Menko is a Japanese card game played by two or more participants.  It is also the name of the type of cards used to play this game.  Each player uses menko cards made from thick paper or cardboard of varying shapes and sizes.  The face of the cards display colorful images from popular anime or manga series, video games, the sports world, movies, live-action TV programs, or of other cultural icons from past and present.  The back side of the cards were most often printed with reference information, symbols, objects and point values.

 

examples of video game menko

 The game of menko can be played two ways:

 1) A player's card is placed on the ground.  A second player throws one of his cards forcefully on top of or near the first player's card, trying to flip it over.  If the second player succeeds, he keeps his card and wins the first player's card.

 2) A player's card is placed on the ground inside a ring or circle.  A second player throws one of his cards forcefully on top of or near the first player's card, trying to push it out of the ring (like in marbles or sumo wrestling.)  If the second player succeeds, he keeps his card and wins the first player's card.

 The champion is the player who takes all of his opponent's cards, or the player with the most cards at the game's end.  Menko were sometimes referred to as "bettan" or "patchin," which are sounds one might have heard when one player's menko successfully overturned an opponent's best card.

 The quick and simple rules of menko made it popular among boys of all ages.  Since technique is just as important as strength in this game, younger children had a fair chance of winning against older, more experienced players.  (Although considered by most Japanese to be a "boy's toy," there was no such distinction made regarding the playing of menko on U.S. military bases located in Japan, therefore, as most Brats know, it was also an extremely popular game with American girls as well as boys who lived there.)

 A Brief History of Menko

 The history of menko spans nearly 300 years, beginning in the middle of Japan's Edo Period* (the early 1700's) when menko were made of dried mud or clay.  The word menko literally means "small object with a face," and many of the first menko were decorated with the face of a person or animal.  Through the years, the process of manufacturing menko changed and new materials were utilized, such tile, wood, lead and other metals.  The pictures on these cards tended to reflect the popular culture of their time.  Menko cards from the past convey important information about their era.  In the Edo and early Meiji Period**, images such as ninja and samurai were prized.  The making of paper or cardboard menko began around the Japan-Manchuria wars of the mid-1890's.  These cards were block printed, blank-backed and round in shape.  Some were even hand-tinted.  Due to Japan's preoccupation with militarism at that time, most of these menko displayed images of samurai warriors, famous politicians, or soldiers.

samurai menko

 In 1900, menko made of lead were banned due to the poisoning of some Osaka children after they had licked their cards (possibly in an attempt to gain an advantage over their opponents in menko matches).  With the elimination of lead-based cards, the paper and cardboard menko manufacturers had virtually no competitors.

 During the 1920's and 30's, Japan experienced a cultural renaissance in which influences from the West were assimilated into the mainstream in an effort to be seen as a "modern" nation.  As in previous eras, menko reflected this change.  New images began to appear on the cards, such as Western animation and comic strip characters, exotic animals, silent-cinema stars, and sports figures.  Menko also began to take on new shapes.  Some were made into long rectangular strips so that youngsters could take them to school, disguising them in their texts as "book marks."  Other menko were die-cut into the shapes of people, animals, and airplanes which could be flung or shot through the air with the aid of a rubber band.

    

cardboard menko depicting traditional and Western images

  

silent film star Fatty Arbuckle & airplane-shaped menko

 In 1934, Japan's interest in baseball was energized by the visit of the U.S. All Stars team, which included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, and Charlie Gehringer.  Soon, unidentified baseball players began to appear on menko.  These simple, generic cards would later be replaced by menko depicting well-known Japanese colleges or high schools, and much later by cards depicting professional athletes.

vintage baseball menko (translation of Japanese characters: "Homerun")

 At the end of World War II in 1945, the U.S. occupation forces in Japan prohibited the glorification of traditional Japanese heroes.  The images of soldiers, weaponry and samurai that had once graced the faces of menko had to be replaced.  Japanese baseball stars and sumo wrestlers were a natural alternative.  Additionally, in an attempt to forget for the war and its depressing aftermath, the people of Japan began to visit movie houses more frequently.  There they enjoyed seeing American westerns, Mickey Mouse, Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, and adventure films.  These "hero figures" also began to appear on menko.

 With the advancement of television in the late 1950's, outer space themes, alien monsters, and Japanese TV programs also found their way onto menko.

 Until this time, menko had been produced using relatively crude printing processes since they were intended for boys to "fight" with and trash.  

 

battle-scarred menko

 Since menko were being used less by children as "fighting pieces," the printing was improved so the cards would be viewed as collectible items, similar to baseball trading cards.

 In the 1970's, Japan's desire to modernize replaced the traditional with the contemporary, and several new products were introduced to compete with the classic menko.  A smaller-sized card appeared around 1972 and became immediately popular, especially when the images on the cards depicted the favorite anime, manga or tokusatsu (live-action film or TV superheroes) of the day.  

 

sports car-themed mini-menko

With the popularity of the minicard, menko manufacturers attempted to revitalize their industry by creating larger menko, enclosing them in eye-catching packaging, making them thicker, or enhancing the card images with foil, and in the late 1980's, glitter and holographic embellishments.  Unfortunately, cards as toys were generally no longer enough to capture the imaginations of modern Japanese children, and some companies sadly chose to discontinue producing due to poor sales.  (Of course, as any Brat will attest, menko was still quite popular with the young dependents of U.S. Military personnel, many of whom had large collections of menko.)  In the 1990's, the introduction of new card games based on popular animated TV programs virtually overtook the simpler, straightforward game of menko.

 Today, vintage menko are highly sought-after collectibles that remind many older individuals of the simpler days of their childhood.