Here I have gathered everything I can find about 玉ころがし (Tamakorogashi or Tama Korogashi) aka Japanese Roll Ball, or Japanese Rolling Ball, or Japan Rolling Balls, Billard Japonais, etc.
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| picture from Jost & Cie catalog (see France section) |
I am told by Mr. Sugiyama that Tamakorogashi was very popular in Japan from 1880-1930, but very little documentation of it exists outside of newspapers. Game were not considered important back then, and photography still very expensive. I am hoping that more and more details will emerge, especially documentation of the game within Japan.
We know quite a bit about games from 1930 onward. We have some scraps detailing the history of bagatelle from the 18th and 19th centuries, but there is a lot to be learned about the role of Japanese game history in that time.
Building on our current lineage, billiards gave us bagatelle which through many twists and turns eventually gave us all of the arcade machines we know and love. But the lines between 16th century billiards, 1780 France and the 1930s which gave birth to both pinball in America and pachinko in Japan are still poorly defined. Tamakorogashi is a part of that developmental history, and it feeds back in to arcade history in a significant way.
Quick overview:
1901-1920s Japanese Rolling Ball gains popularity in USA and Canada.
1920s variations of Japanese Rolling Ball tables appear around Europe, at fairs and as part of their robust lineage of wooden table games. Names like "Le Billard Japonais" provide the only connection to its heritage.
Gameplay: balls are rolled down a long playfield towards numbered holes at the end of the playfield. Depending on the total score, you would be awarded a prize of varied value.
Many establishments kept ledgers, allowing players to build on a score to cash it in for larger prizes. Some places eventually offered tickets for players to track their score.
Legacy: Japanese Rolling Ball might be the very first "redemption arcade" game. Ledgers were kept for players to exchange for larger prizes at the end of the season. It was often used as a way to procure imported Japanese wares before import stores were common. It was (usually) deemed a fair carnival game and not a scam (like many other carnival games,) and many players primarily enjoyed the gameplay.
We have examples of points being accumulated and stored on ledgers in North America as early as 1906. This "redemption arcade" template would later be duplicated by arcades for Skee-ball, Fascination, Pokerino, and all the way up to modern contemporary redemption arcades which dominate the industry worldwide.
Many arcade games took inspiration from tamakorogashi gameplay, some of which can be found at carnivals and arcades today. Outside of the arcade, it was seen extensively in small community fairs and bazaars, and became a popular children's toy.
Name variants: Japanese Rolling Ball, Japanese Roll Ball, Tamakorogashi, Tama Koro, たまころがし, Japanese Ping-Pong, Japanese Bowling, Japanese Rolling Balls, Japanese Rolling Board, Japanese Ball Game, Japanese hand-bowling.
Each instance of 'Japanese' is sometimes shorted to just 'Jap' in old parlance. In parts of Europe it was called "Japanese Billiards" or "Billard Japonais".
Game variants: "Japanese Roll-Down" was a game made by American carnival workers to play off the popularity of Japanese Rolling Ball. 6 balls were simultaneously rolled down the playfield towards a 6x6 grid. While Japanese Rolling Ball was seen as a fair game of skill, the Japanese Roll-Down was a scam carnival game. It appeared as early as 1910. (more details below in the Japanese Roll-Down section, and see also the section Beyond Japanese Rolling Ball)
The bulk of this post is a chronological history of Japanese Rolling Ball in North America. We then have a handful of appendix sections:
- A Chronological History of Japanese Rolling Ball in North America
- France
- The Japanese Roll-Down
- Toys
- Japanese Rolling Ball in Popular Culture
- Memories Of Japanese Rolling Ball
- Miscellaneous
- Beyond Japanese Rolling Ball
I am going to be transcribing any article text in here to make it easier for researchers to translate it in to other languages. I want to apologize in advance for all of the examples of racist language used in the articles below.
Thank you to Mr. Sugiyama, nazox2016, and Ethan Johnson for their help.
A Chronological History of Japanese Rolling Ball in North America
late 1700s:
Tamakorogashi is a descendant of 9-hole bagatelle, which is a billiards variant played on a long table with shallow pockets at one end. The global trade had massive cultural influence, and we can see some of that in this Chinese handscroll paintings dated to the 1700s.
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| scroll image |
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| Dutch traders playing a billiards variant called Port and Kings in Nagasaki - detail |
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| Port and King Billiards, image circa 1674 |
Context from the link:
Dutch and Chinese traders were the only foreigners permitted to enter Japan for over two hundred years, from 1639 to 1854. Moreover, they were confined to certain areas of the port of Nagasaki in the far south-west: the Dutch to the man-made island of Deshima, the Chinese to the Tōjin-yashiki ('Chinese residence'). Curiosity about the foreigners was obviously great, and paintings and prints depicting their customs became popular.
Some eight versions of this pair of scrolls are known, dating from the end of the seventeenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth. It seems that in 1699 the shogunal official Hagiwara Shigehide arrived in Nagasaki to inspect the harbour, and ordered paintings of the Dutch and Chinese 'factories'. The official painter Watanabe Shūseki (1637-1707) recorded the buildings, warehouses, people, animals, and activities in detail and sent the results to the shogun's headquarters in Edo (modern Tokyo). The present work would appear to be a later, probably eighteenth-century, copy.
In the section shown here the Dutch men can be seen in one room seated at a high table (a strange custom to contemporary Japanese) for a meal. Next door they listen to music, played by African servants on European instruments. Later on comes a garden of medical plants and men playing billiards. Explanatory labels are supplied throughout. The Chinese scroll begins in a similar fashion, but continues with a temple and a market. Together, these scrolls form a fascinating and invaluable record of the foreign enclaves.
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| ものと人間の文化史 186: パチンコ by 杉山 一夫 page 56 |
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| 18th century Chinese settlement in Nagasaki (excerpt) - by or in-the-style of Watanabe Shūseki |
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| a classic 9 hole bagatelle billiards table. These would travel well, as they would fold closed. |
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| an example of the kind of table used in Japanese Rolling Ball, though a real table would be much longer, with a similar ratio to the 9 hole table pictured above it. Diagram by Alex Parrott / No One Right Answer for Game Changers at Somerset House as seen at the Game Changers: Billiards exhibit |
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| 広重（Ⅲ代） (1842-1892) - 異人玉轉〈たまころがし〉之図 via Maspro Art Museum, their writeup: "日本に撞玉〈ビリヤード〉が渡来したのは嘉永、安政の頃、長崎居留地へオランダ人が持ってきたのが最初であった。撞玉〈ビリヤード〉はフランスで始められたもので、当時はこの絵のように数人で同時にゲームを行った。" machine translation: "Billiards arrived in Japan during the Kaei (1848-1854) and Ansei (1854-1860) eras, when the Dutch first brought them to the Nagasaki settlement. Billiards were started in France, and at that time several people played games at the same time as shown in this picture." |
Game boards with a layout similar to what was used in Japanese Rolling Ball can be seen as early as 1877 as in this flyer, though very few seem to have survived (if any) and the arrangement was perhaps not popular elsewhere outside Japan.
