Yokozuna Futabayama relaxing with his Yoko-neko-zuna Futuba-nya-ma pin

Instead of counting sheep when I can’t sleep, I like to think of things that don’t go together but should go together. I mean that’s how peanut butter and chocolate got started - right?

One particular evening, not that long ago, the combination that came up was Sumo + Cats. It was obvious at that moment that these two things had to go together in the form of an enamel pin. So, I am running this pre-order campaign to gauge interest in this project and get these little pins into the world where I feel they clearly belong.

Since that fateful night, Sumo + Cats became an obsession for me and I would spend hours each day going down the rabbit hole of Sumo trading cards - called Menko online. I found the most fascinating information at an incredible SumoCards blog  run by Ryan Laughton, who has been instrumental in helping me design the cards.

Menko which means "small object with face"  goes all the way back to the 1700’s when they started with small circular discs of clay depicting favorite personalities of the day. They were first replaced by lead disks then were wisely replaced by paper in the early 1900’s due to awareness of lead poisoning! In the 1920’s Menko experienced another change, moving from woodblock printing to half-tone bromide printing and taking on die cut shapes of animals and airplanes. And, slowly as the quality of the printing improved over time, instead of destroying their Menko in battle, kids found value in collecting them. Sumo trading cards started appearing in the 1930's and enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in the 1950's and if you see vintage Sumo Menko it's likely from this period.  As you can see already - the history is so fascinating and rich. I encourage you to visit Ryan’s SumoBlog if you want to learn more.

Vintage Menko courtesy of SumoCards Blog

Each pin will approximately be 0.75" tall.

Yokozuna Taiho with Yoko-neko-zuna Tai-kawai-ho pin

I am particularly fascinated by Menko in the 1940’s which my packaging is based on. I like that’s when there was that magical collision between the ability to create and manufacturing processes being advanced enough to support that creativity. To stay true to the period, instead of creating the art on the computer, I sketched and painted each of these designs and then put them through a half-tone filter to mimic the printing processes.

I also want point out the Chonmage, the original man bun, on the kitties. Initially I incorrectly drew these as little bumps on the cat’s heads but I was soon directed to draw these properly in the shape of a Gingko leaf.

I used this a Blackwing Pencil (which I highly recommend, the lead is like velvet), my favorite Staedtler eraser and Gouache paints to create the art for the kitties.

Based on Ryan’s expert suggestions, I focused on these three top Sumo wrestlers:

1. Futabayama who popularized the sport of Sumo.

2. Taiho who became a Yokozuna at 21, the youngest ever at the time.

3. Chiyonofuji who was considered as one of the greatest yokozuna of recent times and known as "the Wolf" for his ferocity and masculine facial features.

I took some liberties to spin the names a little - adding NYA (meow in Japanese), NEKO (cat) and KAWAI (cute). Although I am Chinese, I am told by my Japanese friends that these are in fact playful renditions of the names. Futabayama has become Futaba - nya - ma, Taiho Tai-Kawai-ho (be sure to draw out the word Ka-wai to make it sound extra cute) and Chiyonofuji is Chiyo-Nya-Fuij.

On the back of each card, you will see the name of the wrestler, their actual height and weight, their traditional fighting number and a phrase in Japanese - which I will let you figure out. The little paw in the bottom RH corner, that’s a kitty version of rock, paper, scissors a traditional game that kids used to play with the cards. And that little empty box, why that’s where my signature will be! Yes, I am going to hand sign each card - and in the spirit of collectible cards, any pre-sale pins purchased with this campaign will be autographed in a gold ink. All others will be in black.

Why the red line? That is the die line and I create it on the computer.  I like to do it in another color so the printer knows not to print the "red" line.

Yokozuna Chiyonofuji with Yoko-neko-zuna Chiyo-nya-fuji pin.

You will receive a lovely enamel Sumo Cat pin (or pins) depending on your perk. Shipping via US first class mail is free anywhere in the US and each and only pre-sale card will be autographed in gold ink!

Production will start when I have raised base funds and it takes 4 - 6 weeks to produce these little guys. So expect your pins in the mail in about 7 weeks around MAY 2017.

Let me know if you have any questions!

MEOWS!

Lynn