Identifying Japanese Bromides (Starffin, Kawakami et al)
 

I recently picked up an old Japanese notebook full of bromide baseball cards. For anyone not familiar with the term, bromides (named after the photographic process) are photographic baseball cards produces mainly from the mid-40s to the early 50s (although there are a few earlier sets and a few later). Most that I've come across are black and white or sepia but a very few are also hand-colored.

This notebook has roughly 250 bromide baseball cards glued to its pages by what appears to be a loving collector. The vast majority of bromides are blank backed and gluing them to pages was a common practice. My new project is to try to identify all of the cards in this album, which is a daunting prospect, as many bromide sets are uncatalogued. Anyway, here is the notebook cover and, in the second post, the first page of cards. I'll be working through the album page by page and would welcome any help with identification. Also, I'd love to see similar bromide cards if anyone cares to share.

Thanks!

The first page from the album.

The cards on top row right and and the middle row center and right all appear to be Victor Starffin. The middle row right card image looks like it is from 1946 as the uniform he is wearing a Pacific Baseball Club uniform and the team would change its name to the Taiyo Robins in 1947. I've seen a couple of other bromides with this same image (listed at auction as 1947 uncatalogued, suggesting 1946 is correct for the image), but not this exact card with the baseball glove in the lower left.

The upper right card is likely from 1948. Starffin moved to the Stars in 1948 and this uniform was only used by the team in 1947 and 1948. The upper left card is a little harder to read, but I think it reads "Naito," in which case it is probably Kozo Naito (see bottom right card, below).

If I am translating correctly (a totally new activity for me), the bottom left cards is Isegawa, also of Pacific. Could that be Masumi Isekawa instead? If so, the image would be from 1946, the only year he played for that team. The bottom center card reads "Shigematsu" (again only if I am correct), which I guess must be Michio Shigematsu who played from 1936-50 but only for the stars in 1947. Bottom right also looks like a card from the Stars. The name looks like "Naito." If that's the case, then probably the pitcher Kozo Naito, who played from 1936-51. The card is likely from 1946-48, his tenure on Gold Star and then the Stars. I'll try to research the uniform to get an exact year.

Will work on identifying the other cards and follow up as soon as I have some progress....

Naito - Starffin 1948
Mitomi? - Starffin - Starffin 1946
Isekawa 1947 - Shigematsu 1947 - Naito

(the dates above are for the images, not the issue...hoping to narrow down the sets based on image dates)

I would suggest looking at Prestige Collectibles (who is a member here) and also his auction site. I suspect you may be able cross reference some pictures with it.

Robert Klevens of Prestige Auctions is a walking encyclopedia of Japanese baseball. Speaks the language which has to help immensely. I have acquired dozens of funky items from him over the years. His table at the National is always a must for me. He's also authored a couple of reference books on the subject which might be helpful. He's a super-nice guy to boot. Good luck with your efforts.

Here's a couple of bromides I have plus a few of the aforementioned funky items.

https://photos.imageevent.com/kawika...akabayashi.jpg https://photos.imageevent.com/kawika...20Starffin.jpg

https://photos.imageevent.com/kawika...20Catcher1.jpg

Mayhem on the basepath, 1930s menko
https://photos.imageevent.com/kawika...ize/Menko5.jpg

Shonen premium Kaoru Betto
https://photos.imageevent.com/kawika...etto%20HOF.jpg

Getting a .pdf copy of the Engel Vintage Guide 2.1 will be essential. Prestige Collectibles sells them.

The bromides are the most difficult Japanese cards to identify. Many, many sets are uncatalogued. Figuring our which of your cards are catalogued is also difficult. The card measurements are important, but difficult to work with because Engel provides the measurements only in inches, with most of them fractioned. The cards were usually produced by rounded centimeters (I wish Engel would change this). Also, the Google Translate phone app is usually good for using your phone camera to decipher the text on cards, but many of the bromides use handwritten characters (rather than typed), have very small print, and have black print on very dark backgrounds, making the app useless.

Good luck and keep us posted with your progress.

Starffin is pretty recognizable, and his follow-through pose was popular. Here's one of mine:
https://photos.imageevent.com/imover...destarffin.jpg

That looks like a great collection of cards. It seems that you have the correct names listed. There are three Starffin cards on that page. If you have larger scans I could read the other names.

Identifying which set they come from is quite a task. There are many bromides not listed in Gary's guide. Also there are many bromides that look similar, but the size or text could be different making it difficult to figure what set they belong to.

Thanks for all the feedback!

LazyMF I have the Engel's checklist. And you are right, it is indispensable. Still, so many bromide sets aren't in there and, even those that are, are a challenge for me to identify sometimes. But that's what makes it interesting....

Robert, thanks for offering your help. Here are better pics (hopefully) of the three players I'm least sure of. The first I simply don't know. The second I think is Shigematsu and the third Naito but am not sure.

Thanks!

I think they are all from 1947
Tsuneo Mitomi 三富恒雄　- Stars
Michio Shigematsu　重松通雄 - Stars
Kozo Naito　内藤幸三 - Stars

Thank you! The person who saved the cards pasted them in largely according to teams, so that definitely helps me in identifying them. Of course, the Giants make up half the album, but those are at the end....

Page 2 is a little tougher (for me). The upper right card is Kozo Naito on the team Gold Star. Gold Star was one of the early post-war teams, founded in 1946. In fact, 1946 was the only season the team was known as Gold Star, as it subsequently became the Kinsei Stars and eventually Daiei Stars.

The other cards are tougher for me to identify, as I'm having a hard time with the names. I've attached some closeups in case Robert or anyone else is kind enough to translate for me.

Thanks!

Iijima - Naito
Kiyohara - Iijima
Kiyohara - Kumagami

Top row:
Takehiko Kumagami (熊耳武彦) and Kozo Naito (内藤幸三)

Middle row:
Hatsuo Kiyohara (清原初男) and Shigeya Iijima (飯島滋弥)

Bottom row:
Hatsuo Kiyohara (清原初男) and Takehiko Kumagami (熊耳武彦)

I don't have anything to add, but those are wonderful bromides. I especially like the flyers card with the embellishments.

