Rob Fitts has just published an eBook called "An Illustrated Introduction To Japanese Baseball Cards". It's a 82 page pdf that covers the history of Japanese baseball cards from the 19th Century to the present. As the title suggests, it's lavishly illustrated with examples of cards throughout the years. If you follow the above link you can see some sample pages and download the book - it costs $4.99.
The background of the cover photo is a 1977 Yamakatsu card of Tsutomu Wakamatsu. It's from the JY3 set, one of the oversized sets Yamakatsu did in 1976-77 - it measures roughly 6 3/4 inches by 9 3/4 inches. I thought I'd share the what the original card looked like:
5 comments:
How is the book?
Curious as well, likely will pick up a copy.
Oh, sorry, I should have mentioned that it's pretty good. He splits the history into six periods - Pre-World War II, Occupation (1945-52), Tobacco-sized Menko (1956-64), the Void (1965-72), Calbee (1973-90) and Modern (1991-present). I think he's planning on having future volumes to concentrate on each period.
Probably the coolest thing in the book is the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf Hiroshi Gondo card that was discovered last year.
I enjoy his price guide, so this should be great info. It sounds like a more fleshed-out, historical version of "Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card."
Thanks for the heads up. I just picked it up - Great info.
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