This is one of the new key pieces of my collection.  Its an uncut sheet from the 1948 set Engel catalogues as JBR 118.  The set was issued in sheets like this, each featuring 10 cards from a team.  Mine features members of the Yomiuri Giants and has a few Hall of Famers like Tetsuharu Kawakami, Shigeru Chiba, Noburo Aota and manager Osamu Mihara.

Engel only lists the sheets for four teams (Braves, Flyers, Hawks and Giants) in the guide and states that only one copy of each is known to exist.  So my Giants sheet is either that one known copy, or it is a newly discovered second copy.  I'm leaning towards the second as being more likely, given that I bought it from an antique dealer located in Kobe who probably dug it up locally.  Either way, these are pretty hard cards to find.  

The backs of the cards have pictures of dogs wearing baseball caps in red.  Hence Engel gave this set the nickname "Dog Wearing Baseball Cap".  Which is pretty cool.  

 Here are a couple of cards from the set Engel catalogues as JRM 52, noteable for their bullseye background!

Issued in 1949 they are quite rare (Engel classifies them as R4, less than 10 copies known) and I have two of them, Tigers slugger Kaoru Betto and Giants star Noburo Aota!

The Aota one is particularly interesting since its a previously unknown "new discovery" that isn't listed in the guide.  I really love finding stuff like this,  maybe this is the only copy of this card which still exists (though its unlikely)!

I really love the design of these, the colorized portraits which show most of the player's body instead of just a headshot look great against the colorful background.

Both these guys are in the Hall of Fame.  I've written about Betto before, but Aota is also interesting. He was a five time home run leader and at the time he retired in 1959 he held the career record for most home runs with a grand total of ......265.  So slightly more career home runs than Pete Incaviglia?  Well, the league was still pretty new at the time and his reign only lasted 4 years!