Page 3
 

Thanks, Nat. I really like that one, too. There are a few similar ones later on in the collection. Someone really put together a nice bromide album and I was just lucky enough to find it.

And thank you, Robert, as always! It would have taken me weeks at least to figure those out!

Page 3 of the album sports a couple of really cool cards. The upper left card is the only card I've ever seen of the 1946 Gold Star team (the only year the team had that name), bromide or menko. I'm sure there are others but not that I've come across. Next to that is what looks like the 1948 Kinsei Stars team card (although possibly 1947...I am researching uniforms now).

The center card looks like Sadayohi Fujimoto in his role as Stars manager in 1948.

The other four cards are a mystery to me. The far right cards in the center and bottom rows are the same player, but I don't recognize the spelling of his name (I read Shimosha, but that doesn't seem right). The left cards on those same rows have no name listed. They might remain a mystery unless someone recognizes the players anyway....


Kinsei Stars (Goldstar image) 1947 - Kinsei team
S. Fujimoto - Shimoyashiro
Kato - Shimoyashiro

The team in the upper left says Kinsei Stars 金星スターズ and the one to the write just says 金星 Kinsei.
1946 Gold Star was written in katakana as ゴールドスター

The card in the middle is HOF manager Sadayoshi Fujimoto. The player with two cards is Kunio Shimoyashiro 下社邦男. He played for the Stars only in 1948.

I don't know who the other two players are.

Robert, Thank you!!!

That is interesting about Gold Star only being written in katakana. 金 always throws me a little, as it makes me think of gold. I took my guess based on the uniforms and particularly the caps, which looked like the 1946 ones to me (more detailed photos attached, just for fun). But I'm glad to have better info now.

And I wasn't familiar with Shimoyashiro. Shimosha was close, but not that close.... :D

Any chance your guy is Kaoru Betto?

I asked Gary about this card and he had one. The player is Shoji Kato 加藤正二
of Chubu Nippon Dragons. from the 1947 JBR36 set.

Great purchase! I sometimes have difficulty finding cards in my own guide. It's not easy. I sympathize with everyone's frustration over all the bromide sets that haven't made it into the guide yet. I have over 100 partial bromide sets in my collection for which I don't yet have enough examples for inclusion. The good news is that there will be more than a dozen newly entered bromide sets in Version 3.0, which I hope to publish next summer.

Most of the cards that you have pictured in this thread seem to be from JBR 36, JBR 73, JBR 109, JBR 114, and a set produced by Marusaka in 1947 similar to their 1948 JBR 19 set, and which will be included in the next guide edition. Of course there are a few cards that you pictured which remain uncatalogued.

I'm glad to see so much recent interest in Vintage Japanese cards. I will continue to publish new editions of the guide as long as people remain interested.

Page 4
 

Thanks, again! With the trimmed card from the album alone, I never would have gotten it.

Page 4 is an interesting one, too, focused on the Chunichi Dragons and their predecessor Chubu Nippon. Dating the images (if not the cards themselves) is a bit simpler, as the Dragons changed uniforms every year or two during this period. The top right bromide shows the Dragons team picture from 1948 (the only year they wore this uniform if my research is correct).

Most of the page is cards or Hideo Shimizu, one of the team's top pitchers. There are either four or five of them, as one (bottom left) is unlabeled but I believe it is him, in a number of different uniforms, mostly the Chubu Nippon one worn in 1946 and 1947. I'm posting a close up of an interesting design.

The bottom right card appears to be Tsugihiro Hattori, another of the team's pitchers.

The bottom center player is a mystery to me. Obviously, he played for Chubu Nippon in either 1946 or 1947. Any ideas?


Shimizu - Dragons team
Shimizu - Shimizu - Shimizu
? - Kanbayashi - Hattori

Thanks, Gary! I'm just getting into bromides and really enjoying it. While I started with menko and find their designs more interesting, there is an austere beauty to the bromide cards.

Anyway, your guide must be a real labor of love. I have dozens of obscure menko (and an unknown number of bromides) that aren't catalogued yet, though you are probably aware of most of them. I can only imagine how many cards and images you have in your files waiting for a given set to have enough specimens for inclusion in a future checklist....

This is Shigejiro Kanbayashi 上林繁次郎 He joined the Dragons in 1947.

Page 5
 

Ah, thank you! That makes sense.

The next page starts with four different bromides of Michio Nishizawa, who I've always liked a great deal, at least from everything I've read. Below that to the right is a nice action shot of Kiyoshi Sugiura throwing back the bat. This is probably from the 1947 or 1948 season, so either his second or third as a pro.

Two of the three remaining cards are, I believe, Tsubouchi at bat. The last looks like his teammate (#33) but I don't know who that is.

Two of these last bromides are very small (1.5" x 1").


Nishizawa - Nishizawa
Nishizawa - Nishizawa
Sugiura - Sugiura
Sugiyama RC - Tsubouchi

Hello Frank,

That is a fantastic collection! Japanese bromide cards are the most fascinating cards to research by far. Robert has done a great job helping you, and I have a couple of tidbits to throw in which may be of interest.

On page 1 the Pacific player is indeed catcher Masumi Isekawa. Since the card lists his team as the Robins the issuer was simply using a 1946 photo when the team was known as Pacific.

Page 2 The top row is Iijima - Naito; middle row is Kiyohara - Iijima; bottom row is Kiyohara - Kumagami. I think Robert made a typo on the top row.

Page 3, as Robert indicated, has 2 team cards one reading Kinsei Stars and the other Kinsei Team. The Stars photo has the 1946 Goldstar team picture, but the card has the name change to Kinsei thus making the card a 1947 issue.

Page 4 the bottom right player is Hattori as you noted. The bottom left player, however, cannot be Hideo Shimizu since he is right handed and Shimizu was a lefty.

Page 5- Only the bottom right card is Michinori Tsubouchi. He is with the Stars and the card says: "Stars Tsubouchi Batting Form". The card with player #30 indicates it is a game between the Dragons and the Hawks. Note that the card with player #33 has the same font used for the uniform number as #30, and they have the same hats and socks. The only team in Japan with a #30 & #33 in 1948 was the Dragons and #30 is Kiyoshi Sugiura (notice his trademark bat release similar to his other card) and #33 was rookie OF Satoru Sugiyama. In fact Sugiyama was the only #33 in all of Japanese baseball that year.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

This is a great thread with some super cards in it. Thanks to all whom have shared.
.

