While we have been pleased to offer complete and partial sets of this issue in the past, this is the first example of this set ever to be found in uncut four card panels in the original box. There are 40 player cards and 40 reading cards. The set contains 22 player cards of baseball players and 18 player cards of Japanese 1952 Olympics athletes and sumo stars. Of further interest is the fact that six of the baseball cards depict stars of Tokyo Big Six University teams, while the rest of the baseball players are members of Japan Pro Baseball. College baseball had ceased to be as popular as pro baseball by the late 1940s, and very few university players were ever depicted on cards of the 1950s or later. Unfortunately, none of the college players in this set went on to stellar pro careers.
The nine Hall of Famers in this lot include Wally Yonamine (Hawaii), Masaichi Kaneda (400 wins), Hiroshi Oshita (man with the blue bat), Tetsuharu Kawakami (God of batting--red bat), Kaoru Betto (Gentleman of Baseball), Hideo Fujimoto (lifetime ERA leader), Fumio Fujimura (Mr. Tigers), Michio Nishizawa (major leaguer at age 15) and Shigeru Sugishita (curveball specialist with 215-123 lifetime record). Yokozuna (Grand Sumo Champions) Azumafuji, Tochinishiki and Chiyonoyama are also part of the set.
The colorful, blue background label on the box lid clearly indicates that this "Sports Karuta" set was a New Year gift to purchasers of the January 1, 1953 issue of Omoshiro Book, published in December 1952.
Size: Each panel of four cards is approximately 4 1/4" x 4 7/8". Individual cards are about 2" x 2 3/8" when cut from the sheet. The box is 5 1/8" x 4 5/8".
Condition: The cards are Nm, Nm/Mt and Mint. The box lid has darkened around the edges and has chipped pieces along the flaps
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