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| the table shown has 3 rows, with 3 /4 /3 holes, 10 total. There is a "Pigeon Hole" gate shown on the playfield, but those are removeable. I think the advertisement calls them "Arches" |
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| Encyclopedia of Pinball vol 1 (by Dick Bueschel) page 2 1877 flyer by Key Hole Guard Company of Providence, RI (Rhode Island, USA) |
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| ヨーロッパに生まれ日本で育ったパチンコ百年史 (A Centennial History of Pachinko Born in Europe and Raised in Japan) published 2001 page 047 |
Transcript:
縦ものもの”などという云いまわしは、日本の遊技業界での便宜的な表現として定着しているが、発展史上から見る両者の存在的な違いは、ウォール・マシンのような縦もの遊技よりも、バガテルと呼ばれる横もの遊技機の方が古い。ルーツをたどればアメリカでは、一八六三年に時の大統領リンカーンが、ビリヤードに似た大型盤面で、玉を突き穴に入れている風刺画〈ピンボール・グラフィティ・日本ソフトバンク出版〉も見出され、横もの資料の白眉と見られている。資料としてはこれが古いが、球遊技としての歴史を問う場合は、『玉転がし』にも注意を向ける必要があろう。玉転がしは機械ではないが、一八七〇年代(明治十年代)の日本にすでに登場しており、大正時代から昭和初期まで、射的と並んで親しまれたという多くの記録がある。玉転がしは手をもって盤面に玉を転がし、所定の穴に入れて賞を決める素朴な遊技である。残念ながらその玉転がしは、現在日本のどこにも見うけられず、資料としての写真も図解もまた見当たらないのである。
Although the term "vertical game" has been established as a convenient expression in the Japanese gaming industry, the existential difference between the two from the perspective of their development history is that vertical games such as wall machines are more important than vertical games. , the horizontal game machine called Bagatelle is older.Tracing its roots back to the United States, in 1863, there was a caricature of President Lincoln pushing a ball into a hole on a large board resembling billiards (Pinball Graffiti, published by Softbank Japan). It is considered to be one of the most controversial documents ever published.This is an old document, but if you are asking about the history of ball games, you should also pay attention to ``Tamakorogashi.'' Ball rolling is done by machineHowever, it had already appeared in Japan in the 1870s (Meiji 10s), and was popular along with shooting from the Taisho period to the early Showa period.There is a record ofBall rolling is a simple game where you use your hands to roll a ball onto a board and place it in a designated hole to determine a prize. Unfortunately, the ball rolling can no longer be found anywhere in Japan, and no photographs or illustrations have been found to serve as documentation.
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| 1901-05-19 The Buffalo Sunday Morning News |
JAPAN ON THE MIDWAY.Certain to Be One of the Most Attractive Spots on That Famous Aggregation.Picturesque beyond description in its architectural beauty and its general appointments is "Fair Japan," the Japanese Village on the Pan-American Midway, which is to be thrown open to the general public tomorrow. Visitors to the Pan-American grounds within the past two weeks have expressed unstinted admiration for the unique daintiness of its exterior embellishment, and have evinced lively curiosity to see its interior arrangement. Fair Japan is likely to be heavily patronized tomorrow and on all succeeding days of the Exposition.Its architecture embodies all the wondrous curves, impossible twists and contortions in which the Japanese heart seems to delight. Demure little Japanese maidens, fair to look upon and wearing impossibly bright gowns, which never think of fitting them, are painted on its outer walls. Inside their living counterparts serve tea and Japanese sweetmeats and fill your heart with longing to spend the balance of your life in the far away land whence such creatures came.Fair Japan is under the management of Mr. Y. Kushibiki. It includes streets representing various cities in Japan. A Japanese orchestra discourses Japanese music. Deft-fingered Japanese artisans manufacture pretty little ornaments, which are offered for sale. Japanese ivory carvers are at work. Silk weavers from the same land display their skill. The Temple of Naiko stands revealed in all its glory. Japanese trees and shrubbery line the banks of streams, on which queer Japanese boats carry passengers, and which are spanned by wonderful Japanese bridges.
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| 1901-05-31 Buffalo Evening News |
IN FAIR JAPAN.The Visitor Finds Plenty to Amuse and Interest Him in This Popular Midway VillageAmong the exhibits in the Japanese village are a number of curiously developed plants and shrubs trained to grow in a grotesque and unnatural manner representing birds and animals. These plants have undoubtedly required steady care and attention for years. It was rather amusing yesterday after a week of steady rain to see a Japanese attendant standing out in the rain with a hose carefully watering his plants regardless of nature's bountiful supply.Did you ever play Tamakoragashi? Probably not. It is one of the new games brought here by the Japanese--a sort of pool game or billiards. Ten balls are allowed each player, who rolls them on an inclined table at the end of which are a number of pockets numbered from 10 to 100. The object of the game is to pocket as many balls as you can, and if you run up a score you are rewarded with a rare bit of satsuma or cloisonne. A consolation prize is awarded every player, but the gambling spirit of the American is already apparent by the crowds that hover around the tables; there are no blanks, and it is more fun to roll the balls and get your prize than to purchase souvenirs in the ordinary manner. Another game of fish pond consists of a pool filled with diminutive porcelain ducks. You are entitled to a dip with the net for 10 cents, and each duck bears a number corresponding with a series of prizes, of which you may take your choice.
Here is the same relevant segment, scanned more cleanly, published on a different day:
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| 1901-06-18 The Buffalo Commercial |
This review is relevant because it refers to the Japanese Rolling Ball as "Japanese Billiards"
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| 1901-06-16 Buffalo Courier - excerpt about Fair Japan "The duck pond and the Japanese billiards offer unusual opportunities to obtain rare prizes for little skill and small expenditure" The duck pond is another old carnival game, where you fish out a fake floating duck to reveal a number on the bottom, which corresponds to the prize you receive., |
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| 1901-06-16 Buffalo Courier - full article |
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| 1901-07-28 The Buffalo Sunday Morning News |
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| 1901-08-24 Buffalo Evening News |
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| 1901-08-29 The Buffalo Times |
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| 1901-08-29 The Buffalo Commercial |
Kushibiki would recuperate and quickly prepare for the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition, which would open in December 1901 and run through June 1902. While I have no found evidence of Tamakorogashi there, here are some images from the exhibition:
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| Fair Japan - photographed by George W. Johnson via Lowcountry Digital Library |
These two images are of Fair Japan as published in the book CHARLESTON and the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian EXPOSITION published 1902 by Robert Allen Reid. (archive)
1902:
Kushibiki's next major project was in the summer of 1902, at "Japan By Night", an event at Madison Square Gardens in New York City, USA. Articles began referencing Japanese Rolling Ball more in their reviews.
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| 1902-07-06 The Brooklyn Citizen (New York, USA) There is no mention of Japanese Rolling Ball in this article, but lots of details about the event coming soon. |
Transcript:
"Japan by Night" at Madison Square"Japan by Night" at Madison Square Roof GardenThe Madison Square Roof Garden will open for the summer to-morrow night. "Japan by Night" is the name given to the new feature in roof garden attractions. It is designed as a novelty and is expected to attract attention. Illustrative of quaint Oriental life redolent with the fragrance of exotic plants, "Japan by Night" is arranged to carry the visitor into a foreign environment. The entertainment will be a reproduction of what the tourist has seen in his travels through Japan. A part of this Japanese Garden has been set for the exhibition of one hundred varieties of Japanese plants. Suspended from the overhanging eaves will be 6,000 sprays of wisteria,Japanese girls will wait on the tables and will serve tea in Japanese style. In the bakery booth a Japanese girl will make Japanese cakes. In another booth one will sell flowers. The waiters will be Japanese and everybody connected with "Japan by Night" will be dressed in native costumes. A Japanese seress (?) will have a booth where she will tell the fortunes of her patrons.The stage has been altered to represent the famous temple at Nikko and the entertainment will consist of a troupe of very small Japanese trained dogs, the only dogs of their kind in this country; Satsuma, the juggler; Kudara's troupe of acrobats; Kiku in a daring serial performance; Totimatsu, a wire walker; Otokichi and Kotaro, in a fencing bout with bamboo sticks and double barrel kicking, and Romando, a Filipino musician who will play upon a native instrument.The musical part of the programme will be rendered by twenty women in Japanese costumes.
