new book out: パチンコ四部作完結編 コリントゲーム史 (Pachinko tetralogy final edition: CORINTHIAN game history)

Kazuo Sugiyama, who runs the Birth of Pachinko Museum, has released a new book on the Corinthian game in Japan!

パチンコ四部作完結編　コリントゲーム史 (Pachinko tetralogy final edition Corinthian game history)

A bunch of my research is referenced throughout the book!

Prior game-related books publications from Kazuo Sugiyama:

• 2022: Cultural History of Things and Humans 188 Rolling Balls (ものと人間の文化史 188 玉ころがし by 杉山 一夫)
• 2021: Cultural History of Things and Humans: PACHINKO (ものと人間の文化史 186: パチンコ by 杉山 一夫)
• 2008: Birth of Pachinko - Entertainment in the Century of Cinema (パチンコ誕生―シネマの世紀の大衆娯楽)
  

He also released 2 ebooks in 2014, but I do not think there is anything in these ebooks that are not more robustly covered in his 4 published books.

• 2014: 戦前からあった台湾のパチンコ (Taiwanese pachinko that existed before the war) [ebook]
• 2014: コリントゲームと人生劇場 コリントゲームシリーズ (Corinthian Games and Theater of Life Corinthian Games Series) [ebook]

Nazox2016 has also posted about this book!

Photos from the book:

a little bit of Nic Costa!

these pictures might be familiar to people who follow my Arcade Explorations series

FLASH magazine 2021-12-14: Birth of Pachinko Museum article

I first saw on twitter that Kazuo Sugiyama's Birth of Pachinko Museum (previously) was featured in the magazine FLASH (a Japanese weekly magazine) 

My friend nazox2016 has provided us with high resolution scans and gracefully prepared a translation of the contents for us!

FLASH 2021-12-14: 日本パチンコのルーツ台に迫る - pages 1 and 2

FLASH 2021-12-14: 日本パチンコのルーツ台に迫る - page 3

Nikkei Voice article on Tamakorogashi

I am happy to announce I have an article published in the Nikkei Voice newspaper.  It is available in their print edition, as well as online:

ARCADE ORIGINS IN THE JAPANESE ROLLING BALL: HOW TAMAKOROGASHI SHAPED THE WORLD OF MODERN GAMING

Nikkei Voice print edition

Nikkei Voice print edition

archived copy

Nikkei Voice framed at the Birth Of Pachinko Museum

new art! Gift from Kazuo Sugiyama

I am so incredibly excited to have received a gift from Kazuo Sugiyama, who before he began researching pachinko's origins and opening the Birth Of Pachinko Museum, is a print-maker artist.

the print is now on the wall

I have so much art on the walls throughout my house, but I did have this perfect space ready for it.  (It hangs just below another print, one by Eye Yamataka and signed by members of his band The Boredoms.)

Kazuo Sugiyama and the print!

I am very grateful to receive this.  It arrived safely from Japan.

the print is based off a scene from the 1962 movie キューポラのある街 (Foundry Town), and you can see more of that in my post on Pachinko in Japanese Cinema.

The print was used in Sugiyama's book パチンコ誕生―シネマの世紀の大衆娯楽 (Birth of Pachinko - Entertainment in the Century of Cinema)

new book: Cultural History of Things and Humans: PACHINKO (ものと人間の文化史 186: パチンコ by 杉山 一夫)

I am very excited to announce that Mr. Kazuo Sugiyama's latest book is now available!  Mr. Sugiyama (杉山 一夫) turned his residence in to the Birth Of Pachinko Museum, which we featured here last year.

Published by Hosei University, this book is the latest in their scholarly "Cultural History" series.

ISBN 978-4-588-21861-3 [Published June 2021]

This book is in Japanese, but I browse it with the Google Translate app (apple, android) on my phone.  Translation apps are getting better by the week, and for most English speakers you'll be able to easily find the manufacturers, regions, and years of the machines.  I collect a lot of coin-op books from around the world and those are always the keys bits of data I want.

It packs in 372 pages of pachinko research going back to early 20th century.  It covers the earliest developments, from bagatelle and allwins, to the earliest pre-WW2 machines, and into the 1950+ juggernaut that we recognize today.

