Not a Menko? JBR 5: 1959 2 in 1 Marukami B&W

As far as most of you can tell, menko are pretty standard - image on the front, game stuff on the back. And these cards are no different in that respect. But one thing you don't usually see, and I never really mention, is that menko are generally very thick. Some of the die-cuts I have are thinner than the rectangular ones, but they still are thicker than the Allen & Ginter cards sitting beside them. This is because menko is a game, and cards are designed to be tough, so they last in battle and actually fly like you want them to.

Bromides are much thinner. Some are basically the same thickness as photo paper, though most are pretty standard in their thickness. Also, while not necessarily the case every time, bromides get their name from the photographic process originally used to make cards. So when it comes to cataloging a card, not only the design but the thickness and manufacturing techniques come into play.

While more menko sets have been released for baseball than bromides, you can still find the modern version of bromides in various entertainment industries. What translates as "life photographs" are extremely popular for many idol groups; some AKB48 photos can sell for hundreds of dollars! I've also seen similar products offered for some baseball products. The cheerleader team box sets BBM has issued over the past few years have included these as box toppers, and I've seen some teams issue larger bromide/life photograph style products. Furthermore, bromides can be found in some snack shops for popular music groups.

 This is JBR 5. Issued in 1959 by Marukami, the name of the set refers to two cards being attached to each other. The combined cards are 2-3/4" by 2-1/8".

The player on the right is Yosio Yoshida of the Tigers. While this is a 1959-designated set, my The History of Uniform book identifies that cap logo as belonging to the 1960 uniform. It's possible that the book could be wrong about the cap change date. The player on the left is Yoshikazu Hamanaka, of the Whales (I think - determined by his hat logo and pose). The same book identifies his uniform as being from 1960 as well; the Whales didn't use jersey numbers on their fronts until that season. It's possible this set was issued in 1960 or the uniform book is incorrect.

The back of each card has a playing card number and symbol as well as an animal, along with a janken symbol at the bottom.  The backs don't match to specific fronts, as each front could have any playing card symbol on the back.

The set has 60 baseball cards plus many actors and actresses. Regular cards came sold uncut in pairs, but there are display sheets with 4, 12, and 32-card layouts.

What is Karuta? JK20: 1952/3 Omoshiro Book New Year Furoku Inserts

Iroha karuta, or just karuta, is a game that has its roots in Japan from over 400 years ago. Based on a Portuguese game brought over in the late 1500s and early 1600s, when they were trading in Nagasaki, karuta has pairs of cards. Each pair consists of a picture card and a reading card; both cards share the same hiragana character.

There are several ways to play the game, but one common way is to place all the picture cards face up, and deal the reading cards to the players. Each player reads one of their reading cards, while the other players try to pick up the correct picture card. I occasionally play variations on this game while teaching English; it and many other traditional Japanese games are still played today by elementary school students!

What you see here is a picture card for a karuta game inserted in a December 1952 youth magazine. They were packaged in a box in uncut sheets of four cards, which came with the magazine. The team's name is in the bottom-left corner, while the player's name is printing in hiragana in the upper-right corner. A number (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) is printed in a circle at the bottom right. These numbers could have been used for other purposes - playing a game, or as points.

Reading cards have the player's name and information printed in Japanese text, surrounded by a border with lots of different sports equipment and a flag. Backs of all cards have a design like you see above.

As the pictures are color pastel drawings, the images are nice. Finding a full set probably isn't easy or cheap, partly because the set includes Wally Yonamine, a popular foreigner, and Masaichi Kaneda, considered one of the best pitchers of all-time in Japan. Of course, other popular players of the era appear in the set.

My card above is of Chusuke Kizuka, definitely a common baseball player from the set. He is a member of the Hawks. That isn't to say that he was a bad player - Kizuka was a six-time All-Star, hitting over .300 a few times in his career; he also was pretty good on the basepaths, ranking in the top 5 all-time. His career batting average was .262 and he managed 479 steals in 593 attempts, which gives him the best percentage of those in the top-five SB category. His success as a base stealer certainly is the reason he is depicted sliding in his card above.

The JK20 set contains stars from all sorts of sports - university and professional baseball players, ice skaters, swimmers, judo and discus stars all appear in the set. This is in contrast to JK19, which only has baseball players.

Note: this post was edited thanks to SumoMenkoMan's comment (see below). I originally had this labeled as JK20, and changed my mind while writing this post - but thanks to him I know I was right in the first place. As SumoMenkoMan mentions, JK19 has a different font and (I couldn't notice this when I looked at the image in the first place) parenthesis around the team name in addition to the position in the lower left corner.

Five for Fighting: Die-Cut Menko Cards

Do you remember Five for Fighting?

Yeah, that's them. They make it into today's post because below, I give you five cards originally created for fighting. Menko is a game similar to Pogs, where the players throw their menko cards at their opponents' to get them to flip over. Other games are found on menko cards - janken, which is rock-paper-scissors, numbers which can be used for math-based or other number games, playing card suits and numbers, and quizzes are all pretty common. As a side note, a lot of game terminology in Japan has its origins in fighting or war.

 The first die-cut is this Hawks player. Similar to other menko I've shown from the 1940s, this doesn't specify any particular player but the back does mention the team name. It's uncataloged, most likely due to the lack of any players.

 This next card is also uncataloged. It has a different design which hints that it comes from a different release. There is no menko number on this card, nor are there janken symbols or other text for standard menko games. On the back, the kanji in the middle translates as referee, referring to the umpire found on the front image. The baseball says "out" which indicates that having several of these cards could possibly lead to the simulation of a baseball game.

 Ahh, glasses. Kaoru Betto is one of the most recognizable players of the past thanks to his trademark spectacles. This card is from the JDM 21 1949 Hoshi Gangu Diecuts set, easily identified by the team name at the top and Hoshi Gangu star logo on the right. The center text is the player's name; the menko number is at the bottom in the banner.

 These glasses don't belong to Betto; this is Tadayoshi Kajioka, whose name is in the yellow circle on the front. This set is JDM 19 c. 1949, and called Large Brown Number Background for obvious reasons. A janken symbol is at the top and a baseball outcome (right fly - a fly ball to right field) is at the bottom.

Finally, we go back to 1947 for JDM11: Card Number in Circle. I would guess that this is the earliest sequentially numbered baseball card set issued in Japan. Other card sets may have unique numbers, but those aren't sequential; Karuta cards come close, being "numbered" using the Japanese alphabet. Card 2 is Hiroshi Oshita. The first 10 cards are professional players while the last 8-10 cards (#12 and #20 aren't known) are university players.

There you have it! Five cool die-cut menko cards from nearly 70 years ago!