April Fish

April first wouldn't be the same without some French Poisson d'Avril cards.

There are lots more Poisson d'Avril cards on this blog, but I'll repeat some of the background in case you didn't see the earlier posts.

Back in the old days in France (up until 1564), the new year was celebrated on April first, based on the Julian calendar. That was before King Charles IX came along and decided that everybody should be following the Gregorian calendar, which starts the new year on the first day of January. Not everyone welcomed this change, or so the story goes, and some people continued to celebrate April 1 as the first day of the year. Allegedly, those people were mocked and referred to as April fools. Whatever the case, it became a tradition to do things such as pasting a fish on unsuspecting people's backs on April 1, and calling them a Poisson d'Avril or an April Fish. The symbol of the fish may also have been connected with Jesus Christ.

There is another theory that the traditions were inspired by the abundance of newly-hatched fish in French rivers in the Spring. These fish, who had not yet acquired their stream smarts, were easy to catch, and referred to as Poisson d'Avril. Because of the fish, it became customary to fool people on April first. It's still a tradition to give chocolate fish as a present and at one time it was also very popular to send, often anonymously, postcards featuring fish. Somewhere along the line, these cards also became romantic, with the fish symbolizing remembrance and secret feelings.

 

Be sure to stop by Sepia Saturday for interesting photos and stories.

Japanese Baseball - Kawakami

Tetsuharu Kawakami is a former Japanese baseball player who played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1938 to 1958.  He was born in Hitoyoshi in 1920. During World War II, he took a break from baseball to serve in the Imperial Army, but returned to the sport after the war.  Kawakami was also in three movies; in at least one of them he played himself as a baseball player.

Rob of Rob's Japanese Cards has this to say about Kawakami:

Known as the "God of Batting", Kawakami was one of Japan's greatest stars in the 1940s and 1950s and became its greatest all-time manager. As a player, he played first base for the Yomiuri Giants both before and after World War II. He led the league in batting 5 times, in hits 6 times, in RBI 3 times, and HRs twice. He was also a three time MVP and selected for the Best Nine team 10 times. His .313 lifetime batting average ranks 5th on the all-time list. As a manager, Kawakami led the Giants from 1961 to 1974. During this 13 year period, the Giants won 11 Japan Series titles.

These cards seem to be fairly rare.

Here's a picture of Kawakami on a movie poster made by Nikkatsu Corporation in 1957.

New York Traveling Rubber Co.

I have no idea what New York Traveling Rubber Co. produced, but they used these trade cards to advertise their business. It seems that Mom does not approve of the suitor, although he prevails in the end anyway. These are from the 1880s.