Baseball Menko Madness: Uncut, Uncatalogued

True, I'm finally finished posting that massive mess of menko minis. But that doesn't mean I'm done showing vintage beauty.

I pick up menko in spurts. From time to time, I find myself with free time while I'm commuting. I've scrolled through Facebook, checked out my blog feed, and used up all of my hearts in Tsum Tsum. So I start poking around Yahoo Japan Auctions. I find a few menko listings and get what I can, and forget to keep an eye on listings for a while. Then, I have some more free time on the train, and the cycle begins again.

This uncut sheet probably dates back to the 1940s:

The menko are all intact on their sheet and feature crude drawings of various baseball players. I'm guessing that the logos on the jerseys are either generic or related to universities. The backs are blank.

Keio seems to be the name on the jersey of menko 6534, and the large character on the flag in 3534 is the first kanji in Keio. (Why is a player with an A on his cap holding a flag referring to Keio University?) The remaining characters refer to nationwide something-or-another. Keio University has a very popular baseball team and is a member of the Tokyo Big 6 Baseball League. Post-war, they dominated the Big 6 league in 1946 and 1947.

T could be Tokyo, or any other number of universities. But I don't know what R and A refer to. Furthermore, one of the "K" capped players has what looks to be Kokura on his jersey (the small unnumbered menko at the bottom).

Along those lines, T could be the Tigers on at least one of the cards. The uniform designs change from card to card, so each card could represent a different team. On 4571, a "T" player seems to be on the field with an "A" player. Though "A" could be a base runner. Then again, there's no guarantee that the two images are supposed to go together at all, and instead could just be two players or teams.

Kokura is a city in Kyushu prefecture, or at least it was, until it was joined with another city in 1963 to form Kitakyushu. But a very basic search didn't bring up any information on a Kokura University. Kitakyushu University seems to have been founded in 1946 but doesn't appear to have operated as Kokura University. The "Kokura" could refer to a high school team. A separate listing for this same sheet on YJA refers to high school baseball.

The star mark says 王元 Oogen (former king, or original king, or something to that point, based on what I can figure.)

I figure this is the from the late 1940s given the style. Round menkos were most common from around 1946-1950, Keio University had a strong baseball team around that time, and the crude drawings match up with other menko issued around that time. Furthermore, I've found some hints from other sites that Nukitori menko date back to the 1940s and this basic die-cut template was probably used multiple times.

Aside from that one menko with the flag, though, no other evidence shows that these menko are actually related to any particular team, and could just be random baseball art. Thanks to the heading, at least we know they're called "Nukitori Menko".

Art menko are my favorite. The drawings may be pretty simple here but that is part of the appeal. And while it's not too big (about the size of an Allen & Ginter box topper) it can look nice displayed on a wall!

As always, any other information is welcome!

Menko Madness: Finally, the Baseball

And you only get two scans.

 While I'm not surprised, the baseball menko I ended up with weren't necessarily really old or rare or anything along those lines. Yes, they are vintage, and I'm really glad to have them! However, finding menko from the 1940s or 1950s was out of the question.

The backs are here, so this is where you start when it comes to identifying menko. The top-left image (4985023) corresponds to the top-left image for the front scans, so let's get to work.

4985023: At first I believed this was from the 1972 Kankan Menko set (JCM 15a), however, the front image points to it being from the 1973 Thick Menko set (JCM 15b). That said, the description for set doesn't recognize this back (two cartoon characters opposing each other). Therefore, I believe it to be a third type, with the cartoon character backs. The player on the front is Shigeo Nagashima, one of the key cards in the set. (Based on the descriptions of Nagashima's cards in 15a and 15b, I believe it to be the 15b card. However, it could be the "headshot" or even "batting" pose for Nagashima in the 15a set. See how difficult this is?)

1750740: This card has the same back style as the Nagashima card, but the front is definitely a colorized image that matches up with the JCM 15a set. Therefore, this is a JCM 15a card of Minoru Murayama, with Toshio Kanbe in the background.

80620: This card is definitely from the 1973 Thick Menko set, and features Toshimitsu Suetsugu. The back is identical to the JCM 15a Type I style, making this a Type I back for JCM 15b.