This is a great thread with some super cards in it. Thanks to all whom have shared.
.

Page 6
 

Wow, thank you so much, Jeff! That is a huge help. I'm still fairly new to this but am doing my best to get up to speed and learn. In fact, learning about both mid-century Japanese baseball and about the bromide sets was my main motivation in purchasing this collection. I've purchased those resources I can find in English but they are scant. Japanese Baseball (Statistical Handbook) by Johnson, the books by Gary and Rob Fitts, and some visual guides to uniforms and caps. Otherwise, I just rely on searching the web and creative gymnastics with Google Translate and hope for the best. And Robert has been very generous with his knowledge, both on and off the forums. Without his help, I probably would have given up on Japanese baseball cards already.

Which brings us to page 6 of the album, which contains a mix of teams. The first card (top left) is a partial lineup of the Chubu Nippon team in what looks like their 1946 uniforms (suggesting a 1947 card?). If I am translating correctly, the players are (left to right) Fujimoto, Furukawa, Kanbayashi, Sugiura, and Tayori. I can't find any Tayori on the team roster so am probably mistranslating this one.

The top right card appears to be Michinori Tsubouchi at the end of his swing. He is in a Stars rather than Gold Star uniform, so the image is probably from the 1947 season (and thus a 1948 bromide...total guess).

The center row of cards contain no identifying text and I am not confident enough to identify the players by faces alone. If anyone knows who these players are, please do let me know!

The bottom left bromide is Tsuneo Mitomi in what looks like a 1946 uniform so probably a 1947 card (as most of the cards in this album appear to be). And the bottom right cards is a player I don't recognize at all. My best efforts with google come up with Okunai as a last name, but I can't find him on any rosters so I probably have it wrong.

Just a note: At the moment I am working on identifying all of the players in the album and trying to figure out the year of the images in hopes of later determining the specific sets. The next stage will be to measure all of the cards and make an effort to identify all of the individual issues. In the meantime, if anyone knows what set a particular card comes from, please feel free to let me know...I'm sure it will help guide me in the next stage. Thanks!


Chubu (Fujimoto, Furakawa, Kanbayashi, Sugiura) - Tsubouchi
? - Tsubouchi and ?
Mitomi - Tsuchiya

You had the correct names for the team bromide however the last one is 右より which means "from the right", so it's not a player's name.

The player pictured here is Tooru Tsuchiya 土屋亨 the 土 character is cutoff. 内墅手 means infielder. 墅 is an older kanji character for 野

This player looks like Tsubouchi to me, however I can't identify the players in the action shot.

Also Jeff was correct I made a mistake. Page 2 top row is Iijima and Naito

Thanks for both of the IDs, Robert!

And thank you for this. Working through the album is definitely familiarizing me with many more kanji characters and player names, but I don't think I would ever have figured that one out....

Page 7
 

Page 7

The top center and middle right cards look like Jiro Noguchi who may have been the Shohei Ohtani of the 1940s (or vice-versa). He was one of the top pitchers in the league (with a career ERA of 1.96) as well as an excellent hitter. The comparison breaks down there, as Noguchi almost never hit home runs…but his 31 game hitting streak stood as a record in Japan for 25 years. I also love the glasses. I believe both cards show images from 1946 (the season of his hitting streak) and are 1947 bromide issues. A little more research on uniforms is needed, as the 1946 Hankyu Club uniforms should be different than those of the later (1947 on) Hankyu Braves.

Seizo Furukawa (middle row center and bottom left cards) played for 17 seasons (and missed a couple due to the war). Before the war he played for Nagoya and immediately after, though the team became Chubu Nippon/Chunichi Dragons. In 1948 he moved to the Hankyu Braves where he spent his last dozen seasons. I believe both of these photos predate his move and so are probably 1947 issues.

Rounding out the album page is what I believe to be a 1947 bromide of Braves catcher Takeshi Hibino (top left card), Rentaro Imanishi (one of the Braves pitchers, top right), and Junji Nakatani (bottom right) in his 1946 Pacific team uniform (so likely an early 1947 bromide). Hibino played for 18 years, beginning in 1939, and lost an additional three seasons to the war.

The card in middle left doesn’t have any text and I’m not sure who this Braves player is. Does anyone recognize him?

I realize that mid-century Japanese bromides are a very small niche in the hobby. So I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read this thread and especially those who have helped me along with their comments. Heck, I even appreciate that people who skip over the thread don’t feel the need to tell me how niche it really is….

Page 8
 

Page 8

If there are any fans of long-time Braves pitcher Yoshio Tenbo, then you might enjoy this page. Assuming, that is, that I’ve done the identification correctly. Tenbo appears in four of the bromides (top center, middle left and right, bottom left). Interestingly, each of the same images (just with different cropping) are used in two different cards. I believe the darker uniforms are from the 1946 season. The lighter ones need more research.

The top right card has no text, so I’m not really sure. Does anyone recognize this image?

The other cards on the page appear to be a 1947 bromide of Furukawa (top left), Shinji Hamasaki who had a short career as a pitcher for the Braves in the center (someone please correct me if I’ve identified the player incorrectly), and a Braves player that my clumsy attempts with google translate show as Takeshi Akashi (bottom right) though I can find no record of a player with that name.

As always, and help is appreciated.

Hi Frank,

You are doing great work. It is nice to find another collector seriously interested in Japanese baseball!

You have 2 nice cards of Jiro Noguchi. There were 3 Noguchi brothers who played professionally- Jiro, Akira, & Noboru. Noboru was unfortunately killed in 1945 in the Philippines, one of 51 Japanese players killed in WW II.

You have encountered one of the banes of Japanese player research in Akashi- the dreaded name change. Akashi changed his first name to Koichi so that is why you could not find him. Often times it is the last name that is changed like Hawks HOF manager Kazuto Tsuruoka who was formally Kazuto Yamamoto.

