Card Of The Week January 1

I wanted to share a recent pickup this week.  There were some pretty wild die-cut menko cards produced in the 1940's including ones cut in the shape of airplanes, kites and masks.  I'd always wanted to get an example of one of these but it wasn't until a month or so ago that I finally came across one at a price I was willing to pay.  This Tetsuharu Kawakami mask is from the 1949 JDM 2 set.  It's hard to tell from the scan but it's about 5 inches across by 7 1/2 inches tall.  Here's the front and back of it:

I got a deal on it because the eyes had been punched out of it (and I'm sure a lot of folks would have paid good money to do that to the real Kawakami).  The condition could have been worse though - if you look carefully, you can see a small curve between each eye and the edge of the card - I assume that's where someone could have threaded a string so that they could have worn the card as a mask.  Luckily those parts are still intact.