Inscribed Real Photo Postcard of Japanese-American Boxer Young Togo

Muskogee, Oklahoma, 1918. Real photo postcard measuring 3 ¼ x 5 ½ inches. A real photo postcard depicting Japanese-American boxer Young Togo, inscribed verso: “To K. Iwana Muskogee Oklahoma / From Young Togo fighter and jiu jitsu wrestler Muskogee Okla”. Young Togo was a lightweight and sometimes featherweight or bantamweight boxer from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who debuted around 1907. He seemed to have been a popular fighter, based on contemporaneous newspaper articles. Following a draw with Togo, “Battling” Nelson described him as “the toughest piece of Japanese flesh that ever stepped into a prize ring”, and stated that “he was game to the core. He fought clean and took his beating like a gamester”, then noting that Young Togo had been “full of malaria” at the time.[1] In the same article, sports journalist Otto Floto described Togo as “one of the very toughest boys of his weight” who “seems to be invincible.” Togo may be Koriyama Kokichi, the head coach of Yūjirō Watanabe’s Nippon Kentō Club, founded in 1921 in Tokyo; Boxing: A Quick Guide (1923), a book written by the pair in Japanese, identifies Kokichi as “Young Togo”.

[1] “What Nelson Thinks Of Fort Smith Fans (By Battling Nelson)”, Southwest American, March 1, 1912, 5.