1958 Trophy presented to Walter O’Malley by owner of the Toei Flyers baseball team

This trophy is a gift from Hiroshi Okawa, the President of the Toei Flyers, a team in Nippon Professional Baseball, to Dodger President Walter O’Malley. Okawa was president of the Toei Motion Picture Company that distributed television and motion pictures in Japan and led the way to encourage Japan animation, now with a worldwide reputation. The bronze plate reads, “Presented to Walter O’Malley in Friendship, Hiroshi Okawa, 1958.” It was Okawa who set up a training academy for Japanese animators, including Hayao Miyazaki, a future Academy Award winner and co-founder of Ghibli Studios.