In addition to my beloved Calbee and Yamakatsu cards from the 70s and 80s another hobby area I've been exploring lately are post-war menko cards. They are just so colorful and simple that it is hard not to love them.
These three are from the set catalogued as JRM 26 "Pinwheels" issued in 1948. Its a pretty good lot in terms of player selection, you've got:
Michio Nishizawa: Kind of an early Japanese version of Shohei Ohtani (or Babe Ruth), he excelled as a pitcher - compiling a 2.23 career ERA, winning 20 games in 1939 and pitching a no hitter in 1942. Injuries he suffered during the war forced him to give up pitching, but he came back after the war as a position player and became one of the league's best hitters, belting a (then record) 46 home runs in 1950 and winning the batting and RBI titles in 1952. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977.
Masayasu Kanada: He played 15 seasons between 1942 and 1957, all for the Tigers. He won the batting title in 1946, also leading the league in hits that year and set a CL record with 18 triples in 1951.
Hideo Fujimoto: In a career lasting from 1942 to 1955 he became one of the most dominant pitchers in Japanese history. He currently holds the record for lowest career ERA (1.90!!!!) and lowest single season ERA (0.74!!!!). He finished his career with exactly 200 wins against only 87 losses, a 0.697 winning percentage that is also a record. He was also elected to the Hall of Fame in the 1970s.
I'm not entirely certain what game this set was meant to be used to play - the numbers in the playing card suits on each (800, 1500 and 600) are obviously there for a reason but I don't know what it is. For a set that is over 70 years old this one is one of the easier to find, despite having big name hall of famers the individual cards can be found in the 300-600 Yen each range ($3-$6US) on Yahoo Auctions, even less if you buy them in lots or stumble onto deals. They look pretty cool too!
