BC593

1959 Marusho Tawara 5 Set

BC593-1, Type 1: Blue Ink on Back, Tan Paper Stock

BC593-2, Type 2: Blue Ink on Back, Grey Paper Stock

BC593-3, Type 3: Brown Ink on Back, Small Kanji on Front

BC593-4, Type 4: Brown Ink on Back, Large Kanji on Front

BC593-5, Type 5: Purple Ink on Back, Grey Paper Stock

    Description:  This is a nice set printed at the very beginning of 1959.  The "Tawara" series of menko produced by the Marusho Gangu Company are quite confusing as they made around 6 sets of cards between 1957 and 1965 with identical backs.  This particular set has the blue-green back and some menko from this set have blank backs.  There is no rank information on the front of the menko so it's a challenge to figure out what set they belong to.  One nice feature of the "Tawara" sets is they typically feature a lot of low ranking rikishi.  A good menko to keep an eye out for is the Yokozuna Wakanohana card as this was one of his earlier Yokozuna menko.

    Company: Marusho                                         Availability: Scarce

    Card Size: 1.75" X 3.0"                                   Card Material: Thin, Paper Stock

    # of Cards: 13+                                               Packaging: Sheets

  Winner Stamp Description: Unknown

   Front Design:  Most of the menko show the rikishi in various poses or action shots against a solid color background.  Some menko have the rikishi in their kesho-mawashi as well.  Shikona is vertical.

   Back Design:  The rikishi's statistics are printed vertically on the back with tawara on the top and left.  A Gu-Choki-Pa is on the bottom right with a 5 digit fighting number on the bottom.  Backs are printed in blue-green ink.