Japan Amateur Baseball Tournament 1979

Animal Japan Sports

July 27, 1979

Japan Amateur Baseball Tournament 1979

A commemorative postage stamp on the 50^th National Inter–City Amateur Baseball Tournament, Tokyo :

Issued by Japan

Issued on Jul 27, 1979

Design : The postage stamp depicts a ball with a black lion and a pitcher, and the number of stitches on the ball suggests the efforts made by the designer.

Designer : Minoru Hisano

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : 50 yen

Colour : Multicolour

Size of impression : 35.5 mm x 25.0 mm

Initial printing : 27,000,000 stamps

Sheet composition : 20 (4 x 5) stamps

Printing process : 5 color photogravure (Yellowish orange, grey, red, dull blue and black)

About :

A 50 yen postage stamp will be issued on July 27, 1979, to commemorate the 50^th National Inter-city Amateur Baseball Tournament.
The National Inter-city Amateur Baseball Tournament is a national tournament of amateur teams organized at clubs, companies, banks, government etc. in various parts of the country, participated by those winning teams representing various districts.
This tournament was first proposed by Shintaro Shimazaki, an honorary member of the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (present Mainichi Shimbun), and Gantetsu Hashido, who was in the same capacity, provided the driving force with others. The first tournament was held at the Jingu Stadium in August, 1927.
The tournament has since then been held in Tokyo every summer (except for the war period of 1943-45) and is entering the second half century this summer. The first tournament was participated in by only 12 teams representing 12 districts. In contrast, a total of 31 teams from 16 districts, including Toshiba (Kawasaki City), the winner of 1978, will take part in the coming event.
The Black Lion, the symbol flag of the inter-city baseball tournament, was designed by the late Misui (Hoan) Kosugi, the painter, inspired by a Babylonian relief. An imposing figure of the lion, the king of beasts, bordered with golden thread, is embossed in the center of the flag. Black symbolizes strength and gallantry, and the flag has the dignity of a pennant.
Since the 10^th tournament, a flag depicting a white lion has been presented to the semi-final team and yellow lion flags to the third place winner (at present the two teams disqualified at semi-finals) since the 18^th tournament.