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This issue features a beautiful illustrated color cover showing a catcher and home-plate umpire, with the distinctive English The Yakyukai Sports Magazine masthead.
Inside is extensive coverage of Japanese baseball during the immediate postwar period, with numerous photographs of professional players, game action and instructional material. Of particular interest is a substantial photographic feature examining pitching mechanics and form, illustrated with large action photographs and sequences of Japanese professional pitchers.
The interior includes players representing several early Japanese professional clubs, with photographs and references to teams including the Hanshin Tigers, Chunichi Dragons and Taiyō Robins, among others. The combination of player portraits, action photography, technical baseball instruction and contemporary advertisements provides a wonderful snapshot of Japanese baseball culture as the professional game rebuilt following World War II.
Published in 1948—before the 1950 reorganization of Japanese professional baseball into the modern Central and Pacific Leagues—this is an appealing piece of early postwar and Occupation-era baseball history.
Condition: Very nice vintage condition for its age. Cover retains especially attractive pink, blue and yellow color, with expected light edge/corner wear, toning, rubbing and handling consistent with a publication more than 75 years old. Interior pages remain attractive with strong period photographic content. Please examine photographs carefully for condition and contents.
Original May 1948 Japanese publication — not a reproduction.