It features lots of photos, illustrations, diagrams, patents, and even a few colour pages.

Japanese stores selling the book:

Rakuten

Honto

Amazon Japan

International customers can get it via shipping services:

purchase it through Buyee

purchase it through FromJapan

My friend nazox2016 also has a review on his site.  Here is the table of contents, which I copied from his site and translated using machine translation.

Table of Contents (Excerpt from the official website of the Hosei University Publishing Bureau)

Chapter 1 Pachinko God "Masamura Gauge"

Chapter 2 Forgery of Masamura Gauge Legend

Chapter 3 Introducing Bagatelle (to Japan)    

Chapter 4 Birth of "Wall Machine"

Chapter 5 Birth of "Issen Pachinko"

Chapter 6 Birth of "Pachinko Type Confectionery Vending Machine"

Chapter 7 1933 years, the craze "Corinthians game"

Chapter 8 Founding and Nationwide Expansion of Suzutomi Shokai

Chapter 9 Pachinko machine production begins in Kanazawa after Osaka in 1931

Chapter 10 The oldest existing "pinball machine" made in Japan around 1935

Chapter 11 "Metal pachinko" advance to the continent around 1935

Chapter 12 The oldest surviving "smart ball"

Chapter 13 Pachinko, the second birth

Chapter 14 The 7/7 Ban and the Corporate Development, pachinko was hidden

Chapter 15 Resumption of pachinko, the beginning of the forgery of Masamura gauge

Chapter 16 The feud between Kunishige Takeuchi and Kazuo Nagasaki

Chapter 17  "Masamura Gauge" was not devised by Masamura Takeichi

Chapter 18 Junnosuke Yoshiyuki wins the 1st Pachinko Culture Award

Chapter 19 Automation of Pachinko Hall

Chapter 20 Manual type pachinko demise

Supplementary chapter Min Jin Lee's "PACHINKO" era

research pays off!

Love these photos that Mr. Sugiyama sent me!   He updated the signage in the Pachinko Museum thanks to research I sent him.

His Japanese pinball machine seems to be a copy of Genco's Official Baseball.  Genco was sued by Rock-Ola as their design seemed cribbed from their World's Series.

pachinko museum supplemental material

There was lots of information on the walls at Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum but I don't know any Japanese, so I wanted to include all of the extra historical details here for all of the Japanese-reading fans.
Again, thanks to nazox2016 for all of these photos!

If you can translate any of these please email me (at thetastates@gmail.com) or respond below, and reference the picture #

Niche Collections: Mr. Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum

Each of these Niche Collection entries has made me very happy to write, but this one I am by far the most excited about.  Across continents, across language barriers, and through a pandemic, the stars aligned and I am happy to present one of the most important collections of Japanese machines that exists.

I first discovered the work of 杉山 一夫 (Kazuo Sugiyama) when I bought his book パチンコ誕生―シネマの世紀の大衆娯楽 and dove into it with my poor little translator app (I don't speak any Japanese).  It remains one of the best books on the birth of pachinko available, even for English collectors like me.  I then discovered he had two e-books as well so I had to snag those.

Sugiyama was working to correct the mistakes of the past.  So many "pachinko histories" had huge missing gaps, and often incorrectly traced pachinko back to early 1900s bagatelle games.  Articles sometimes quip that "pachinko is Japanese pinball" and that's a lazy description that should forever be laid to rest.  Sugiyama has documented pachinko to the start of the 20th century, AS WELL documented bagatelle / corinthian/ corinth and it's developments in Japan.

First up, here are his books:

Since he had written on Corith, I had messaged him with questions about Smart Ball.  In our conversations he revealed that he would be opening a museum!    Very exciting stuff!!!

But then the pandemic was declared!  Museum opening: POSTPONED!!!

With the pandemic now being much more controlled in Japan, and with the safety precautions much more well known, I encouraged my friend nazox2016 to go visit and he took all of the photos you'll see below.  THANK YOU SIR!  You can read his write-up at his site, part 1, part 2.  Most of the translations below are also his.
I have included all of the signs filled with history in a separate post, and hopefully people can help translate them in the future.

So without further ado, let's get into it...

Niche Collection 007: Mr. Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum

postcards from the museum featuring two of the rarest machines

and this is just a sampling! - Garage exhibition room