Identifying Japanese Bromides (Starffin, Kawakami et al)

[Frankish]

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!

[Frankish]

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)

[Schlesinj]

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.

[Kawika]

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.





Mayhem on the basepath, 1930s menko


Shonen premium Kaoru Betto

[LazyMF]

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.

[nolemmings]

Starffin is pretty recognizable, and his follow-through pose was popular. Here's one of mine: