Help on finding what these are...
 

Hello all,

About a year ago I purchased some cards on eBay that were titled "1950 Japanese Baseball Card" and then it gave what appeared to be a name of a player. I bought them purely because they looked good and I wanted to frame them, but my curiosity has gotten the best of me and I'm wondering who made these and when. Maybe some of you might know or know where to find out. I attached pics of them and as you can see there's nothing on the back and all of the writing is in Japanese. Help!!!

Hi,

The cards that you have are from the 1949 Yakyu Timu Awase set. Yakyu means baseball in Japanese and there are at least 70 cards in the set. Your cards are:

Giichiro Shiraki P Tokyu Flyers #18
Hiroshi Tsujii 1B Taiyo Robins #12
Fumio Fujimura 3B Hanshin Tigers #10
Akira Noguchi C Chunichi Dragons #6

The 2 symbols underneath the photo are the team's ownership name: ex.: Chunichi
Directly below that is the team nickname in red: ex.: Dragons
Both of these are read left to right. Underneath the nickname is the player's last name and position in black that is read vertically from top to bottom: ex.: Noguchi Catcher
In the bottom right corner is the uniform number in a red circle, and the team's logo flag is under the player's last name and position.

Hope that this information is helpful to you.

Jeff

Hope that information is helpful? Holy smokes, you just hit a grand slam!!!! How do you know that? I looked EVERYWHERE I could online to find out and found nothing.

You, sir, are my hero. Thank you! :-)

The knowledge on this board continues to amaze me!!
 

I am a regular here and seeing the response to this post reminds me just how amazing the people who participate in this forum are at connecting answers with questions. Awesome! Proud to be a part of it.

Howard Chasser

Thanks, guys. I am glad it was helpful. I have collected Japanese cards since 1979, and can read the language well enough to translate most cards. If you really want a reference work for questions like this, then get a copy of Gary Engel's Japanese Baseball Checklist and Price Guide. Robert Klevens, who is a member here, deals in Japanese cards and has them for sale on his website: www.prestige collectibles.com.

By The way, Fumio Fujimura of the Tigers is a Hall of Famer, while Akira Noguchi's brother Jiro Noguchi is also a Hall of Fame member. A third brother, Noboru Noguchi played 3B-SS for the Tigers from 1941-43 and was killed in the Philippines in 1945.

Let me know if you need any other information, I would be glad to help.


Jeff

It's funny you should mention that book because I was about to buy it before a friend of mine recommended coming here to ask first. I may still buy it because after re-finding them in my collection I'm pretty fascinated by them and interested in collecting more of them. Right now I just have the 4.

And I have a HOFer?!?!?! Wow!!!

They aren't in like some outstanding shape. After you told me what they were I did some looking and noticed someone had a complete set listed over at PSA, with gpa weighted 8. I doubt these even hit 5, but that's okay cause they still look great!

BTW, both of the links you posted didn't work. That's okay though, you're still me hero. :-)

I just tried the link and it did not work for me either, but I think it is because I must have typed in a space between prestige and collectibles. I have it saved with my hobby links and it is working just fine. It should be: www.prestigecollectibles.com, and the book is on the front page.

By the way, Fumio Fujimura, the Hall of Famer was also nicknamed "Mr. Tigers" which is a Japanese way of designating him the team leader or "face of the franchise" during his career there. Later on he was famous for being an actor on a popular samurai TV series.

Thanks again for the opportunity to help.

Jeff

Not to stray too far off topic, but I'm glad Douglas MacArthur's boys got him instead of the other way around.

This is one of my favorite threads I've seen in my time on N54. Between the scans of the cool, obscure cards to the knowledge imparted in the responses, really a great read.

You'll be happy to know then that I just purchased 6 more and as soon as I get them I'll scan them so you can check them out. They look fantastic! Not mint by any means, but the coloring just pops.

New cards came in and I just love how they look!

Apologies in advance for the minor threadjack.

I live a couple doors down from one of 'Bull Halsey's boys', and I'll add that one of the reasons I love collecting from this era so much is how much the cards and the players they depict overlap with history. For the set I'm building, the card backs for almost every player mention military service, and even the guys who were 4F still lived through the Roaring Twenties, the stock market crash, the Depression, one or two World Wars (depending on birth year), etc. And for a history nut like me, it's an added bonus for someone like Jeff to weigh in about the other side. In terms of memoirs and first person accounts, there hasn't been nearly as much written by the Japanese as there has by the Americans, so it's always interesting to hear about that side.