90001: Marusan issued a bunch of very similar cards around 1960-1964 or so, but given the information on the front, this is from JCM 11, 1964 Marusan Simple, Navy Blue Back Photo Menko. Cards from this set were imported to the US, and those cards have a stamp around the janken symbol with a card number. This particular card stayed here in Japan. The player on the front is Kent Hadley, and this is one of only two menko sets (and thus Japanese sets) he appeared in!

The blue-backed one: Not really a menko card despite its appearance, this thinner stock card was issued by NST as a parallel to JMC 40: 1978 NST Yomiuri Giants. The regular cards in this set were meant to be pasted in an album, but these cards might have been sold as sets or given away as premiums/bonuses. I'm not sure who the player is.

I'm finally finished! But there are more menko to come. I have an uncut sheet and some other menko surprises on the way. But those are baseball menko. I promise!

Until then...

Menko Madness: The End is Nigh

I'm glad to say that this post will finish off the non-sport side of the massive menko mountain that continues to haunt a corner of my room. And that just leaves baseball! That's not much, unfortunately, but they are nice.

 I almost put this one in the "well-loved" section (at the bottom) but it deserved its own post. Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) graces the back of this cartoon-fronted menko.

 The crazy sea-monster front is worth its own post. I don't know what that is in the foreground, but the the background image looks like a battleship sinking as it's attacked by another fighter jet. Is this a reference to Pearl Harbor?! The back has a robot shooting laser beams at poor unfortunate screaming kids. This is similar in style to other menko backs we've seen in this post run, though there are some differences, including the massively long menko number at the bottom. Note that this back is almost the same as baseball menko JCM 129, 1958 Mitsuwa War/Playing Card Backs. However, the printer's mark isn't in the playing card section. I've mentioned that a similar card looked like it's from JCM 141, 1962 War/Playing Card Back.

 I really wish I knew more about Japanese TV. Whatever cartoon is on the front looks like a genie using his garlic breath to fight off kids. The backs have war images in the lower half, and yes that is an atomic bomb cloud. I don't know the kanji there, though.

 The next one comes from another Japanese show, and the back here has a space theme. The kanji below it translates to satellite.

 This next image might be the creepiest. Though if you go back to the first post in this series you'll see a guy in bondage gear. The back is pretty non-descript, though the animal artwork in the middle is nice.

 Once again there is a series with one odd card out. Actually, there are three shows here that I can tell, Kamen Rider (outside cards), Ultraman (inside cards), and some anime in the middle.

 These menko backs have a lot going on. They all have main pictures featuring transportation. The Japanese text is related to the picture.  At the top is a directional hand, a baseball play (four ball [walk], ball, balk, etc), and a nature scene. And the bottom has a die roll, menko number, and janken symbol. I guess you could do about any game you'd like with these cards! Except for playing poker games.

 This next group is an eclectic bunch. The cards at the bottom all have the show's title on the front, while the vertical cards do not. One card has a silver border and is smaller in size than the others, too. But they all share similar backs.

 Colors are generally blue on the back, except for the smaller card. Some sort of military rank or a space theme makes up the picture, with the text at the top relating to that image. The manufacturer's mark is next to the menko number, which varies by card.

 Continuing with the same group, here are three more that didn't fit on the scanner.

 I'm curious if the space backs and military personnel backs are from the same issue or separate issues, despite the front images being from the same show.

 Once again I don't know what's going on on the front, and the back is quite busy as well. The text at the top says "rocket" in Japanese, but that looks like a robot to me. There's also a copyright symbol at the top, a janken symbol near the middle, and a manufacturer's symbol toward the bottom, above the menko number.

 The last main card group is this single card with the front and back of Japanese coins. The color side has the front of a 100 yen coin and the back of a 50 yen coin, while the green monochrome side is reversed.

 The card is miscut but neat. Actually, through all of this I've seen some menko cards I wouldn't mind having full sets of, like the money menko. Maybe I'll come across a bunch at a flea market someday.

To finish out today's post, here are some cards that were truly well-loved.

 All of these cards have only one side. The other side is completely mutilated or has been separated from this side. So I can only show this side of the card.

And whoever owned these cards made their menko stronger by taping some of them together in pairs or even threes. I found at least one menko trapped between two others.

So that's it for the non-sport. Baseball tomorrow, I promise!