Interesting 1934 Babe Ruth poster

[BradH]

I'm on the mailing list for the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame newsletter and the latest issue arrived today. This 1934 Babe Ruth photo caught my eye.

It shows Babe with a promotional poster for his 1934 Japan tour. It's an interesting piece and one that I doubt even the most advanced Ruth collectors have in their collection. To me it's also a bit curious that the artist's depiction of Babe doesn't appear to be an overly happy one. I had never heard that he had to be enticed to make the trip to Japan.

In case you can't read Japanese , here is the English translation....
Let me introduce a famous poster promoting the 1934 Japan-U.S. baseball competition and a rare photo shown left here. The famous promotion poster is on display at our baseball museum and has been its centerpiece of the exhibits since the inauguration back in 1959. The poster is famous because it proved to be a big incentive to induce the reluctant Babe Ruth to come over to Japan in the fall of 1934. (Its details are written in Apocrypha of Japanese Pro Baseball ~ the path of the Tokyo Giants (1976) by Sotaro Suzuki, 1968 Hall of Famer.)

In November, 1972, Kansen Hirose, who had designed the poster, visited the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum which was then a detached building adjacent to the former Korakuen Stadium. He had two of his photos reproduced by the BHFM, one of which is shown here in the left and testifies clearly a close relationship between Babe Ruth and the poster, and that between the designer and the said pair. The photo was taken in front of the former Imperial Hotel (aka Wright House) where the members of the American team stayed in 1934. The photo shows from left: Kansen Hirota, Sotaro Suzuki, Babe Ruth, Tsuneo Horiguchi, and an anonym. The signature down left is of Hirose’s.) Horiguchi is the famous “Piston Horiguchi,” who was active in the boxing world in the pre- and post-war Japan. According to what Junji Ohno, the then director of the BHFM, heard from Hirose, Horiguchi met Ruth as the representative of the only and popular pro sport in Japan. (The current pro baseball in Japan started in 1936.)

[rfitts]

Brad,
the poster is very rare. Only 3 are known to exist and only 1 is in private hands. You can read al about the poster in my book Banzai Babe Ruth

[jerseygary]

I second the recommendation to read "Banzai Babe Ruth" - it's one of the best baseball books I've ever read (and I read A LOT), a must-have if you enjoy pre-war baseball. The book has a nice story about how the poster you see in the picture had a big part in convincing The Babe to go to Japan in 1934.