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 1954 issue. This set comes in a decorative box containing a number of colorized photos. Most of the photos feature Japanese players and scenes, but one picture is the unmistakable image of the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth.
19 Japan Hall of Fame members are found in the set: Wally Yonamine (Hawaii), Victor Starffin (Russia), Masaichi Kaneda (400 game winner), Tetsuharu Kawakami (God of Batting), Shigeru Mizuhara, Fumio Fujimura (Mr. Tigers), Kaoru Betto (Gentleman of Baseball), Takehiko Bessho (300 game winner), Hiroshi Oshita (man with the blue bat), Hideo Fujimoto (all time ERA leader), Shigeru Sugishita, Katsumi Shiraishi, Shigeru Chiba, Atsushi Aramaki, Ryohei Hasegawa, Michio Nishizawa, Kazuto Tsuruoka, Tokuji Iida and Futoshi Nakanishi. There's also a card of American Larry Raines.
Size: Each card is approximately 2 1/8" x 2 3/8". The box is 4 1/2" x 5 1/4".
Condition: The cards are Ex/Mt to Nm+. The box is Ex-Ex/Mt.