Uncatalogued Japanese Menko cards
 

Not sure if I shared this before, but I am working on documenting the undocumented. The current Japanese baseball card guide (an amazing piece of work spearheaded by Gary Engel - order it here: https://www.prestigecollectibles.com/vintageguide.aspx) is still only a partial list of all the amazing Japanese menko cards that are out there. I've created a blog to organize pictures of all the menko I come across that are as of yet uncatalogued (and which I'll pass along to Gary). Feel free to share any you find here, and I can add them to my blog at:

https://japanesemenkoarchive.blogspot.com/

Here are some important fun uncatalogued cards that I've come across just in the past week!

I've added 5 new Nagashima rookie cards to the list!

JCM 31d: 1958 Marukami B&W Front w/o Border Color Cartoon Back
90000 Nagashima/Kawakami w/ kimono (UNC)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...Nagashima4.jpg

JCM 32a: 1958 Marumatsu Scoreboard Back, Borderless
Nagashima - knees up, holding bat, RED bkg (UNC) - Previously there was known a green background version in JCM32a...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...Nagashima3.jpg

Nagashima-crouching (UNC)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...a_kneeling.jpg

Nagashima - Headshot, looking down (UNC)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...ookingdown.jpg

Nagashima - Waist up, looking up, man in back (UNC)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...I/s600/32a.jpg

And it's rare that I come across a new Sadaharu Oh card, but here's one from
JC 2b: 1973 Large Calbee Premiums
(this was a premium mail-away prize - kids would send in their "homerun" cards and choose this or a baseball card album)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...beePremium.jpg
(I like this one especially, as it mentions that Oh was chasing Babe Ruth's home run record - in 1973 Oh had hit in the mid-500s)

I thought about doing this once, and decided that I'm too lazy. Glad that someone who is less lazy than I am is up for it. Below are a few uncatalogued menkos - although I'll note that I don't have the version of the guide that's distributed digitally, only the hardcopy one. So there's a chance that these are catalogued in the more recent version of the guide. I have many more uncatalogued bromides, if you're interested in those too.

In order:
Makoto Kozuru (must be 1949, since he's on the Stars)
Kenjiro Tamiya (similar to many sets, but none lists him with this menko number)
Shigeru Sugishita (blank back)
Yoshio Yoshida (similar to JBR 17 and 29, but with a border)
Shigeru Chiba
Kaoru Betto (either 1948 or 49, since he's on the Tigers)
Tadashi Sugiura (similar to JCM 33d, but wrong menko number)
Tetsuharu Kawakami (blank back)
Kazuto Tsuruoka (blank back)

Admittedly the line between menko and bromide can be sketchy at times. But all of the cards here look like menkos, even if some are blank on the back. I don't seem to have a picture of the Yoshida card's back, I'll take a picture of it and upload it later.

Great! Thanks! A few of yours *are* in the current catalogue
- the first one is in the guide at JDM 31: 1949 Home Run Derby
- Shigeru Chiba is from JCM 159: c. 1951 Red Border
- Betto is from JCM 152: 1949 Red Border

Yeah, there's a bit of grey area between bromides and menkos - it seems if it has a blank back, it's called a bromide. So that's where a few of yours belong - some of those transitional cards have names like "JBR 17: 1957 Tobacco Menko Sized" - I *may* get to them at some point (at least the easier ones to identify, but man are they hard to figure out!!)

Here are a couple that I did not see in the guide. I think they are SF Seals players from the 1949 trip. Would appreciate any help with set and player ID!