This is one set I have been excited to scan for a while as it is one of the early S-Series sumo wrestling card sets out there.  Why was I excited?  Well, this set contains the earliest color card with an actual picture (not a cartoon drawing like on the R-Series rikishi) of legendary Yokozuna Futabayama.  And sprinkled throughout are other wrestlers that have only appeared in this set as far as I can tell.  Maegashira Bochozan....never heard of him until today and he only spent 5 tournaments at the very bottom portion of the top division.  Same with Maegashira Oyashima...6 tournaments barely scraping by in the top division.

These S-Series sets were sold at the Kokugikan as souvenirs with the intent of taking them home and using them as visual reference as fans listened to the tournaments over the radio as that was a popular way way to catch the tournament without actually going to the stadium.  As you can imagine, these sets had to have survived the fire-bombings of World War 2 as well as the test of time and to be able to land and catalogue one of these sets is a real honor!  Cards are somewhat small at 1.75" x 2.75" and usually come 32 cards to the set.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and stays safe!  Sayonara!

In Japan, before there were televised broadcasts of sumo tournaments starting in the early 1950s, coverage of the live action occurred on the radio.  We take the internet and television for granted these days, but in the first half of the 20th Century radio and newspapers were the main medium to transmit news and information.  Most of us can conjure up historic images of families sitting around the radio listening to their favorite show.  In Japan, these early sumo broadcasts were familiar to the masses.  In an effort, to place a name with a face, these Stadium/Kokugikan card booklets were produced so fans could follow along a tournament visualize their favorite wrestlers.  These are not unlike the souvenir programs you get at games these days.  Two of these card booklets were issued per year; one showing the wrestlers on the west side of the banzuke, and one showing the wrestlers on the east side.  They issued these in a ten-year span from about 1921-1931.  This one is one of the last ones made and was printed for the March 1931 tournament with the east side wrestlers along with a header cards showing the Kokugikan and the 4 top referees.  Folded up, these booklets measure about 4" x 6", but when it is unfolded, it reaches a length of almost 30".  Each individual card is 1 5/8" x 3.5".  These are hard to find, but one to two come up for auction every year.

I was doing some touch up work on this set and thought it would be good to share it here.  The S-Series of cards, or Kokugikan Cards, were produced to give fans an opportunity to have their favorite wrestlers of the day through these small card sets.  They were presumably sold as souvenirs at the Kokugikan (the building where tournaments are held in Tokyo).  At this time in Japan there was no TV so the only way to watch a tournament was to attend during one of the two annual tournaments in Tokyo or see the wrestlers when they went on tour around the country in between the tournaments.  Since there was no TV and most matches were broadcast on the radio, this would have been a handy set to have to visualize the wrestlers.



 The 1944 Kokugikan Set (S441) was produced towards the end of World War 2.  As you can imagine, cards/menko/bromides from during the War are excruciatingly/extremely rare to find.  The quality of this set is very low as you can see from the scans above and likely due to the very poor and worn out printing presses at the time.  Most all industry was focused on the war effort so any product that wasn't benefiting the war was likely produced in low numbers.  An unknown printer made this set, but the back of the box does say "Made in Aomi, Tokyo".  Aomi is a small area in southern Tokyo right along Tokyo Bay at the southern end of the Rainbow Bridge and this area was pretty much decimated in 1944/1945 during the fire bombing raids of World War 2.  Likely the company that produced this set was destroyed as well, but even more amazingly this set has survived all the bombing raids, reconstruction, and recovery during the 70+ years after the war.   Almost all of the S-Series sets came in small cardboard boxes like the one below.


This set does have one of the last known cards of the great Yokozuna Futabayama along with some really rare cards of low ranking Maegashira wrestlers whose only cards appear in this set.  I have the current checklist at 23 cards, but I have a feeling it should be 25 as a few high-ranking wrestlers are missing from my set (Sagamiiwa, Terunobori).