I purchased this beautiful little vending machine from Japan. I was unable to find much information about it, but I knew that it looks really cool and would make a great decorator piece at the very minimum.
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| auction photograph |
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| おもしろい 点取占い (Interesting Score Fortune Telling) arrived in Canada, safe and sound |
It dispenses 35 mm capsules and it came with a number of 35mm wooden balls instead. The balls are not marked in any capacity, so I think they were just put in for fun. Opening up the machine, I did find two plastic capsules, one of which had a fortune inside. So while this looks like an early gashapon machine, it was made to dispense the capsules with paper fortunes inside.
I was very nervous about shipping it because it has a suspended glass plate in the center where the label is. I am grateful that it arrived in one piece.
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| the one complete capsule that was inside |
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| each fortune has a number designating how many "points"it is worth. So getting it '2' is not great |
There was a single ¥50 piece jammed into part of the coin slot. the coin slot with is perfect for the 50 and piece, so I assume that is the correct denomination.
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| ¥50 is 21mm diameter ¥10 coins are 23.5 mm and do not fit. |
According to the 点取占い wikipedia article: score/point fortunetelling goes back to 1935 in Osaka. production stopped during the war, but they began making them again in 1963, finally ceasing production in 2017.
The following images were shared by smile3retro: (archive)
They have an online store!
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| I was given this info by @michelintongs... "the ST mark (ST for Safety Toy, 玩具安全マーク) is given by the the Japan Toy Association (日本玩具協会). This association was created in 1967." |
More information on point fortune telling: (except for the first one, these are all Internet archive links)
2018.02.10 『見たいけど見る勇気が出ない、もどかしすぎる点取り占い』
2018.02.10 "I want to see it but I can't find the courage to watch it. It's a frustrating fortune telling with points." (archive)
1. 点取占いとは
1. What is Tentori Fortune Telling?
1-1. 点取占いの仕様
1-1. Specifications of the point fortune telling
1-2. 点取占いのパッケージ
1-2. Point fortune telling package
Let's see if we can find a minimum date for this machine based on the calculator shown. Electric calculators were a hot new field in the 60s and 70s. Features that are shown on the illustration must have been based on real calculators.
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This image is from the Twitter image above, but is a detailed version of the image inside the machine. |
The calculator illustration is a mishmash of a few designs of the era, but there are some obvious strong influences.
Those closest model I have found so far is the 1969 Casio AL-1200:
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| 1969 Casio AL-1200 image from Museum of MukaiLab |
If you look closely on the left, you will see a toggle switch that says "cut 5/4", which is reflected in the illustration as the "5/4" light.
It has a button that has both the equal and + on it, like the illustration, and a "KC" button while the illustration has a "CK" button.
Another influence might be the Facit 1121, which has the digit numbers listed under the nixie tube displays, similar to what we see in the illustration.
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| Facit 1121, made late 1966 via The Old Calculator Museum |
Before we go further, here are some further links about early electric calculators:
- The History of Japanese Mechanical Calculating Machines
- Vintage Calculators Web Museum
- The Old Calculator Web Museum
- Early electric calculators at John Wolff's Web Museum
I am assuming that the calculator design was done early 1970s, but I am unsure if that means this machine was from the early 1970s. There is still a chance this dispenser is from the 1960s, but I am sceptical that it came out before the Casio AL-1200. The next thing to investigate would be: when would ¥50 be an appropriate price for a score fortune-telling dispenser?
There is not a lot to go on here because I have never seen another score fortune-telling dispenser before. Looking at undated images of old gashapon dispensers I see some for ¥30, some at ¥100, but none at ¥50. (so far)
I'm gleaning some gacha info from the ガシャポン / Gashapon aka Gachapon aka Gacha wikis, and this good article, with some early photographs: ガチャガチャ自販機、来日して60年 初輸入の会社社長が描く未来 (Capsule toy vending machines arrive in Japan 60 years later: First importer envisions future). (archive)
Gashapon (ガシャポン) wasn't a trademarked thing from Bandai until 1977. But 12 years earlier in 1965 is when Ryuzo Shigeta (重田 龍三) imported American gumball machines into Japan to sell capsules with prizes inside. (source is this reference-packed article on Sega Retro on Konno Sangyo)
It appears that Shigeta Ryuzo even has a webpage! (here's an archive.ph of the top page, but I have submitted the whole thing to the Internet archive as well)the
this article includes a photograph of the machines that were imported from the USA:
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| source: ガチャガチャ自販機、来日して60年 初輸入の会社社長が描く未来 (archive) |
There is some reciprocity here as this page on the The Penny King Company (archive) says that in the 1930s they were importing charms for their capsules from Japan!
There is also the Gacha 60th Anniversary webpage.
The machine itself is a bit of a puzzle to me, because it is quite well-built but does not feel like a commercial machine that a vending machine company would sell.
at the top right of the machine is a small latch that is closed by a single small screw.
opening this gives us access to a metal pin we can pull out.
Removing this pin allows the front window frame of the machine to come off.
The different kind of wood with a knob goes in betrays a potentially severe repair. I have not opened up this part, but I think this is someone's attempts to get it working when parts were missing. I certainly applaud the effort! It is not visible to the user, so the machine still has a commanding presence despite the repairs.
Just above the wood you can see two metal circles with poles extending upward. One of these poles was missing when I purchased it, but I was relieved to find it inside the machine. These are not secured in, they are only held in by their own weight. As you turn the knob one rises up to pause the second ball, and the other goes down to allow the front ball to release.
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| this is what I found when I opened the back side. |
On the back we can see a lever connecting the coin mechanism and the knob. This is a very simple mechanism based on the weight of the coin releasing the cogs of the gear. The gear here is handcarved wood, and I think a DIY replacement to whatever was there before. At the bottom of that inner chamber you can see an impression of screw holes where something else might have attached. Inside the main area of the machine, you can see what looks like the discolouration and screw holes of perhaps a plaque that was there.
I will explore the mechanics of this machine a bit more friend who has better eyes than I do. A primarily purchased this for the beautiful ball track and wooden case. Having some contextual history is just icing on the cake. And if there's a chance we can get it working smoothly, all the better! I think there is a chance that some parts, like the gear, might need to get fabricated again.
Here is a lottery dispenser machine from the 1973 yearbook, which was published late 1972. I don't know if this is a fortune-telling dispenser, or a dispenser of lottery tickets, but it does give a strong contrast to the wood + brass design style of the score fortune-telling vendor.
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| トーホー式宝くじ自動販売機 (Toho-style lottery vending machine) |
In conclusion I think this is an intriguing piece because it connects prewar score fortune-telling to emergent gacha culture. I believe this machine is from the early 1970s, and I have no idea who made it. I do not think it was made by a commercial vending machine company because the coin mech is so basic. It was probably made by a toy company as a way to sell fortunes slips, but I am unsure if it is something that would be commissioned by the store itself.
I do not know if I will keep this long-term, or try and find a more appropriate home for it. If you have any more information on this, or are particularly interested in it, please get in touch. (thetastates@gmail.com)
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