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| 1902-07-06 The New York Times (New York, USA) |
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| 1902-07-08 Brooklyn Times Union (New York, USA) |
"Japan by Night."Madison Square Roof Garden, which opened last night beneath a moonless and starless sky, will be given up entirely this season to things Japanese; decorations, attendants, entertainment, architectural garnishments and geisha girls. Under the name of "Japan by Night," an Oriental firm has taken charge of the auditorium and promenade. Upon the stage, which has been constructed by Japanese artists from native woods, in copy of the famous temple Nikko, at Tokio, a typical Oriental performance is given. Sig Governale's orchestra of lady players open the programme and are followed by jugglers, a wire walker, who has one of the most perfect figures for grace, symmetry and strength combined, ever seen in New York; acrobats; T. Akagi and Y. Kogema, graduates of the fencing school of Tokio, in a bout with the Shinai, and pretty, slant-eyed geisha girls who sing and dance and play their queer instruments for all the world as if they were in their own native tea houses. In fact, the four or five Japanese geisha girls scuffing about with their trays of tea, wearing that endless smile which may mean anything or nothing, are going to be somewhat the vogue this summer. The ladies crowded about them and fingered their heavily embroidered kimonos and the men drank tea for the novelty of the thing.Several booths are included in the affair. One is a typical tea house, others are for souvenirs and rice cakes, and in another they play Tama Korogashi, the native ball game, that strenuous and impossible exercise in which the figures are always engaged on basket dining sets. "Japan by Night" is very cool and refreshing and very new, which is what New York wants.
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| 1902-07-08 The New York Times (New York, USA) |
"JAPAN BY NIGHT.”Features of Novelty in the New Show at the Madison Square Roof Garden.There are features of “Japan by Night," the new roof show on top of the Madison Square Garden, that are decidedly novel, not to mention the moon and the stars, which the showman said were identical with those of Dal Nippon, and imported fresh every evening. The exterior of the stage is a copy, said to be exact, of the Temple of Nikko at Tokio, and is flanked by scenic partitions representing on one side a flight of storks, and on the other grove of Japanese firs. The scenic effect, though simple, is tasteful and pleasing beyond what one usually finds in roof gardens.In different parts of the roof are five booths-- a tea house with geisha girls, a rice cake shop, & souvenir shop, & place where you may have your fortune told "by very wise Japanese automatons," and a place where you may play the Japanese game of ball, tama korogoshi, a sort of bagatelle. "I hope you will set the ball a-rolling for us," said the kimonoed showman. It cannot be said that any of these features are absorbingly amusing or even educationally important; but they are sufficiently out of the common to amuse those who are willing to be amused.In the vaudeville programme the performers are entirely Oriental. The Japanese wire-walker and barrel kicker are of the familiar type. Kudara's trained dogs," the only dogs of their kind in America," do the familiar dog tricks and do them well. A Filipino magician does familiar sleight of hand tricks with an accompaniment of unintelligible Filipino English, which brought home the fact that the evils of peace may be as great as those of war.The most original and interesting feature of the programme was a bout with the Shinai, or Japanese fencing swords, between two graduates of the Fencing School at Tokio. The "sword" appeared to be a bamboo rod, and was wielded somewhat after the manner of a singlestick. The mighty opposites grunted and hacked at each other in an uncouth and rather terrible-terrible manner, and went at each other's padded and protected heads with a will, rousing the audience to a real burst of laughter and enthusiasm.The weather was the same as at all similar entertainments this season, and as usual the performers, instead of bracing up against it, seemed chilled. The turns followed one another at tedious intervals. Signor Governale's Ladies' Orchestra seemed to be the Venetian Ladies' Orchestra, which shivered during the luckless weeks of Ted Marks's American Roof Garden. Its rendering of musical selections was respectable, but it should have been used only to accompany the vaudeville part of the entertainment and to fill in the intermission.A sharp condensation of the evening's programme will make "Japan by Night " an interesting show. If Messrs. Kushibiki and Arai can manage to bottle up some of the cool air that abounded last night their show will become a midsummer night's dream of bliss.
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| 1902-07-08 The Standard Union (New York, USA) |
"JAPAN BY NIGHT” AT MADISON SQUARE ROOF GARDEN."Japan by Night” drew a large audience to the Madison Square root garden, Manhattan, last night. Every seat was filled with people, who sat among flowers and foliage which typified the energetic little people of the Orient. The roof had been transformed into a scene which was strange to New Yorkers. Everything Suggested the Orient. Several little Japanese women, dressed in the long kimonos, served tea at the tables and tried to talk English. Waiters of the same race, who wore brilliantly checkered coats, served refreshments. Then there were several games played in Japan, among which was the "rolling ball." Before the evening was over it became quite popular and dozens of men and women who had never seen such a thing before were playing it and winning prizes while the performance on the stage continued. The game is very similar to Manhattan pool, except that cues are not used. Out in the east end of the garden a Japanese landscape gardener had been at work to transform the roof of the building into a bit of native scenery. There were hillocks and mountains of snow, in between which were lakes and rivulets. Around these there was a promenade, which was filled with a crowd during the evening. All the performers were Japanese. There were jugglers and dancers who did wonderful tricks, while Signor Governale's ladies' orchestra furnished the music. In fact, the music was the only part of the affair which was not Japanese. The stage management of the little Japs was not quite as complete as is expected in New York theatres, so that the performance ran out to a late hour, and before the end was reached many persons had left. But Kudar's trained Japanese dogs and Tokimtasu's work on the slack wire aroused the audience to great applause.
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| The Baltimore Sun - Baltimore, Maryland - 1902-07-09 - Page 10 excerpt |
Transcription of the above excerpt:
"Japan By Night" Begins.The roof of the Madison Square Garden was opened as "Japan By Night" last evening. There was a large attendance. The program included music by a feminine orchestra, and a variety of entertainment, with Japanese fencing, juggling and wire-walking. But the most interesting thing about the affair was the roof itself.The promenade is a reproduction of one part of the Imperial Park at Tokio. The exterior of the stage in design is a copy of the famous Temple of Nikko, at Tokio Five booths are located at different parts of the roof garden. One is a tea house, where tea will be served as in Japan. Japanese souvenirs and flowers are on sale in a second booth. In another booth the Japanese game of ball, Tama Korogashi, may be played.
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| The Baltimore Sun - Baltimore, Maryland - 1902-07-09, Wed - Page 10 - full article |
more clippings on "Japan By Night" (also referred to as "Japan At Night")
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| 1902-07-14 The Evansville Courier (Indiana, USA) "One can play the Japanese game of ball and listen to Japanese music." |
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| 1902-07-20 The New York Times (New York, USA) "The kimono maker, Japanese tea ice cream, Japanese rice cakes, the Japanese game of rolling ball, the tea booth, are among the novelties atop of the Madison Square Garden." |
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| 1902-09-09 The Sun the final week of "Japan By Night" |
This tiny mention is from the 1902 Proceedings of the 18th annual Convention of the Society of American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists, p128:
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| subtitle: "Held at Asheville, North Carolina -- August 19, 20, 21, and 22, 1902" |
There are still three active Japanese firms in our State, but the business in Japanese freak products has lost its grip, and now the sales are assisted by the "Japanese ball game," with plants as prizes. Introductions of Japanese products of merit by our own trade are meeting with fair sales.By "freak" I assume they mean "novelty". This is the only place I've seen that lists plants as a prize. But it must be somewhat significant if it bears mentioning at an industry convention!