Hi Ryan,

I am glad that you got some more of these cards. I don't know if you ever picked up a copy of Gary's book, so here is who you have:

#55 is Kiyoshi Sugiura SS Chunichi Dragons
He played from 1946-1953, hit .255 w/125 HR. Managed for 5 yrs. in '60s .485 winning pct. Was a 32 year old rookie in '46.

#4 is Torao Ooka 1B Daiei Stars (Name pronounced OhOhka, not like the double O in hoop) Played from 1949-1951, 37 year old rookie in '49. Hit 34 HR in 1950. Career: .275, 61 HR.

#25 is Hirofumi Komae LF Hankyu Braves
1946-1950, .215 in 5 yrs.

#20 Tetsunosuke Fujiwara C Yomiuri Giants
Career: 1942-1954, hit .220 in 12 seasons.

#24 Shoji Arakawa 2B Taiyo Robins
1947-1955, hit .251 in 9 years, All Star in '51, and made a Best 9 team. Also a catcher.

#9 is Kazuo Horii LF Nankai Hawks
1943-1959, played 733 consecutive games, Best 9 in 1953, .272 in 16 yrs.

Also, Horii is not on Gary's checklist, so if you get the book you can add him in.

Scott,

I am a huge history fan as well, and absolutely love making the connections with historical events through my card collection. Like your neighbor, my Dad was also in the Navy in World War 2. He was a gunner in the Armed Guard- the Navy gun and radio crews that were deployed on the converted merchant ships that carried supplies or troops. He fired a 20mm cannon on the SS Sea Witch that landed the 4th Marine Division on the islands of Saipan and Tinian in the summer of 1944, and was credited with shooting down an attacking kamikaze fighter plane.

Since you are interested in the Japanese side as well, the father of my collecting friend from Tokyo was in the Japanese Army and survived the bloodbath that was Okinawa. Kiyoshi Sugiura, the first card in the list above, was on Rabaul in the Philippines during the war, and overall an even 50 Japanese players were killed in WWII. The list includes a few Hall of Famers like Eiji Sawamura who, as a 17 year old pitcher, lost to the touring Babe Ruth Major Leaguers 1-0 in 1934. The only run was a Lou Gehrig HR. The Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award is named after him.

Hope this information is of interest, thanks again for getting these cards Ryan.

Jeff

My late Dad joined the Marines before WWII and saw it from end-to-end. He was on the raid on Choiseul, Bougainville and the first wave ashore on Iwo Jima.

He also was waiting in the Tokyo harbor when the the surrender was signed on the U.S. Missouri. The Marines went ashore the next morning to gather weapons. I asked Dad if it was difficult or scary and he said "not at all. When the emperor said it was over it was over."

He said as they went up into the hills the Japanese soldiers led them right to everything. The reason I added this was the other thing he told me about that experience. He said that every time they took a break the Japanese soldier would pull a glove and ball from their back pockets and want the Marines to play catch with them!

Don't get me wrong, he lived until 95 and never really cared too much for the Japanese, he said he just saw too much.

Thanks for all the info! I haven't been able to get the book yet, but I will be very soon. It's so cool that I have a card that isn't on his list!!! :)

I've never sent cards in before. For those of you in the know, if I was going to send them to PSA, what kinds of grades would those cards get?

Just a bump for any knowledgeable graders out there. What kind of grades would these cards I've scanned reasonably get? Thanks.

Ryan - cool cards! Good luck pursuing the set!

I had a very fun time collecting Japanese HOF cards over several years, but have recently had to redirect funds towards my primary collecting goals (and to help with a down-payment on a house). The large number of different sets and variations is fun to navigate and collect. The book is immensely important to have if you are interested in what sets you have and who the players are.

Anyway, if you are interested in the book, I just listed one on the BST section (cheaper than what you'd find elsewhere).

All the best!

I appreciate the response and the good luck. I'm a little strapped at the moment on cash, but one day I'd love to have that book! I am wondering at this point what kind of grade they would garner if I sent them to PSA for grading some time down the line.

So I took the Japanese cards I got, along with some others I bought, and made this...

That's a nice display. They look like pop art.