Sunday, September 29, 2019

Long Before Pogs

What's the most interesting addition I've made to my vintage card collection this year?

Menko!

(Fronts and backs are pictured together throughout this post.)
 



I still have a lot to learn about menko, which are often smaller than standard North American cards and thicker, too. But for me, one of the best parts of collecting anything is doing the research and learning about your collection, so I really look forward to digging deeper into the history of these Japanese beauties.





I've picked up eight menko over the past year or so, all baseball themed. As many of you collectors likely know, the subjects go well beyond baseball players. Images of automobiles, movie stars, robots, monsters, samurai, sumo, and more can be found. Most of the menko here date from the 1950s and 1960s, I think.





I'm enjoying the various images and illustrations. (Check out the classy spectacles and pose on that Chunichi Dragons pitcher above.) The designs on the back can vary greatly, but I do enjoy the cartoon-ish ones.





I also like the fact that menko were designed as a game for kids. From what I've gathered so far, a player puts one of their menko on the floor, face up, and the other player takes one of their menko and flings it down, trying to flip the first menko over on its back.

If that reminds you of the Pogs craze of the mid-1990s, you're not alone. If the idea of deliberately banging up your cards makes you cringe, you're also not alone. But menko were meant to be played with, and I think that's a good way to view them when it comes to condition.

For another interesting aspect of menko, look closely at some of the card backs. You'll see what appears to be a rock-paper-scissors type of game, with a small illustrated hand taking on the shape of a rock or a scissor (I don't have any examples of paper yet). I wonder if this was used for a trading game, where you'd each flip down a card, back side up, and see whose card had the winning object. Man, that'd be a tough way to lose a card.



I also wonder how many kids back then tucked some of their menko away, not wanting to ding them up or lose them in a game. I'm sure a lot of kids had at least a couple of special ones. 

And now I do, too.

Thanks for reading, as always.

10 comments:

  1. I had never heard of these. Great read!

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    1. Thanks very much! Goes to show there's a lot out there, right?

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  2. I totally would have played "rock, paper, scissors" for cards when I was a kid. I would imagine that I'd put away treasured cards, just because it's not really worth the risk of losing them. Then again... the game might get boring if no stars were ever included.

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    1. You might be a bigger risk taker with cards than I am, Fuji!

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  3. Cool cards! I had to double check which blog this was, because there's two other bloggers who write about Menko on a fairly regular basis... looks like they might have some competition :)

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    1. Thanks Jon! But maybe I played my hand poorly. Those eight menko are all I've got.

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  4. I'd seen a little bit about menko before but hadn't noticed the card backs before. They're great!

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    1. Right? Sometimes almost better than the fronts.

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  5. Awesome cards. The one at the top of the post is of Hall of Famer Takehiko Bessho, I think the set is from 1948.

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    1. Wow, I did better than I thought with that one. Thanks very much for the information, Sean -- and thanks for reading!

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