Iroha Karuta is a game consisting of pairs of cards--a picture card and a reading card. Players match the picture with the text. This set was produced by a children's magazine as a New Years "furoku" or gift with the January 1952 issue. It is sometimes called the "wallpaper back" set because of the unusual back design. Since the set depicts players in their 1951 uniforms and was released in December of 1951, it technically could be construed as a 1951 set, which would then make the Wally Yonamine card a rookie. While single cards and small groups of cards have occasionally been seen, this marks the first time that we have seen a complete set in the original box.
Fifteen Hall of Famers are represented in the lot-Wally Yonamine (Hawaii), Masaichi Kaneda (400 lifetime wins), Tetsuharu Kawakami (God of Batting), Hiroshi Oshita (bad boy of Japan Pro Baseball), Shigeru Chiba, Makoto Kozuru, Tokuji Iida, Kazuto Tsuruoka, Katsumi Shiraishi, Kaoru Betto, Yoshiyuki Iwamoto, Atsushi Aramaki, Takehiko Bessho, Shigeru Sugishita and Fumio Fujimura. One HOFer missing-Nishizawa.
38 player cards and 40 reading cards.
Size: Each card is approximately 2" x 3"
Condition: The general player card condition is Vg to Ex, except that there is a tiny number written in ink at upper left. Reading cards are Ex/Mt to Nm.