1903:
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| 1903-08-04 - The Minneapolis Journal (Minneapolis, Missouri) |
SUNDAY AT ATLANTIC CITY'Twill Be Made Quiet by Wholesale Arrest.New York Sun Special Service.Atlantic City, N.J. Aug 4. - The city ordinance passed two years ago prohibiting Sunday amusements is to be enforced and wholesale arrests are about to be made. The ordinance covers almost everything, including band concerts, loop-the-loops, saloons, photograph galleries, etc.An order was issued on Saturday by Chief of Police Eldridge to the various amusement proprietors along the Board Walk to close Sunday, and seemingly the order was obeyed. Yesterday, however, patrolmen turned in reports of band concerts on the steel pier, running of boats at the Old Mill, Japanese rolling ball games and various other alleged violations, and complaints were made accordingly. The penalty is a fine of $200 or thirty days' imprisonment.Captain John O Young of the Ocean Pier and Edward C. Boyce of the Old Mill were arrested and gave bail.
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| 1903-05-09 The Billboard a request for new features, including "Japanese Ball Game" at Sea Side Park, Old Orchard Beach, Maine |
Japan and America was an English-language publication collected by Hajime Hoshi, written specifically for Japanese people in America.
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| Japan and America Vol III (1903) |
Tama-korogashi, or the Japanese rolling ball game, is safe. As the police authorities of this city were about to place it in the unlawful category of "games of chance," Mr. Henry W. Herbert, acting as the legal adviser of a few Japanese who were desirous of having this Oriental product properly classified, came to the rescue and succeeded in convincing the guardians of the peace that its proper place was among the peaceful and law-abiding "tests of skill," with which the patrons of our watering places are so familiar. And thus another international complication has been avoided.
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| The Norfolk Virginian - Norfolk, Virginia - 12 Jul 1904, Tue - Page 6 |
Transcription:
The Tama Koro Company, which opened their Japanese Rolling Ball game at Ocean View last week with signal success, have six tables crowded with players every afternoon and evening, and the Japanese manager of the Tama tables has all he can possibly do to attend to his throng of patrons. The game, which has been the most successful of all games introduced into this country during the past ten years, will undoubtedly be as great a success in Norfolk as it is elsewhere.A delightful feature of this game is that it is more extensively played by the ladies than the gentlemen.
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| Japanese Rollingboard as first printed in Glimpes Of Coney Island (1904, Isaac H. Blanchard) |
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| the photo as it appears in the Center For Brooklyn History collection |
Glimpses Of The New Coney Island is available online (in watermarked form,) thanks to the Coney Island History Project.
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| 1904 Coney Island, NY - as printed in Glimpses Of The New Coney Island (published 1904) |
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| my copy of Glimpses of Coney Island (1904) |
One of the more unusual and successful businesses in which issei engaged was the operation of amusement concessions at Coney Island. Mizutani wrote that this practice originated when an enterprising man started a "Japanese tea garden" in 1896 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hoping to attract more vacationers, he remodeled part of his concession and set up two tables for a rolling ball game. The alterations succeeded beyond his expectations, and "swarms of customers" came, bringing "unforeseen profit." Because this business did not require a great deal of capital, Mizutani noted, it attracted a number of issei, including "more than ten" in "the summer pleasure area" of Coney Island, Brooklyn. Others also opened concessions at Rocks-way Beach, Brooklyn; Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Newark, and Cape May, New Jersey; and Philadelphia. The business was so successful that some Chinese entrepreneurs "passed themselves off as Japanese" and went into the business.Mizutani described Coney Island as a spot where "most New Yorkers who were lower than middle class customarily spent their leisure time." From spring through early winter, "tens of thousands of dollars" were spent on games, theater, swimming, eating, and drinking, providing "work and profit" for the Japanese.Nagai Kafu's short story "Akebono" (Daybreak), originally printed in Amerika monogatari, recounts one night in the lives of Japanese workers at a Coney Island concession. Kafu calls the amusement area a place "exemplifying the coarsest scene of seething humanity which probably cannot be found anywhere else in the world." His vivid description combines the glittery ugliness and beauty of the place:Using electricity and water, there is every conceivable huge, showy device which astounds the masses of people—so many different kinds that one cannot keep track of them. Some exhibits give a little knowledge about history or geography. There are also suspicious-looking dance halls; obscene vaudeville houses; spectacular fireworks displays. And on a clear night, when one goes across New York Bay on a river steamboat, the impressive illumination of the electric lights are like daybreak lighting up the night sky and the far-off high and low buildings across the water look like a panorama of a sea god's palace.In the midst of this raucous fantasy world, "Japanese Rolling Ball" had the reputation of being "one of the most popular of all the games". However, its primary attraction was that one could "examine" a Japanese person, "a still unusual phenomenon"; winning the game and getting one of the prizes that crowded the rolling ball stalls was of secondary importance.Kafu noted that the owners were generally men over forty who had left Japan after suffering hardship. In the United States, too, they had luckless lives, went through "every experience," and reached the conclusion that "the world would get on some way"—- that human beings did not die easily "even if they were forced to scratch at the earth."Their faces have taken on the look of survival, of a boss, a brave warrior, a roughneck. And the people under them—the ones hired to count the rolled balls and to give customers their prizes—have yet to complete their life course in the world of failure. They are the unemployed who would be happy becoming the assistant boss or the young men who came to America recklessly thinking that they could work and study at the same time.I was one of those workers and thought that it did not matter what I did. My only goal was to save money to go to Europe.According to Kafu, it was a world where hi-imin and imin worked side by side. Their class positions did not determine their working conditions or wages.The workers' wages at the stall where Kafu worked were twelve dollars a week, less than at other stalls, which paid fifteen or sixteen dollars.The owner bragged that his workers did not have to spend one penny for living expenses: "I give you three meals and besides, you can sleep in the store." Sleeping in the store meant that one was given a cot in the back of the concession, an airless receptacle enclosing the intense heat of the summer afternoons. Kafu described one older man who at three in the morning, the end of the working day, took out a blanket, spread it on the wooden counter, and lay down. One of the younger men, who looked like a student, sarcastically remarked:"Sleeping on that counter again? You'll dream well tonight."Who wants to sleep in the back? It's a nest for bed bugs. You should learn how to sleep on a board, too."The conditions in Kafu's fictional account of the Japanese in Coney Island in 1906 are not far removed from those recalled by Haru Kishi, whose husband helped run a Coney Island concession in the 1920s. Haru came to New York City as a young bride of eighteen. She came, she says, "to cook three meals a day" and clean for the workers who lived together above the concession in a wooden house. Ruefully, she remembers, "That was my honeymoon." Her life in the United States was not at all what she expected and totally different from her life in Japan.
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| It says author Shogyo Tamura worked at "a rolling-ball game at summer resots" |
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| 1904-03-13 The Philadelphia Inquirer "FOUR JAPANESE ROLLING BALL TABLES for sale cheap" |
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| 1904-04-06 The Philadelphia Inquirer offering fully-furnished Boardwalk stores in Atlantic City that include Japanese Rolling Ball game |
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| map of the 1904 World Fair |
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| 1904 map detail showing The Pike and the Japan portion. The Japan section only seems to be 400 feet long here |
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| the rest of the Japan area |
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| an advert highlighting Fair Japan on "The Pike" |
I point all this out because this Fair was Japan's first MAJOR investment in World Fairs, and we'll see some similarities in infrastructure in future years.