I will try to see if I can come up with anything on those unidentified players and keep the photos coming.

Thanks,

Jeff

Page 9
 

Thanks, Jeff! I really appreciate it. And while I knew about the Tsuruoka change, I wasn't aware there were others. Now at least I know to stay open to that possibility.

The next page in the album (Page 9) is largely devoted to right-handed pitcher Juzo Sanada (who I’ve seen referred to elsewhere as Shigeo Sanada). As I work through this album, it is becoming apparent that the vast majority of the cards are 1947 bromide issues and some may be early in that year given that the photos chosen were from the 1946 season. That is the case here with Sanada, as well. The top center, top right, and middle left cards show him in his Pacific uniform from 1946. In the top left bromide, he is wearing the 1947 Robins uniform but the Pacific had from ’46. And in the bottom right, he is in full Robins attire.

If I am identifying them correctly, the bottom left and center cards appear to be first-baseman Isamu Fujii who had a very long playing career from 1936-1958 (several seasons missed for the war). After the war, he joined Pacific and stayed there as they became the Taiyo Robins.

The middle right card looks like Hiroshi Tsujii in his 1947 Robins uniform (with Pacific cap). And, rounding out the page, the center card seems to be of a pitcher named Watanabe. There was a Seitaro Watanabe who pitched for the Robins from 1948-1950, but Stats Crew shows him on the Osaka Tigers roster in 1946 and 1947, so this might be a different player (or a slightly later card…although it might be a little odd for him to be in the old-style cap in a later season).

Page 9 cont
 

I meant to post this closeup of the card I'm least certain about. Does Watanabe seem correct? Or am I totally off base?

Page 10
 

I clearly have too much time on my hands this weekend. Here is Page 10 of the album. A bit of a puzzling page. There are more cards that I cannot clearly identify than cards I can.

Starting at the top left, the bromide shows Shigeyoshi Morishita in his 1946 Pacific season. This would be one of his rookie cards, and he was an outfielder and occasional pitcher for Pacific, then the Robins, and eventually the Kintetsu Pearls. In a bit of a mystery (to me) the left and center cards in the middle row also look like Morishita and the name of the left card reads “Mori” and the name on the center card os taped over. They both look like Flyers players and, even though Pacific would become the Flyers in 1947, I can’t find a record of Morishita (or anyone whose name stars with “Mori”) playing for the flyers in 1947…for that season, Morishita is listed as a Robins player.

The middle right bromide is the great Robins pitcher Juzo Sanada.

The top right picture is an unidentified Robin player. As is the only card on the bottom row. Does anyone recognize either of them?

Page 11
 

Page 11 from the album. I am now one-third of the way through the regular bromides (there is a smaller prize card section in the back) and after this post will take a brief break to go back through the cards I've been unable to identify and give them another shot.

On this page...Giichiro Shiraki was a decent pitcher with a relatively short career (seven seasons: one with Pacific, five with Tokyu, and a last with Hankyu). I wouldn’t go on so much about Shiraki except that, after his baseball career, he went on to a successful career in politics. The entire top row, the center and right cards of the middle row, and the right card in the bottom row all depict Shiraki and appear to be from 1947.

The middle left and bottom center cards both appear to be of Shigeaki Kuroo, another Flyers pitcher, and the bottom left Fujiwara, all from 1947 as far as I can tell.

Frank - nothing to add other than congratulations on such a great album. This thread with research is outstanding!

Thanks. Exploring this album has been one of the most enjoyable projects I've undertaken in decades of collecting.

Okay, so through the first 11 pages, I'm down to 7 cards I just can't get a handle on. While I am getting decent with the player names of the era, identifying cards solely from the picture is still a bit outside my comfort zone....

Hi Frank,

Here are a few more notes for you: Pacific became the Robins not the Flyers. The Flyers former name was the Senators.

The pitcher in that group is Hirotaro Mori of the Hankyu Braves.

You are correct that the Robins P is Seitaro Watanabe on a 1948 card. There was no Watanabe on the Robins in 1947.

The bottom left P next to Shigeaki Kuroo should not be Fujiwara. The only Fujiwara in Japanese BB in 1947 or 1948 was Dragons C Tetsunosuke Fujiwara.

For the unknown players, I think the sliding player is HOF Makoto Kozuru of the Dragons. He was the only #32 in BB in 1947. He switched to #24 in 1948 when he went to the Flyers.

The Flyers player is HOF Hisanori Karita. The tape is covering the kanji for manager, and at the end of the line is second baseman. Karita was the Flyers Player-Manager in '47 & '48.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

At least one more Frank-

The Robins player with his hands on his knees is Shigeyoshi Morishita I believe. I have a nice batting shot of him in a reference book and the face looks the same. I am not sure on these 2, but I think that the Stars RH could be Michio Shigematsu and the LH could be Tsuneo Mitomi. I have a couple of different shots that bear a resemblance for both, but I can't be absolutely sure on either one.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thank you so much. You are very generous with your time.

And of course you are right...silly mistake on my part with Robins and Flyers. Sometimes as I'm writing from my notes I manage to confuse myself hopelessly.

That is very interesting. So would it make sense that the bottom left picture (page 11) is then Tetsunosuke Fujiwara? It is a little hard to read but along the top margin of the card is printed:

中部 藤原

Thanks again!

What a great great thread this is. Thank you all.

Page 12
 

Well, my research break was shorter than planned thanks to Jeff's generous help. The knowledge lurking on this board never fails to impress me....

Page 12 of the album begins with some familiar faces from Page 11. In the upper left is Giichiro Shiraki along with (and this may be wrong as I am having a tough time reading it) Maeda, although embarrassingly I can’t find them on the same roster so am not sure of the year. Probably a dumb oversight on my part. [Thanks to Jeff, I now know this is again Hisanori Karita] To the right of that bromide are two cards of Shigeaki Kuroo on the Flyers.

The second row begins on the left with a player that reads (to me) as Minagawa, but I am not sure who that is. Any ideas? [Sadayuki Minagawa, shortstop 1948] To the upper center is a miniature card with no text (and as a result I have no idea!) and to the far upper right another card of Maeda? [Actually it is Hisanori Karita] Again, I find it hard to read. In the middle row below that are cards of Oshita and what I take to be Eikichi Nagamochi, a player I don’t come across often.

