Over the years, we've seen several examples of cards from this set, but only now, after the discovery of this magazine, do we know the manufacturer, mode of distribution and number of cards in the set! This is the first complete set of these cards ever to be offered. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, Japanese Children's magazines occasionally provided New Year's gifts to their readers in the form of uncut sheets of sports cards. While the practice was most common in the late '40s and early '50s, the practice was still in force in December 1958. Between 1950 and 1954 Omoshiro Book produced JK 12, 19, 20 and 21 Karuta sets that were found with the New Year's edition of the magazine. For the 1/1/59 issue, instead of karuta cards, a 36 card set of bromides was bound into the back of the book. This lot contains the original magazine, with all cards still bound in the book. The cards were issued in two, 16 card sheets. All cards feature player or rikishi (sumo wrestler) portraits on solid color backgrounds. The 16 baseball cards include 11 Japan Hall of Fame members: Shigeo Nagashima, Katsuya Nomura, Wally Yonamine, Yasumitsu Toyoda, Yoshio Yoshida, Kenjiro Tamiya, Futoshi Nakanishi, Kazuhisa Inao, Hiroshi Oshita, Tatsuro Hirooka and Tadashi Sugiura. Others are Kageyama-Hawks, Fujio-Giants, Namiki and Watanabe-Tigers and Anabuki-Hawks. Sumo Yokozuna (grand champions) are Wakanohana, Chiyanoyama, Asashio and Tochinishiki. The cards have "wallpaper" pattern backs, as do some of the early 1950s issues from Omoshiro Book.
Also, a postcard of Shigeo Nagashima is inserted into the magazine. On the back, "Happy New Year 1959" is written in Japanese.
Size: The magazine is 7 1/8" x 10 1/8". The uncut card sheets are also 7 1/8" x 10 1/8". Each card would be about 1 5/8" x 3" if cut from the sheet.
Condition: The Magazine is G/Vg and is warped in the back. One card sheet has considerable foxing. The other has a crease at lower left, and part of the Kageyama card is missing. The Nagashima postcard is Nm with slight browning.
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