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| The Billboard 1904-05-07: 600 jobs expected for the concessions part of the fair alone! While it says "Col. Gen. Hamilton" will manage the Japanese Village, it appears management and operations were a collaboration between locals and Japanese employees. |
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| The Billboard 1904-08-13: a few months into the fair and apparently business is good. This identifies a "Mr. MacFarland" in regards to the concessions. |
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| The Billboard 1904-09-03: I'm including this one to also highlight how in America not only did they do blackface at the time, they also hired vaudeville performers to do Japanese impersonation. |
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| 1904-06-04 - The Pike |
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| 1904-09-13 The Montgomery Times (Montgomery, Alabama, USA) advertises "JAPANESE PING PONG, The New Craze." |
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| Fair Japan at the 1905 Exposition in Portland, Oregon, USA |
"Easy, Easy like Russia."The Cry of the Jap With the Delusive Game at a Summer Park."Easy, easy, like sinking Russia ships," called a little Jap last night to an amused crowd at Electric Park. He was one of two who have a concession at the park this year. It is called "the Japanese rolling ball," and consists of rolling balls towards numbered holes. There are prizes-- once in a while. The game looks easy, but it is really hard to hit the right numbers. As the little Jap made his comparison with the Russian fleet, one of the crowd remarked: "The paper said Togo sank twelve Russian ships.""No surprised," returned the admiral's countryman. "Russia easy." Then to the crowd he called: "Easy, easy, like sinking Russia ships."
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| 1905-12-23 The Miami Evening Record (Florida, USA) I like these ads especially because they give us the name of the shop's proprietor: E.K. TANAKA |
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| 1905-12-12 The Miami Evening Record (Florida, USA) another ad by E.K. Tanaka |
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| Luna Park, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia USA 1905 photo courtesy Library of Congress |
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| enhance! |
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| zoomed in we can miraculously see Japanese Rolling Ball tables! |
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| 1905-05-14 - The Pittsburgh Press (excerpts) (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, USA) |
This article also shows how businessmen in the USA would use Japanese culture as an attraction, and struggle to find enough Japanese people to staff it. Without Japanese workers, it would not feel authentic to tourists.
LUNA PARK'S ATTRACTIONSMany Novel Features Provided for Pittsburg's New Pleasure ResortThe task of obtaining a sufficient number of native Japanese for the peopling of the village was not an easy one, and required skillful diplomacy on the part of those engaged in it. The Ladies National Relief Association of Japan was chiefly instrumental in providing the necessary natives for the purpose, and has especial charge of them while they are in this county.In a native theater are to be given exhibitions of Japanese skill in fencing, wrestling, juggling, acrobatic work, music and other forms of amusement. In another section of the village is to be operated a peculiar form a ball game, in vogue among the Mikado's subjects. A device resembling the bagatelle board of American use and operated along similar lines will afford visitors opportunity to compete for dainty prizes of Japanese ware.
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| 1905-05-16 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) - cropped |
BERNHEIMER BROS.' BIG HOME STORES,311, 313, 315, AND 317 W. LEXINGTON ST.PEERLESS Paper Patterns, 5c., 10c., 15c.What our wagons leave at your door is paid for.BETTER THAN TRADING STAMPS.FREE! FREE! FREE!Yet you may succeed in getting something worth up to $2.50 with a sale of $5.00. Our Japanese Ping Pong Game is played on tables with numbers from 10 to 100; with each 50c worth you buy you get one ball to roll at these numbers; you get presents with each 50 you make in rolling; if you want, you can let stand what you male; we keep account of it; for the more numbers you make, the better the present, and it's a very interesting game; played to great extent at Atlantic City; only it's free here.
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| 1905-05-16 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) - full advertisement |
After this longer introduction, their ads would refer to the game as such:
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| 1905-05-19 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) "FREE -- Continuous Japanese Ping-Pong Game." |
The promotion seems to have ended in September 1905, as this was the final ad that had mentioned it:
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| 1905-09-12 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) "ROLL BALL Amusing, Costs Nothing; Present Free." |
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| 1905-04-30 The Atlanta Constitution (Georgia, USA) "Several Japanese men and women are expected in a few days to conduct a Japanese "ping pong parlor" and curio shop. They have been in St. Louis ever since the Pike closed." |
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| 1905-06-25 The Boston Globe (Boston, USA) "Japanese Rolling Balls" is listed at the top under the heading "The Best Attractions Are:" |
I am including this next classified ad simply because "JAPANESE PLEASURE PALACE" is a fascinating name. I have not been able to find any other references for this business in Staten Island, NY.
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| 1905-08-12 - The Billboard (USA) |
This next article makes an important cultural note, about how cultural trends of the World Expositions would be excitedly emulated to catch interest, especially the games of the Midways there. Fourth paragraph:
Since the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, there have been various imitations of the famous Midway. While I do not mean to say that Atlantic City received any ideas from Chicago, still for the sake of comparison order to give my readers an approximate picture of life on the Boardwalk, I would like it to an immense Midway.
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| 1905-09-21 The Tarborough Southerner (North Carolina, USA) |
Scores of Japanese can be seen. Some of the bazaars contain Japanese wares exclusively and daily auctions may be witnessed within. During the height of the season it is an ordinary occurrence to see single pieces of Oriental importations auctioned off for several hundred dollars. Think of tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of dollars changing hands in one bazaar and then think of the millions that visitors leave behind them every year, the hotels, the booths, amusements, and scattering enterprises, each receiving a share.
Individual Japs are located in booths, at intervals from each other where the passer-by is attracted to try his luck in a game of Taka Koko, or "Japanese ping pong," as it is called. Having no resemblance to the late American fad, I am unable to account for the title. The game is played with a number of wooden balls, rolled upon an oblong smooth surface, and the object is to make the balls roll so as to fall into certain numbered holes. The price of a game is ten cents and every player receives a present of Japanese ware. If the aggregate score amounts to seventy-five a modest souvenir is offered the stranger but, if a number of games are played and the score approaches one thousand points, the little Oriental offers a much more expensive present, and at times, really valuable articles are given away.
1906:
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| 1906-03-17 Billboard magazine advertisement |
The Mills Japanese Roll Ball Game Has Made $100 in a DayVery popular at the St. Louis World's Fair. Best paying concession in the Japanese Village. Now a big winner in all public resorts. Send for circular 125 G for full description.We build all kinds of booths, games, and other interesting attractions for making money in public places.We make the largest line of coin controlled machines in the world, and are prepared to furnish complete Arcade outfits that make one hundred percent on the investment.MILLS NOVELTY CO., 9 TO 21 S. Jefferson St., Chicago, Illinois
This ad references the success of the game at the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.
I am unsure of the exact date, but this catalogue cover is probably from the late 1900s:
and that gives us a better shot of the Japanese Booth:
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| Mills' Japanese Booth |
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| 1906-05-20 The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Idaho, USA) advertises a "Japanese Store" alongside "Rolling Ball" |
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| 1906-05-20 The Washington Post |
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| 1906-05-20 The Washington Post: detail from the above article it's list of attractions begins with "Jaanese rolling ball games" being installed at Buckroe Beach (Virginia, USA) |
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| 1906-06-29 Evening Star Sun (Washington, DC, USA) |
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| 1906-09-22 The Wichita Beacon (Wichita, Kansas, USA) |
Transcription:
CLOSE JAPANESE BOOTH"Jap" Has Been Called to Kansas City Office.The Japanese rolling ball booth at Wonderland will close for the season Sunday night. The reason for closing at this time is that the friendly little Jap in charge has been called to his main office in Kansa City and must leave by the first of next week. This leaves but two more days in which customers having number accounts on the books may get the prizes coming to them.
