Chaos and Kanji is the blog where I write about my adventures through Japan!

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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Unknown Bromides

A couple weeks ago, I took an overnight trip to Nagoya. I got a late start, putting me in town around 1 p.m. But that was fine, since I was spending that whole day just going from card shop to card shop. My first stop was CAPS, a former Mint shop that will be closing down in the next few months. They're slowly clearing out a lot of their singles, though apparently they plan to keep some sort of online business going.

I picked up a lot of good cards there, but most importantly and confusing were these bromides. I can't identify them. I can't tell you much about them, but if you know anything to add to them, let me know!

Note: the measurements are being made with my iPhone app, so they might not be very accurate.
 This card is about 9 cm wide and 13 cm long. There are no markings or borders at all, and the back is white. I have no clue about the player, though it is obviously a Yomiuri Giants player.
 This is Michio Nishizawa, who is pictured with the Dragons. He played with them his entire career, though I'm guessing this card was issued sometime from 1947-1958 (his final season). Nishizawa started as a pitcher, even throwing a no-hitter, but eventually left the mound and developed into a pretty good hitter. He went on to manage the team for a few years, compiling an over-.500 winning percentage. He's in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and his number, 15, has been retired by Chunichi. This card has a white or off-white back. You can see the border and the horizontal, white text on the front. It measures about 8 cm by 10 cm.
 Makoto Kozuru is another Dragons player who is now in the Hall of Fame. He played with the Dragons from 1942-1943, and 1946-1947. Like Nishizawa, this card has a white back. The image is colorized, with a green background, red shoes, and yellow socks. I believe it's about 7 cm by 11 or 12 cm.
Finally, this colorized card has a yellow border, though it doesn't show up well in my scan. The text at the bottom looks more like type, where the other cards have text that looks handwritten. It has a tan back, and is printed on thinner stock than the others. It measures about 9 cm by 14 cm. The player featured is Michinori Tsubouchi, another Dragons player. He was with the team from 1949-1951 as a player, though also managed the team through 1954, and again from 1965-1967. He, too, is in the Hall of Fame.

I wasn't able to identify the cards looking through Engel's guide, but I might have missed something. Regardless, they're neat cards, and given their sizes, are probably prize cards from various sets. And at least three of the four are hall of famers!

And I got one more big bromide, but it's so big I couldn't scan it. That one has Shigeru Chiba, who is also in the Hall of Fame, so I'm at least four for five.

Until next time...

10 comments:

  1. I have such a love/hate relationship with bromides. I love the images but I hate how hard it is to figure out what set they're from. I have dozens that I haven't been able to find in Engel - he must have hundreds of example cards that he hasn't been able to organize.

    For what it's worth, the Giants uniform in the top card was worn between 1947 and 1950 (which of course doesn't mean the card's from that period - it could have been issued later). Nishizawa's uniform is from 1949-50, Kozuru's is from 1946-47 (not a shock - no cards during the war) and Tsubouchi's is from 1950-51.

    I'd guess that the Giants player is Shigeru Chiba since the player on the card looks like him and is probably an infielder but I could be completely wrong.

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    1. Yeah you're at about where I am in terms of identifying the sets. I did get another bromide recently that I could figure out, though!

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  2. Sumo bromides are so hard to catalogue so I feel your pain. There are hundreds of sets in the sumo world and with no back identification, it makes it really tricky and hard. Man, I am so jealous of your Japanese card shop excursions!

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    1. Honestly, I very rarely find bromides in card shops. Usually, they come to me from auctions or retro hobby/toy shops.

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  3. Nice vintage Japanese HOF haul! Now that's what I call a trifecta. They combine 3 of my favorite things relating to cards: Japanese players, vintage cards, and hall of famers.

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    1. One of my favorite things on cards, though, is information to identify them...

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  4. Wow, great pick ups, I don't know what they are either!

    I think I know that shop though, I've bought stuff from them via Yahoo Auctions before. They have been liquidating a lot of their stock over the past few months and even selling off the showcases. This is them: https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/seller/ken55tm?select=22

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    1. Yeah, I think at this point they might be fully closed. I've bought a few things in their auctions, too. It's a shame they're gone, because I could always find something interesting there... one of the few shops with a good selection of oddballs.

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