The bottom two cards are also Hiroshi Oshita, one of my favorite players. But I will have more on that for the next page in the album.

The bromides appear to be 1947 or 1948 issues (based on uniforms and the like), which is consistent with this album generally which I am guessing was put together by the original owner in late 1948 or 1949.

Page 13
 

Hiroshi Oshita is my favorite ballplayer from the early postwar period in Japan. He debuted on the Senators. And if the fact that one of the eight teams making up the 1946 Japanese Baseball League was named the Senators doesn’t speak volumes about the odd relationship between Japan and the US during the early postwar/occupation period, I don’t know what does. Anyway, in his rookie season he hit .281 and set a home run record (20). In 1949 he would go on to bat .305 with 38 home runs and a .626 slugging percentage.

He was hugely popular and famously used a blue-painted bat (the other great hitter of that period, Tetsuhara Kawakami, played with a red bat). He had a lifetime batting average of .303 and hit 201 home runs. His career statistics might have been even more impressive if he hadn’t missed a prime stretch of playing years as an officer in the war.

This thirteenth page of the album is made up of nine Oshita cards. Five of the bromides picture him in his dark 1946 Senators uniform and are clearly what I would deem rookie cards from 1947 bromide sets (although "rookie" cards in Japanese sets can be tricky to define). The other four cards picture him the Tokyu Flyers uniform, presumably from the 1947 season. There are two very distinctive cards on this page. The center card may be from the pretty rare 1947 Marutsu Small Photo Set (JBR 152), while the card in upper left of the page bears a great deal of similarity but is as far as I can tell yet uncatalogued.

Ironically (or sadly or coincidentally…I don’t know), this all time Flyer great was actually training as a kamikaze pilot when the war ended.

I've attached some closeups of cards that I don't see very often and strike me as attractive....

Page 14
 

Page 14 continues the album with some more Oshita cards and one cool card from the 1947 Marui Decorative set, I believe.

The non-Oshita card appears to be Flyer's player Eikichi Nagamochi. Sadly, I'm limited to books and research about Japanese baseball written in English. If I were younger or smarter, I would learn to read Japanese and expand my resources greatly. But for now all that I can find out about Nagamochi is that his twelve year career was entirely post-war (1946-57), starting with the Senators (which would become the Flyers and eventually the Fighters) and finishing with the Hiroshima Carp.

Page 15
 

The research chugs along….

Page 15 hosts the last two Oshita bromides (upper right and middle left). I particularly like the pose on the latter as it reminds me of one of the great American hitters but I can’t quite place it.

The rest of the page is composed of some of Oshita’s fellow Flyers. Given the rosters I could find for the Flyers, I suspect a number of these bromides are 1948 (most of the album seems to be 1947), as at least one of the players didn’t join the franchise until 1948. Three cards (upper left, bottom center, and bottom right) are marked Yoshie without any first name. Clearly the player is a pitcher so I’m assuming the card must be of Eishiro Yoshie, an obscure pitcher with only three seasons on record, 1948 and 1949 with the Flyers and a partial 1950 season with the Giants. Other than the fact that Yoshie was born in Vancouver, Canada and only moved to Japan for high school and university, I can’t find any information about him. The upper left card also reads Kaneda in its right-hand margin, but I think that's just part of the next card that was miscut.

Other Flyers include Yoshie’s fellow pitcher and also outfielder Tajo Hitokoto (upper center and middle right) and catcher Keiichiro Suzuki (middle center and bottom left). Like Yoshie, Hitokoto had a brief career (1946 with the Senators, ’47 and ’48 with the Flyers, and finally 1950 with the Braves). Suzuki, on the other hand, spent his entire eleven year career with the Flyers (and its predecessor, the Senators).

After this page, I think we are ready to move on from the Flyers….

Page 16
 

Long before the team I will always think of as the Osaka-based Nankai Hawks (which it technically was from 1947-1988) became the Fukuoka Daiei and then Fukoka SoftBank Hawks, the team had one of the great names in all of baseball history: Kinki Great Ring. I mention this because several of the bromides on this page picture players in their Kinki Great Ring uniforms (presumably from the 1946 season?). It is most easily distinguishable by the cap emblem that looks like a wedding ring. It’s also worth noting that Kinki Great Ring, in what I believe to be its only full season by that name, won the 1946 Japanese Baseball League championship!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the original owner of this album (my best guess is in around 1949) glued the cards into the notebook pages largely by team. So with Page 16 the Hawks section begins. From the 1940s through the 60s, the Hawks were a very successful franchise. In fact, it was the Hawks that would eventually send Masanori Murakami to the US to be the first Japanese player in MLB.

A key figure in the Hawks’ success in the 40s and 50s was ace pitcher Takehiko Bessho, who played for the team from 1942-48 (with a break for the war) before joining the Yomiuri Giants (1949-1960) in something of a scandal (head-hunting star players was apparently prohibited at the time). The top row of bromides are all Bessho cards. In the first two, he appears in his 1947 season Hawks uniform, while in the upper right card he appears in his 1946 Kinki Great Ring uniform. Bessho is also shown mid-windup in the far right card of the middle row.

The remaining Hawks players proved more difficult to identify. The middle left card appears to be long-time Haws catcher Keizo Tsutsui on a card with pretty cool graphics. To his right is a pitcher that I keep trying to translate as Yuzuki but is probably Susumu Yuki, who only played for nine seasons (all with the Hawks) but put together an impressive 123-64 W/L record.

The bottom left and center cards aren’t that obvious to me but I am venturing that they are of second baseman Naofumi Yasui, with whom I was unfamiliar before this project.

The final card (bottom right) introduces Tokuji Iida, one of the great first basemen in Japanese baseball history. This photo and bromide both appear to be from the 1947, his rookie season.

