Finally, after at least close to 5 years....maybe longer...I have completed the 1974 Japanese Yamakatsu "Enter the Dragon" set and that is no joke.  For the past couple of years, I have been struggling to find the last two cards at the right price, but they popped up in a few auctions and I pulled the trigger.  Such a relief to have this Series 1 set complete.  For those that aren't familiar with this 144-card set, it is broken up into three series based on the Enter the Dragon and The Way of the Dragon movies and Green Hornet TV series as follows:

Cards #1-48 - Series 1: Enter the Dragon
Cards #49-96 - Series 2: The Way of the Dragon (with Chuck Norris)
Cards #97-144 - Series 3: The Green Hornet TV Series

All three Series get progressively harder to find and complete  Series 1 is the easiest and Series 3 is the hardest, and most expensive.

Here are all 48 cards in their glory!



Now off to tackle the last nine cards in Series 2!

Everyone knows the feeling of reaching into your winter coat pocket after you put it on the first time during winter and discovering a long-forgotten $20 bill, getting surprise present from a fellow trader or friend, or finding out the latest episode of The Walking Dead is an hour and a half instead of an hour.  This newly discovered set is all those joyous feelings wrapped up into one.  Due to oversight or carelessness, I thought I had picked up a 4-card auction of Japanese sumo and baseball cards.  Low and behold, I realized that I was bidding for the entire 54-card set (52 cards plus 2-jokers).  And what a set it is in the sheer amount of famous stars from Japan from 1963.  However, as I was thumbing through the set I realized that there was one card in here that stood out from the rest as I saw the telltale kanji of 九 in Kyu Sakamoto's name.  Kyu Sakamoto had some semblance of Richie Valens' life in they both had successful singing careers early in their life and both died in plane crashes: Richie tragically in Iowa and Kyu in the mountains of Gunma Japan on Japan Airlines Flight 123...the deadliest single plane accident in history.  I had a chance to visit the crash site and memorial when I lived in Japan and a somber rememberance of all the lives lost.

Why am I mentioning Kyu Sakamoto?  This card is the earliest known of him (although my research against this statement is very limited) and printed just a few years after his breakout single Ue O Muite Aruko (Sukiyaki in Western Countries) made him a superstar in Japan and the United States.  Sukiyaki was the first Japanese song to climb to #1 on the American Top 100 charts which did so in 1963.



On a brighter note, these are two previously unknown baseball cards of Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima...hopefully they'll make it into the next edition of the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist.  This set also has Yokozunas Taiho and Kashiwado which I'll get into the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist.....Pro Wrestler Rikidozan is in this set and was was unfortunately murdered not too long after this card was printed.

Getting back to sumo cards after a few other posts, I picked up these sumo card singles a month or two ago over in Japan.  Normally for these kids magazine cards I turn to the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist as Gary usually has most of these cataloged.  Surprisingly, this set is not it there, but these cards appear to be from around 1975 given the wrestler's ranks.  These trump cards (as the Japanese call playing cards) came in small boxes and different sets were inserted in issues of Boken Oh (Adventure King) magazines throughout the year during the January issues.  Likely there are 52-54 total cards in this set and I have three of the sumo wrestlers (Wajima, Takanohana, Kitanoumi) and one pro wrestler (Antonio Inoki), but there are likely singers, actors/actresses, baseball players and other famous people throughout the set.  They measure 1 5/8" x 2 1/8" and are printed on thin paper stock.  Anyone else have any of these?

    Two Lone Sole Mates in a month!  Hopefully I keep this up.  This set has eluded me forever.....and the evidence was right under my nose the whole time.  I've owned maybe 4-5 of the sumo card of Yokozuna Yoshibayama over the years, but could never find another sumo wrestling menko card in the set.....that's because he is the only sumo wrestling star in the set and the other cards are famous stars from baseball, tv, movies, and cartoons.  I have a big box of misc menko cards that I've accumulated over the years as I tend to "dump" the non-sumo cards in this box when I buy auction lots.  It's been slowly piling up and I've made a concerted effort recently to try and put some of the cards on eBay to thin the herd and give these menko new homes.  I found a baseball menko of Fumio Fujimura that I listed on eBay with no takers....fortunately.  When I studied the back design of the Fujimura menko I realized I had seen that back before and went to my binder of Lone Sole sumo menko.  Low and behold I discovered a match...I then proceeded to dig through the box of misc menko and discovered 4 more bringing the total that I have of this set to 6.
   I've labeled this set the M548 - 1954 Famous Stars 10 set with the checklist as follows:

- 9989354617 - Boy on Bear (Unknown)
- 8795234157 - Fumio Fujimura (Baseball) 
- 7824357681 - Keiko Kishi (Actress)
- 6732548295 - Yokozuna Yoshibayama (Sumo)
- 2545678951 - Keiji Sada (Actor)
- 1698675432 - Tarzan (Actor)


Good stuff....now I can go have a beer and enjoy the rest of my Labor Day weekend feeling like I've accomplished something laborious.  Enjoy and stay safe this weekend.....talk to you next week!