December pickups

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by 71buc

You are killing me with that Clemente image!

Here is the most recent addition to my increasingly eclectic collection. Although I dabble in Japanese baseball memorabilia I didn’t have an original photo from the Nippon Professional Baseball League. I saw this 1947 photo on eBay and fell in love with the photo’s composition without having any idea who the subject of the photo was. I googled his name (Tetsuharu Kawakami) and found that he was known as The God of Batting in Japan and is a member of their Hall of Fame. I contacted Robert Klevens of www.prestigecollectibles.com . He had this early 1950s Autographed Small shikishi by Tetsuharu Kawakami. Apparently autographed shikishis from this period are quite scarce. In addition to his name at left, Kawakami wrote "Tokyo Giants Team" in the center in Japanese. At right, he wrote the kanji for "Endeavor" signed with a traditional brush pen. If you read the link below by Robert Whiting you will learn how appropriate the use of the “Endeavor” kanji was by Kawakami. I hope to frame the photo and shikishi board together. By the way if you haven’t read Whiting’s book You Gotta Have Wa do so it is a great read.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2.../#.Up1Wu8u9KSM

That is really cool... I always thought collecting Japanese and Cuban past greats would be fun but I just can't collect everything. Really nice Mike.