PS: The bonus photo is my one and only Murakami card. PSA here displays its ass-hat “Trading Card” policy for those that don’t want to wait 12 months for them to identify an obvious issue. Good thing they didn’t go out on a limb and identify it as a “Baseball Card.” /rant

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the kind words. The kanji you posted that are on that bottom left card on page 11 do say Chubu Fujiwara, so that would be catcher Tetsunosuke Fujiwara of the Chubu Nippon Dragons. So even though the picture looks like a pitcher pose, it appears under the magnifying glass that he may be wearing a catcher's mitt.

I can help on page 12 now, and will look at the other pages tomorrow. The Maeda on the 2 cards is not Maeda. It is once again Hisanori Karita, player-mgr. of the Flyers. The combo card says: Flyers on the 1st line and Karita manager, Shiraki pitcher on the second line. His solo card says Tokyu Karita. The kanji for Kari and Mae are very similar, especially with these weird fonts that were used on many bromides, and are easily confused. You are quite right on Nagamochi, and the other player is SS Sadayuki Minagawa who was only on the Flyers in 1948. The card says Minagawa Kyuei, and 1948 is the only year that the Flyers were the Kyuei Flyers.

I will look at the next few pages tomorrow night.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, and thanks again! I really should have known Karita, as he was pointed out earlier. Each player that I identify (or someone identifies for me) goes in a notebook, where the names (about 200 of them now) are sorted by initial kanji character. If I can't find it that way, I try my luck sketching the names into Google Translate, which is hit or miss. If I don't recognize one of the kanji characters, though, which happens more often with the handwriting or stylized fonts, my notebook doesn't help much.

This project certainly has been an education. I feel that I am still in the very shallow end of the pool but do feel I'm moving in the right direction....

Page 17
 

The Nankai Hawks cards continue on the seventeenth page of the album. The page begins (in the upper left) with something of a mystery to me. Clearly this color bromide is of a Hawks pitcher, but the several ways I’ve tried to translate the name with Google Translate it comes out as Tasho Yuzuki, but I can find no Hawks player of that name. My suspicion is that it is Hawks pitch Susumu Yuki but I am not sure. The card in the upper right is a bit more straightforwad, as it is pitcher Hiroshi Nakahara, who played one season in 1943 for Hanshin and then the rest of his career with the Hawks from 1948-1955.

The left card in the second row is another mystery to me. The card has no identifying text but based on uniform and couple of other reasons, I think it is from 1948. Does anyone know who #30 on the Hawks was that season?

The right-hand bromide in the same row shows three Hawks players, which I am translating as: Kasai, Yasui, and Tagawa. Naofumi Yasui played second base for the Hawks and Yutaka Tagawa played outfield for the team but only in 1947 (so dating this image pretty clearly). But I can find no “Kasai” on the 1947 squad. The kanji is 河西in case anyone has a better idea as to the name….

The third row pictures (left to right): Kasahara again, Kazuo Horii, and a card that might be short stop Chusuke Kizuka (again, I’m unclear on the kanji translation). Horii was a long-time player (two seasons before the war and then 1946-58 with Kinki Great Ring and then the Hawks). If the other card is Kizuka, then it would be from 1948 at the earliest, as that was his rookie year.

The last row appears to be Kasahara and Yasui again, assuming I am identifying them correctly.


Yuki - Nakahara
Tsuruoka? - Hawks (Kawanishi, Yasui, Tagawa)
Kasahara - Horii - Kizuka
Kasahara - Yasui

Hi Frank,

I think that I have a few contributions that can help with page 17. The color card is Susumu Yuki. I have 3 or 4 cards of him and that is the kanji for his name- Google translate only works sometimes.

Yes, that is Chusuke Kizuka the Hawks great SS.

If the action picture is a Hawks batter then it is HOF Kazuto Yamamoto (Tsuruoka) who wore #30.

The combo card is a 1946 picture of the players in their Great Ring uniforms. Since the card lists the team as Hawks then it is from 1947, but the picture is 1946. The players are L-R: Toshio Kawanishi OF (3 time SB Champ 46-48), Naoshi Yasui 2B (changed his name in 1954 to Naofumi), Yutaka Tagawa OF.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thanks! That is a huge help.

It's interesting, based photos I thought it might be Kawanishi on the left, but characters kept throwing me. I'm obviously a total amateur but would have expected his name to be written 川西 ....

Hi Frank,

One of the hardest things I have had to work on is the fact that the same kanji can be entirely different words. The first kanji in Kawanishi's name is also Ko like in the common last name Kono. However, sometimes it is Kawa as in this example. Check out former Whales OF Yukio Osada. The first kanji is the same as the first one in Nagashima. When you look at the name you think it should read Nagata- but no, it is Osada.

Jeff

Page 18
 

Thanks again, Jeff! I am learning this the hard way, but it keeps things interesting and the continuing learning curve keeps me interested....

Page 18 is the final page devoted to the Hawks. As it contains only three cards, I will keep this brief. The upper right bromide is a duplicate of a Kasahara card found on Page 17. And the bottom card is a team photo of the Hawks, although I am having a hard time determining the season based on the uniforms and am not familiar enough with the roster to peg it by the players.

The upper left photo appears to be Hawks pitcher Nobuo Nakatani (although Google Translate keeps pushing Nakaya as the translation). Nakatani spent his entire nine-year career with the Hawks, compiling a lifetime W-L record of 90-76 and an era of 3.05.

The remainder of the album is devoted to the Osaka Tigers and the Tokyo/Yomiuri Giants teams and their legendary rosters.

Nakatani? - Kasahara
Hawks

Page 19
 

Beginning with Page 19, the album is devoted to the players of Japan’s greatest sports rivals, the Tigers and the Giants. And this era of play (the Japanese Baseball League) was one of the rivalry’s most exciting periods. Over the JBL’s history (from 1936-49 with 1945 having no season due to the war), the Giants won 8 championships and the Tigers 5. In only two of the league’s seasons did another team win (Kinki Great Ring in 1946 and the Nankai Hawks in 1948), and in both those years the Giants and Tigers came in second and third. You may have noticed that there were more champions than years…in each of 1937 and 1938 the league had two seasons (Spring and Fall).

