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

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Sunday, January 10, 2016

相撲 カード ブログ Sumo Card Blog! (No, Really!)

I've been meaning to post about this for several days but for the most part the blog has been running on autopilot.

Image from Laughton's Blog
I've mentioned before how cool menko cards are - the cards issued in Japan up until the 1960s for use mainly in games. Many of the baseball menko sets are actually multi-sport and non-sport combinations capitalizing on anyone and anything popular at the time. That means many sets which contain baseball players also have Japanese and American movie and television stars, cartoon characters like Disney, and other sports stars - especially sumo.

You may have seen R Laughton posting comments on several blogs - he is a reader who was inspired to start his own blog focusing on his interest in sumo cards. Read his first post to see why this will end up being the most informed, helpful sumo card resource on the net. Ryan literally wrote the book on sumo cards.

Now, I know what you're saying. Sumo just isn't your sport. And I'll agree with you there. But when it comes to vintage cards, what sport is featured (or if there's a sport at all) doesn't matter so much - the cards are just really interesting to see and learn about. So give his blog a try. At the time of this writing, he has three posts published. I don't collect sumo cards and I'm already jealous of his collection! I'll probably have to start picking up some of these awesome cards when I get the chance.

Check out Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko!

3 comments:

  1. Those are some pretty cool cards. Like you mentioned, sumo isn't really my thing, but I can always appreciate some novel cardboard! Thanks for the link!

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  2. Ryan, thanks for the kind words! There are a lot of similarities between genres of menko and bromides from the 1940s-1960s. A lot of the same backs were used across numerous sets during the era. Hopefully the Japanese baseball community will benefit from the sumo card world as I have from you guys! Thanks as well RAZ for checking it out.

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  3. Thanks for sharing the link. Looks like a very interesting blog. I hope I'm able to find one of those Menko cards for a reasonable price.

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