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| 1906-10-20 The Billboard putting out a call for amusements, including Japanese Rolling Ball, for Pine Beach (Norfolk, Virginia, USA) it mentions that it will be the home of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition |
In 1906 Billboard magazine issues there are a number of ads for "The Austen-Bradwell-McClellan Co."
partial transcript:
MANAGERS ATTENTION! The following money-making attractions furnished at short notice, viz: Johnstown FLood, Darkness and Dawn Hereafter, Fatal Wedding Illusion, Electric Cavern, Cave of the Winds, House of Trouble, Helter Skelter, Down and Out, Electric Foundations, Funny Mirrors, Japanese Ball Game Outfits, etc. at any size and price
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| 1906-04-07 - The Billboard |
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| this ad appears in The Billboard 1906-04-14, 1906-05-05, and 1906-05-12 |
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| Cedar Park (Ohio, USA) - the top sign says "Japan Tea Garden" and the smaller sign beneath it say "Japanese Rolling Ball" assumed to be from 1906 |
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| 1906-05-13 The Indianapolis Star (Indiana, USA) The Riverside Amusement Park "Japanese Bowling Game: In which nice and handsome Japanese goods are given away" |
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| 1906-12-19 The Daily Times (Davenport, Ohio, USA) |
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS FOR THE HOLIDAYS?Eight Balls for Five CentsFrom Now On, and the Same Goods as Before at theJapanese Bowling AlleysTOKIO PENNY ARCADESecond and Harrison Sts, Davenport
This is a rare court ruling that declared Japanese Rolling Ball as "a game of chance". Most legal proceedings would declare it as a "game of skill", a way to just purchase goods, or a combination of those two.
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| 1906-08-17 The Rock Island Argus (Illinois, USA) |
1907:
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| 1907-05-10 Webb City Register (Webb City, Missouri, USA) Japanese Rolling Ball |
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| 1907-04-27 The Kansas City Star (Kansas, USA) advertises "Japanese Rolling Ball" |
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| 1907-05-23 The Saturday Evening Kansas Commoner (Kansas, USA) Japanese Rolling Ball Game |
This clip from a 1912 Kansas City report is probably referring to Wonderland Park and Forest Park, both above. It gives a matter-of-fact description of the games.
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| 1912 Kansas City Reacreation Department Annual Report |
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| 1907-06-01 The Billboard - W. A. Mentzer (92-94 Lake Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA) importer of Japanese goods. "Japanese Rolling Ball Men" |
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| 1907-03-09 - The Billboard |
There are many advertisements where parks offer "privileges", and include requests for Japanese Rolling Ball. (That is, they are willing to let those operators work there.) I included this ad because it showcases how parks might build "ethnic spectacles" attractions.
OPENSELLIS' ORIENT, SATURDAY, MAY 11.Newest and Biggest Show in Dreamland, Coney Island.Occupying more space than any other Oriental Attraction ever presented.Concessions of all kinds for rent to Oriental People.Japanese ball game, Turkish coffee house, Chinese theatre, photo gallery, knife rack, camels, etc.WANTEDGood Oriental Dancers, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese Ballyhoo Men and Jugglers. 1000 or less of second hand theatre chairs.Will Sell Cheap,Twelve cars, holding eight people each. In first-class condition, suitable for any kind of riding device.Address,W.A.Ellis, Dreamland, Coney Island, N.Y.
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| excerpt from 1907-04-02 The Daily Record (Long Branch, New Jersey, USA) |
Bids for privileges at Ocean Park were also opened and read and referred to the committee on entertainment and music for consideration and recommendation.The bids read were as follows:Charles F. De Soria, top floor of casino for skating rink, 25 per cent gross to the city. City to furnish light.H. Taki, Rockville, N. Y., 20 foot space, ten or fifteen feet deep, for oriental novelties and Japanese ping pong. 15 per cent of gross sales.
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| 1907-08-04 The Oklahoma Post (Oklahoma, USA) |
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| 1907-07 Amusement pier at Saltair resort, Utah |
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| crop of the above photo: Japanese Ping Pong Parlor! |
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| 1913-07-04 - Saltair resort, Utah |
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| 1913-07-04 - cropped to show PING PONG PARLOR sign. Same building, from the side and back. |
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| photo of the Traymore Hotel during construction in 1907 A "Japanese Ping Pong" can be seen on the right excerpted from Modern Building magazine 1914-11 |
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| Kahn System used this photo in their advertising campaigns this advertisement is from System: The Magazine Of Business 1907-07 |
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| 1907-05-19 The Springfield Leader (Missouri, USA) "JAPANESE PING PONG -- The Very finest Japanese hand painted wares given as prizes, or for sale." |
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| 1907-05-26 St Joseph Gazette (Missouri, USA) |
AT THE Japanese Bowling Alley (On the Midway.)MAGNIFICENT COLLECTION OF JAPANESE WARE AND BRIC-A-BRAC(Direct from Japan.)A Game of Skill10c EachPresents Given.
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| 1907-08-25 The Joliet Evening Herald News (Illinois, USA) "The Japanese department shows a collection of Oriental wares that tends to keep the place well surrounded with feminine patrons, and the Japanese bowling game is proving very popular. This concession is controlled by Miami & Tagginoshi, of Chicago, one of the greatest importing firms in the line in the west." |
This article mocks the panic and worry around gambling. It is very rare to see an article written flippantly about gambling, especially in 1907.
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| 1907-07-27 Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel (California, USA) "I had often seen an interested crowd in front of a place that looked like a repository of China vases, Japanese bronzes and fancy porcelains. Here were people rolling little balls on smooth tables, with a number of holes in the end of each table. "What's that now"? I asked severely. "Well, see for yourself," the captain said resignedly, beckoning to the proprietor. This gentleman explained the rules and ethics of the game, placed ten balls at my disposal, and lo and behold, when I had launched them all I had won the little pin tray I spoke of. This game is also called hand billiards, and if billiards is a game of chance, why then I've gambled, I suppose; but I rather think not." |
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| 1907-09-05 Appleton Post (Wisconsin, USA) |
A JAPANESE BOWLING ALLEY AT THE BIG FAIRSecretary of Association Closes Negotiations With Another Attraction for the Pike.Appleton, Wis, Saturday, August 31.Another attraction was secured today for the Pike at the coming fair, the secretary having closed negotiations with the management of a Japanese bowling alley and curio shop. This attraction is something entirely out of the ordinary and is expected to prove popular. The Pike is now practically filled, although it is probable that still another thriller will be added.
