Japanese menko and bromide cards were often packaged for sale in ways which are quite exotic by US standards. Often, each card was placed in a small newsprint paper packet. A large group of packets was then strung together to be hung up for display in what is called a taba (hanging bundle). The taba typically has a colorful paper cover to which a sample card is glued. Essentially, a taba is equivalent to an unopened box in the US, with multiple unopened one card packs inside.
In our more than 35 years in the Japanese card business, this is the first 1959 JBR 5 taba that we have ever offered for sale or at auction. There are 66 different poses of baseball players in the set. The cards in tabas are 2 in 1, meaning that two poses appear side by side on one card. The same two players are not necessarily seen on any one card. 16 poses of Japan Hall of Famers are included in the set. By far the most important is the Sadaharu Oh rookie card. Others include Shigeo Nagashima (2 diff.), Minoru Murayama (rookie), Masaichi Kaneda, Katsuya Nomura, Tadashi Sugiura, Noboru Akiyama, Takeshi Koba, Kazuhisa Inao, Kenjiro Tamiya, and Masaaki Koyama. Also Americans Joe Stanka, John Sardinha, Fibber Hirayama and Mike Solomko.
The taba contains 110 one card packs. The card glued to the cover features HOFers Kenjiro Tamiya and Masaichi Kaneda. We expect that every pack in this taba contains a baseball card, but we aren't positive. There is also a 60 card 2 in 1 set consisting of entertainers that was produced by Marukami at the same time. We have occasionally seen uncut sheets of JBR 5 in which the left hand columns of the sheet contain baseball players, and the right hand columns contain entertainers.
Assuming that all the cards inside are indeed baseball cards, there are 220 poses. Therefore, we would expect that there are about three or four cards in this taba that include a Sadaharu Oh rookie.
Size: Each 2 in 1 card is 2 3/4" x 2 1/8".
Condition: The taba is G/Vg, unopened. The cards inside are expected to be mostly Nm, Nm/Mt and Mint.