The cards on this page (and the next several following) are from the end of the Japanese Baseball League era. After the 1949 season, Japanese professional baseball was reorganized into Nippon Professional Baseball, which was divided into the Central and Pacific leagues.

The three bromides of the top row (as well as the bottom right card) are of the famous Tigers player and manager Tadashi Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi joined the Tigers at the founding of the JBL in 1936 and played for them until the league’s reorganization in 1949 (after that he played three seasons for the Mainichi Orions). He was an ace pitcher with a career W-L record of 237-144 and a lifetime ERA of 1.99.

The cards of the second row are all of another strong Tigers pitcher, Tadayoshi Kajioka. 1947 was his rookie year, and I believe that is the season pictured here. He played all nine of his professional seasons for the Tigers.

I believed the final bromide (bottom left) to be pitcher Takao Misono. The front doesn’t show any text, but the picture closely resembles another I have seen of the player. Misono spent all seventeen of his professional seasons (starting in 1936 and finishing in 1951) with the Tigers.


Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi
Kajioka - Kajioka - Kajioka
Misono? - Wakabayashi

This is Kazuo Kasahara 笠原和夫

Ah, yes...thank you! I was able to identify the card on page 17 and then cut and pasted the wrong name. Doh!

Page 20
 

Page 20 displays five cards (top left and all cards of the second and third rows) of Fumio Fujimura …“Mr Tigers.” Fujimura joined the Tigers in 1936 and played with the organization through 1958. While he began as a strong pitcher, he eventually moved the third base and is best remembered for his hitting and competitive demeanor. Over the course of those 23 years, he hit .300 lifetime and retired with a career slugging percentage of .501.

The remaining bromides feature Tigers catcher Takeshi Doigaki, a mainstay of the Tigers (Hanshin and Osaka) lineup from 1940-1949, after which he played for several other teams (Orions, Dragons, Flyers, Braves) through 1957. He was a consistent hitter and, in addition to catcher, also did stretches at 1B, 3B and OF.

I particularly like the graphics of the upper center Doigaki and middle left Fujimura cards and will be on the lookout for more bromides from these sets. It’s also interesting to see the difference between the B&W and colorized versions of the same image used in the middle right and bottom left cards….


Fujimura - Doigaki - Doigaki
Fujimura - Fujimura
Fujimura - Fujimura

Page 21
 

More Tiger players make up the 21st page of the album. Although I am not adept with the kanji characters, top top row appears to be bromides of Zenso Haswegawa from three different sets. Hasegawa was a starting shortstop for the Tigers from 1946-49. Before the war, he played for Nakai and after 1949 he moved around (Clippers, Lions, Dragons, Orions, Unions) until retiring after 1954.

The second row of cards read (to me) as Kaneda, which I take it means Masayasu Kaneda, career Tigers outfielder (1942-1957). The bottom left and right cards also appear to be Kaneda (judging by the picture…I can’t find any text).

The bottom middle card looks like Shosei Go. He was actually a pretty remarkable player. He started his pro career with Tokyo (Giants in 1937) and I believe played outfield. Before the war, he pitched only seven innings with an ERA of 11.57. Yet in 1946 (now on the Tigers) he pitched the first post-war no-hitter in Japanese baseball. He only pitched into 1949 although he kept playing (outfield) until 1957. In all, he won two batting titles, a stolen base title, and had a 15-7 pitching record with a career 3.48 ERA.


Hasegawa - Hasegawa - Hasegawa
Kaneda - Kaneda - Kaneda
Kaneda - Go - Kaneda

I'm just shocked at how cool all of these are. This was one incredible find!

Hi Nat, thanks for the comment! I bought it mostly blind but it's turned out to be a pretty cool item.

And as long as at least one person is still reading, I'll keep posting the pages. :D

Page 22
 

On Page 22, the first two rows of cards are all Kaoru Betto that I believe date to 1948, his rookie year. Almost certainly they are 1948 or 1949, as those are the only two seasons he played for the Tigers, moving to the Mainichi Orions in 1950 until the end of his playing career in 1957. Betto was a star player (especially on the Orions) with a career batting average of .302 and 155 home runs during a relative short playing career. In America he is probably best known for appearing on Jeff Bridges’ t-shirt in The Big Lebowski and a couple of other films.

The bottom row is comprised of three Wakabayashi bromides. I wrote about him on Page 19, where his cards first appeared. He is interesting for many reasons, including being a Japanese American from Hawaii, which was a pretty big deal in prewar Japan.



Betto - Betto
Betto - Betto
Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi

Hey Frank,

Really great work you are doing on this album. I can confirm what you have already done on pages 18 - 21. The only change (very minor) is Hasegawa's first name is Zenzo not Zenso and it is definitely Takao Misono on the bottom left of page 19.

Fantastic cards and please keep them coming.

Jeff

Page 23
 

Thanks, Jeff. I've made the correction to my notes. And, although I had some luck on the last few pages, this one is proving a bit trickier. If you have any ideas, please let me know....

Page 23 is a hodgepodge of Tigers cards. It looks like it was the repository for cards that didn’t fit onto other pages, so we’ve seen several of the players before: Hasegawa (top left), Wakabayashi (top right), Betto (middle center), and (maybe?) Doigaki (top center).

The player on either side of Betto in the middle row is Jun Togashi…I think. It’s hard to say, as I wasn’t able to find another picture of him to confirm. He played for the Tigers his entire brief career (1946-49) with almost all of his play coming in 1946 and 1957.

The bottom row is harder for me to identify. If I am reading the script correctly (it is a little tough for me), the left card is of Hirokazu Nozaki, a journeyman pitcher who (from 1946-53) compiled a 32-56 win-loss record. And the bottom right card looks like “Kobayashi” which is probably Eiichi Kobayashi, an obscure second basemen who played pro ball from 1944-48 and only clocked 96 games.

Unfortunately, I can’t make out the name on the bottom center card. Does anyone recognize this player?


Hasegawa - Doigaki? - Wakabayashi
Togashi - Betto - Togashi
Nozaki - ? - Kobayashi

Hi Frank,

You got them all right. Eiichi Kobayashi is interesting because the card lists him as a catcher and he is wearing a catcher's mitt. He only caught a few games, and played mostly at 2B & SS. The bottom middle card you could not identify is Takao Misono.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff! I thought that might be Misono but couldn't get a good enough look at the face to be sure.

