Identifying Japanese Bromides (Starffin, Kawakami et al)

[Frankish]

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

[Jeff Alcorn]

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

[Frankish]

Originally Posted by Jeff Alcorn

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.

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....

[Frankish]

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

[Jeff Alcorn]

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

[Frankish]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks! That is a huge help.

Originally Posted by Jeff Alcorn

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.

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 ....

[Jeff Alcorn]

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