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| 1907-12-31 The Evening Mail (California, USA) "Among the many features was the Japanese bowling alley, the space around which was always crowded. All those who bowled said they liked it better than ordinary bowling and that they could make higher scores." |
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| 1907-10-13 Chicago Tribune (Illinois, USA) "Across the way from the incubators a pair of busy Japanese were packing up their Japanese bowling game paraphernalia. Now if there is any game in the world that gives a smaller percentage to the player than a double faro box it is this same Japanese bowling game. Yet it is one of the most popular of the outdoor summer games, the small chance of getting anything for your money seeming to act as a magnet to the visitor. For this reason the Japs smiled as they packed. "Where are you going this winter?" asked the shooting gallery man next door. "This winter?" said the loquacious one of the Japs. "To college. The honorable American helps the poor Japanese to get college education." And he smiled again. Verily, thought the poor Japanese, the honorable American he is easiest of all easy marks." |
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| 1907-08-04 The Oklahoma Post (Oklahoma, USA) |
JAPANESE ROLLING BALLS AT DELMARLadies and Children play as well as Gentlemen10 BALLS FOR 10cNO BLANKSJAPANESE SOUVENIR given to player according to the number he makes, If you make 330 in one game with 10 balls, you can take any prize in the houseTO OUR CUSTOMERSEvery 5000 numbers entitles you to free chance on drawing Sept. 15th. Save your numbers
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| 1907-04-07 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania, USA) |
APRIL PASTIMES AT THE SEASHOREHorseback Riding, Roller Skating and Japanese Ping-Pong Are PopularThousands of Easter Visitors Are Remaining Over at Atlantic City- In a Personal WaySpecial to The Inquirer.ATLANTIC CITY. N. J., April 6.--- There are three pleasures at the shore just now to which the visiting population is giving special attention-roller skating, horseback riding and Japanese rolling ball or ping-pong. Roller skating seems to have taken the first place, especially among the younger element, and the rinks at the piers are well filled every morning, afternoon and evening. Horseback riding is a former popular pleasure which is being revived to a great extent, and in this the elder people have taken quite an active interest. And it is not confined to the male portion of the visiting contingent. More women are riding this year than for several seasons past, and one may see parties on the beach, speedway and boulevard at all times of the day.The ping-pong game is a thing that catches women's eyes. The possibility of winning a prize by rolling up good scores is an allurement they do not seem to be able to withstand. The “Japs” who run these games are sharp, too, and in order to keep many of their patrons interested to the extent of spending their money, they have offered large prizes for the best aggregate scorer in a series of games--the series to consist of three or more games. Hundreds of persons who are here for a week or more roll games two and three times a day during their stay for the sake of getting a prize, and the Jap is all the time happily taking in the shekels.
1908:
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| 1908-03-21 The Billboard - another add by Metzer, offering to supply premium prizes for Japanese Rolling Ball Game |
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| 1908-06-13 The Buffalo Times - Japanese Rolling Ball Game mentioned at the very end, no longer a main attraction. Crystal Beach is in Ontario, Canada just across the border from Buffalo NY USA |
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| 1908-06-18 The Buffalo Times - advertising the Japanese Rolling Ball Alley |
I am unable to locate any photographs of the Crystal Beach's Rolling Balls, but here's a nice photo of the Midway:
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| Crystal Beach (Ontario, Canada) - circa 1910 or so |
Not sure of the date on this one, but an old Ebay listing had it as 1908. Two entries, both via Toledo Lucas County Public Library Digital Collections.
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| postcard of "Midway, White City, Toledo, Ohio - circa 1910s though an old ebay listing say 1908, but doesn't have any post-mark |
In 1908 American Stories by Nagai Kafū was first published. There is a translation of American Stories from the year 2000. We looked at this above (under 1904) as mentioned in the book Tokyo Life, New York Dreams. Here are a few pages of the relevant American Stories:
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| Daybreak - from American Stories by Nagai Kafū - from the 2000 translation |
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| 1908-06-07 Los Angeles Herald (California, USA) |
JAPANESE PING-PONG PROVES IRRESISTIBLEOCEAN PARK SPENDING ALL ITS PIN MONEYChildren Can Hardly Be Coaxed to Bed, and Crescent Bay Women's Club Demands Curfew LawSpecial to The HeraldOCEAN PARK, June 6.-The Japanese game of ping pong, which is played by thousands of Americans and few Japanese at all the beach resorts, is alleged to be responsible for keeping many children out of doors at all hours of the first half of the night. A little boy of 9 was found playing it alone at 11 o'clock last night near the Casino. Young and old become so infatuated with the game and the chance of winning some Japanese dishes or bric-a-brac that all their pin money goes into the game.The subject was discussed at the last meeting of the Crescent Bay Woman's club, Mrs. C. H. Ritchie presiding, and it was the unanimous opinion of a large gathering that action should be taken. By a standing vote the club decided to request the Ocean Park board of trustees to pass a curfew ordinance making it illegal for children under 14 years of age to be out unattended after 9 o'clock at night.
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| 1908-10-07 Deseret Evening News (Utah, USA) |
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| 1908-10-07 Deseret Evening News (Utah, USA) (excerpt) |
EVEN PLAY PING PONG.There's the popular Japanese ping-pong where you throw balls intending they should land in the holes. There's one hole especially attractive. It is marked "100" and in trying for it you pile all your ammunition along the rear of the alley. Then you pay the man and stroll away figuring up how many games it would take to roll 6,000 points for which you would get a Weird little Japanese idol, whose head you could unscrew to permit him being filled with salt and thus make him useful as well as unornamental. You decide it would take $10 dollars worth of play. Curio stores sell an idol like the one you set your heart on for 50 cents.
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| 1908 Hillside Pleasure Park Japanese Rolling Ball Belleville NJ the pink banner in the lower-left says "Japanese Rolling Ball Game" |
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| "rolling ball" mentioned in Atlantic City ordinance |
1909:
Here is a great photo from the "Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition" held in Seattle, USA. |
| Geisha Girls at the 1909 Japanese Village at the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition |
My eyes dart to the upper right where we see a rolling ball game. Can't see many details, but it's a rolling ball game in the Japanese Village.
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| 1909 Japanese Village at the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition (detail) |
Compare the front-facing profile to the front profiles on other Rolling Ball board photos:
The end of a Japanese Rolling Ball parlor shown in 3 clippings.
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| 1909-08-04 Pine Bluff Daily Graphic (Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA) |
JAP ARRESTED ON GAMING CHARGEY. NAKAMURA, WHO IS OPERATING ROLLING BALL GAME AT FOREST PARK IN TROUBLE.YOU MAY BE ARRESTEDIf Jap is Guilty Many Men And Women May Be Liable To Arrest For GamingY. Nakamura, who conducts a Japanese rolling ball game at Forest Park, was arrested yesterday by Constable Frank Stewart on a charge of exhibiting a gambling device and for violating the Sabbath by conducting the game there. The warrant was issued in Magistrate J. P. Knox's court and Nakamura gave bond for his appearance in court Friday afternoon to answer the charges. The arrest of Nakamura came as a surprise in view of the fact that he has been permitted to run unmolested for several weeks.If Nakamura is adjudged guilty of exhibiting and operating a gambling device many men, women and children who have played the Japanese rolling ball game this season are liable to arrest for gaming. Many ladies were seen playing the game nightly and it is understood that the officers have taken the names of every person who has patronized the harmless device since the opening of the park
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| 1909-08-06 Pine Bluff Daily Graphic (Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA) |
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| 1909-08-15 Pine Bluff Daily Graphic (Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA) |
I am including this excerpt from 1909-07-10 issue of The Billboard because it identifies a proprietor at Coney Island as "Itasahi"
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| 1909-07-10 the billboard: "Itasahi. Jap ball game gives valuable presents and makes all merry." |
Advertisement for an importer of prizes to be won at Japanese Rolling Ball:
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| 1909-03-20 - The Billboard |
Japanese GoodsFor Souvenirs and Prizes.Directions for Japanese Ball Game and Catalogue on application.Mogi, Momonoi & Co.11 Barclay Street, NEW YORK
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| 1909-08-21 - The billboard |
The above text named Henry Kagami as proprietor of "Japanese ball game" at Greenwood Garden, Portland, Maine, USA.