Page 24
 

Page 24 of the albums begins the stretch of Yomiuri Giants (previously Tokyo Kyojin). The upper left photo shows three Giant players at practice (although I can't identify them individually). Any takers?

The upper and middle right bromides are team photos. From what I can tell, these are 1947 images but I wouldn’t be the farm on it.

The remaining for cards appear to be Japanese HOF manager Osamu Mihara.

Mihara managed the Giants for a brief stretch from 1947-49, so that dates these cards pretty tightly. His history with the franchise goes back further, though. I remember reading somewhere that he was the very first player signed with the new Tokyo pro team in 1936, although he joined the military and 1938 and (as far as I can locate in the records) never played again. When he returned to pro ball as a manager during the 1947 season, the Giants were in last place. In 1949 they won the championship. This was typical of Mihara’s managerial career, taking teams from the bottom of the standings to championships (notably with the Lions, but also the Whales). To me, that is a much more impressive feat than a dynastic run. As a result, his 1687-1453 record (.537 winning percentage) really undersells his effectiveness as a manager.



Giants Team - Giants Team
Mihara (manager) - Giants Team
Mihara - Mihara - Mihara

Page 25
 

As with most of the teams, the collector who originally assembled this album starts off (after teams and managers) with the pitching staff. This 25th page of the album is dominated by cards of pitcher Tokuji Kawasaki who played for the Giants from 1946-49. Before the war, he spent three years on the Nakai team and from 1950-57 he played for the Nishitetsu Clippers/Lions. His bromides are (I believe) the upper left and middle, the entire middle row, and the bottom right.

The two other cards on the bottom row are of Hiroshi Nakao, an impressive left-handed pitcher who played his entire career for the Tokyo team (Tokyo Kyojin then Yomiuru Giants)…1939-57 (with a few year out for the war).

The final care (top right) looks like Nakajima (who is featured on a page yet to come) and I assume manager Mihara.


Kawasaki - Kawasaki - Nakajima and Mihara?
Kawasaki - Kawasaki - Kawasaki
Nakao - Nakao - Kawasaki

Page 26
 

Page 26 starts with another Giants pitcher, Hideo Fujimoto. Despite a relatively short career, Fujimoto is considered one of the greats of Japanese baseball. He played his entire career for the Giants franchise (except for 1947 when he was on the Chunichi Dragons and 1945 when play was canceled due to the war). Over his career (1942-55) he won 200 games and lost 87, despite playing only four games total in his final two years. His lifetime ERA is 1.90. His cards are the top left and center, entire middle row, and bottom center.

Nakao, mentioned on page 25, is pictured in the top right bromide.

The other two cards are a little hard for me to identify.

The bottom left card reads to me (admittedly, not a hard endorsement) as kawa-matsubara or something like that. I’m guessing it is Hiroyoshi Komatsubara who pitched in pro ball from 1942-42 and 47-49 and then played outfield through 1947.

The bottom right card I’m having a hard time figuring out. Does anyone recognize him?



Fujimoto - Fujimoto - Nakao
Fujimoto - Fujimoto - Fujimoto
Komatsubara - Fujimoto - Yoneo Yashima

Hi Frank,

You are right on Hiroyoshi Komatsubara. The bottom right card is pitcher Yoneo Yashima. He only played 1 year in 1948 for the Giants going 2-2 in 15 games.

Keep them coming,

Jeff

Page 27
 

Thanks, as always, Jeff!

Page 27 transitions from pitchers to catchers with a player who wore both hats. The top left and center cards appear to be Fukuzo Tada, a catcher and starting pitcher who played pro ball from 1941 to 1955 with all but the last two years with the Giants. The top right card is Komatsubara who also appeared on the previous page.

Another Giants catcher, Tamotsu Uchibori, occupies the middle row center and right cards. Uchibori played for the Giants from 1936-37 and then left pro ball until the 1946 season. He finally retired in 1951.

The left-hand card in each of the middle and bottom rows is the legendary first baseman and manager Tetsuharu Kawakami. We will see more of him in the pages to come.

The final action card (bottom right) shows Giants #20 at bat. I can’t seem to find a good source for player uniform numbers of the era, so I’m not really sure who this is….

Fukuzo Tada - Tada - Komatsubara
Kawakami - Uchibori - Uchibori
Kawakami - Giants action (players?) -

Page 28
 

The 28th page of the album is entirely devoted to Tetsuharu Kawakami. Kawakami joined the Giants as a player in 1938 and played with the team through 1958 (with a few years out for the war). For those unfamiliar with Japanese baseball history, Kawakami was arguably the greatest offensive player of his era, known for his disciplined hitting and his red bat. He was also arguably the greatest manager in Japanese baseball history, having led the Giants through 9 consecutive championship seasons during his reign as manager (1961-1974). By all accounts, he was a very intense and disciplined person.

Hi Frank,

#20 on page 27 is OF Kiyomitsu Hayashi whose last year was 1947. From 1936-1941 his first name was Seiichi, and from 1942 onwards it was Kiyomitsu. By the way the photo is a reverse negative as is Kawasaki's upper left corner card on page 25.

Jeff

Page 29
 

Page 29 continues with more Kawakami cards and introduces long-time (1938-56) Giants second baseman Shigeru Chiba. A member of the HOF, he was an extremely disciplined hitter and a strong defensive player. One particular record that stands out is that he scored six times in one game. Not really sure how you do that. Wish I could see the film….


Chiba/Kawakami - Kawakami - Kawakami
Kawakami - Kawakami - Chiba/Kawakami
Chiba - Chiba - Chiba

Page 30
 

Page 30 of the album includes seven more bromides of the Giants star second baseman Shigeru Chiba. The two additional cards appear to be journeyman third baseman Takeshi Yamakawa, including one really exceptional decorative bromide. Yamakawa played pro ball from 1940-1954 and for the Giants from 1946 through 1951.


Chiba - Chiba - Chiba
Chiba - Chiba - Chiba
Yamakawa - Yamakawa - Chiba