bottom.
Interestingly, no yokozuna appeared in the auction I won....likely those menko were the most cherished and fell apart many decades ago from hundreds of rounds of menko.
Thanks for stopping by...I hope everyone has a great weekend and sayonara!
Wow, I did not expect to take that much time off of blogging...almost two months. Work just happened to get really crazy with a project we are working on right when a lot of things started opening back up as we all start getting vaccinated. Hence, I have not had a chance to sit in front of my computer much, nor work on many hobbies. Anyway...am hoping to be back blogging once or twice a week.
I've been clearing out my sets that need checklisted, documented in my book, and then put in binders. This M-Series set has been staring in my face since the pandemic...I purchased it during quarantine and have now just finally got around to documenting it. It's a beauty and the first, and only, time I have seen any menko from this set indicating how rare it is out there. One of the main reasons it is so rare is it was made in the middle of World War II. 1944 in fact. How it survived all these years is a wonder and we'll never know. However, we can now document it as the M441: 1944 Gunbai Math 2-3 set. The drawings of the rikishi are crude, but totally fit in with the austere war conditions in Japan during the time. The backs have an image of the judge's fan, or gunbai, and are printed in a vivid, red ink. Inside this gunbai are the wrestlers names across the top (read from right to left) as well as birthplace, height, weight, favorite technique and stable information in the gunbai. Also common during this time was a math equation and indicates it could have been issued in a children's school magazine. They measure about 1 1/8" x 2 7/8" so a bit on the small side.
