Shōnen Book Playing Cards
Shueisha / Shōnen Book / 少年ブック
Japan
? cards
Rare cards from Japan, featuring the earliest football cards I am aware of from the land of the rising sun. Shōnen Book is a children's comic published by Shueisha, with the first issue published in March 1958 and continued through to April 1969. In 1968 the comic gave away a series of playing cards. What little I know about them is included here, I've only seen spades and diamonds.
A♠. Taihō Kōki (Sumo Wrestling)
2♠. Kunishige Kamamoto (Soccer - Yanmar Diesel)
3♠. Ryuichi Sugiyama (Soccer - Mitsubishi Motors)
4♠. Antonio Inoki (Boxing)
5♠.
6♠.
7♠. Thunder Sugiyama (Wrestling)
8♠. Shohei "Giant" Baba (Wrestling)
9♠.
10♠. Tamanoshima Arata (Sumo Wrestling)
J♠. Masahiko "Fighting" Harada (Boxing)
Q♠. Kashiwado Tsuyoshi (Sumo Wrestling)
K♠.
A♦. Shigeo Nagashima (Baseball)
2♦. Keiji Suzuki (Baseball)
3♦. Yutaka Enatsu (Baseball)
4♦. Masaaki Koyama (Baseball)
5♦. Kazuhiko Kondo (Baseball)
6♦. Isao Harimoto (Baseball)
7♦. Shiro Takegami (Baseball)
8♦. Masaaki Ikenaga (Baseball)
9♦.
10♦. Tetsuya Yoneda (Baseball)
J♦. Katsuya Nomura (Baseball)
Q♦. Sinichi Eto (Baseball)
K♦. Sadaharu Oh (Baseball)