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| 1909-05-16 Lima Daily News: they called it Hover Park here, but it's now known as "Hoover Park". This advertisement lists "Japanese Auction. Japanese Rolling Ball" as attractions |
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| 1909-05-30 Lima Daily News: another advert that includes "Japanese Rolling Ball" |
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| 1909-02-3 Gulfport Record (Mississippi, USA) "Japanese bowling is pleasing the people just at present. This being a Japanese game, in charge of a real Jap, is very interesting -- as for the fact a present in the way of a piece of real imported Japanese crockery or glass is given free with each game." |
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| 1909-09-8 The Wave Democrat (Oklahoma, USA) "The restaurants and other concessionaires are doing a good business at their different stands, particularly the Japanese Bowling alley, a novel arrangement where the fellow with the lucky hunch could win a prize by rolling the balls, the prizes consisting of Japanese painted wares in china and other articles. This concession is in charge of two Japs, who are touring the country making fairs in the different states." |
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| 1909-06-13 The Los Angeles Times (California, USA) |
DIME-CATCHER THREATENED.Seemingly Innocent Game May Have Heavy Fee Placed Upon It by Ocean ParkOCEAN PARK, June 12.-The innocent-looking game of Japanese pingpong, as played all along the beach by women and children, is soon to be brought under the ban. This variety of gambling was introduced here about the time the Oriental Exposition was opened at Venice and has flourished. The number of gaming places has steadily increased and the habit has grown upon those who "buck the tiger" until it has become so firmly fastened that every spare dime finds its way into the miniature alley.In this game little wooden balls are rolled along a narrow alley, where, if the player be lucky or skilled, they find lodgment in round holes bored in the floor of the alley. These holes are numbered, and when the game is finished the total of the numbers represented by the holes in which balls have tarried is the basis for the award of the prizes. For those who play game after game the addition continues and as the number grows the value of the prize increases.It is understood a request is to be made to the city officials to adopt an ordinance imposing a heavy license upon these games, the design being to prohibit the gambling mania by removing the temptation.
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| 1909-05-06 The Morning Call (Pennsylvania, USA) |
A quick appearance in a dictionary:
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| 1909 Jukichi Inouye 's Japanese-English Dictionary |
~1909?
This postcard doesn't seem too rare, I found at least 2 for sale online. One post-marked 1911, one 1909. I am unsure of the technique, but I assume it is a photograph that was coloured via painting. Map link to Hoover Lake in Lima, Ohio. I do think this card is from 1909 as that seems to be the only year I can find advertisements for "Japanese Rolling Ball" there.
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| "View of White City, Hoover Lake, Lima O", probably 1909 |
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| detail, enlarged: "Japanese Rolling Ball" |
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| postmarked 1909 |
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| postmarked 1911 |
1910:
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| Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1910. Coney Island -- the midway -- source |
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| Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1910. Coney Island -- the midway (detail) - showing us the Japanese Rolling Balls stand |
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| 1910 Central Park Pagoda - Japanese Ping-Pong seems to have been an early name variant. Sign on the left says "10 balls 10 cents" |
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| 1910 Dragons Gorge, Revere Beach, Massachusetts, USA to the left of the massive "Dragons Gorge" ride entrance we see a dual set of signs: "Japanese Rolling Balls" and "Japanese Ping Pong", appealing to customers who might know it as either name |
There is a 3-part article on Dragon Gorge you find here: 1, 2, 3. (backups: 1, 2, 3)
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| 1916 View of Game Arcades Boardwalk & Roller Coaster at Revere Beach, MA (via) |
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| Rensselaer Park (Troy, New York) postcard - postage date 1910 Japanese Ping Pong parlor visible |
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| Japanese Rolling Balls - Bass Point, Nahant excerpted from the book Nahant by Christopher R. Mathias and Kenneth C. Turino unknown year, probably around 1910 |
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| Japanese Rolling Balls - Bass Point, Nahant Mass. (via worthpoint) |
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| backside of postcard credits it to M. Metasaki" instead of Meyaski |
This story mentions Yumindo Kushibiki, and also lists proprietors of rolling ball establishments Miyako & Co, Hayashi & Co, and Tedzuka & Co, suggesting there were 3 rolling ball parlors!
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| Oriental Economic Review 1910 |
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| 1911-04-17 The Los Angeles Times (California, USA) "The shooting galleries were popular, and so were the Japanese bowling alleys, where one may win a tea-cup, which he does not need, by rolling balls endlessly into hollows that are numbered." |
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| 1911-08-31 The Galveston Daily News (Texas, USA) "JAPANESE bowling alley, Galveston beach. We will close our summer place Sept. 4. If you have any cards please call before that date." |
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| 1912-08-19 The Lancaster Morning Journal (Pennsylvania, USA) |
One of our popular amusements is Japanese rolling balls, but we have to go to Rocky Springs to enjoy this game, and there are a number of enthusiasts who play frequently, keeping their score until the end of the season, when a handsome prize is drawn. I hear tat Mrs. Albert Herr has quite a large score and Mrs. Newton E. Bitzer and some friends are having an interesting competition. We must have borrowed this fad from Atlantic City and Asbury Park.
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| 1913-06-29 The Philadelphia Inquirer |
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| 1913-06-29 The Philadelphia Inquirer - detail of The Japanese Tamaya - Okamoto Brothers Props. "Japanese Rolling Ball Games, where exquisite articles imported from Japan are given as prizes. Okamoto Bros, proprietors. |
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| 1913 Vermont State Fair: "Japanese Ball Game, 4 balls 10c" as printed in The Vermonter The State Magazine, Volumes 16-19 |
This article is about a proprietor (Tom Hitaka) getting in trouble for giving cigarettes to kids for prizes, but I am including it because of the thought of a boy (Edward Breason) who was so good at rolling balls that his friends paid him to roll for them, presumably as an elaborate scheme to get cigarettes!
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| 1913-06-09 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York, USA) |
1914:
Equipment supplier advertises wooden balls "For Jap. Ball Game or Crazy Kitchen". In this 1914 advertisement they are listed is 2.5 inches diameter.
In the 1916 advertisement below they give a 2.5" and 2" option.
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| 1914-06-13 - The Billboard |
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| 1916-04-01 - The Billboard |
Similar to the photo from 1910 above, this photo is of a "Japanese Ping-Pong" booth, a different name for Japanese Rolling Ball.
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| Japanese Ping-Pong - Rocky Point, Rhode Island, USA unknown date for this post card |
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| Japanese Ping-Pong - Rocky Point, Rhode Island, USA labelled as 1914 by wikimedia source |
This report from Seaside Rockaway (New York) reveals at least 2 different rolling ball operations. It also suggests the popularity of them waned when similar merchandise began being sold in a local store.
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| 1914-08-01 The Billboard |
Asahi Company have a big Japanese ball game on the walk.The front of T. Sato Company Japanese ball game, is very beautiful, but the Japanese concessionaires are not faring quite as well this year, owing to the fact that some man, perhaps & Hestor street merchant, has a joint where he is selling vases, statuary and sets of dishes at cut-throat prices. He doesn't say so, but he must be doing it for love, as there is no apparent profit in the price at which he is disposing of his wares. Did you ask me if he has been in the amusement business for any length of time? That I can not say, but I would guess about twenty minutes.
1915:
Park Island was an amusement park in Lake Orion, Michigan that apparently existed from 1915-1955.
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| this photo was labeled as being taken 1914, but perhaps it's 1915 since that's when one source says the park opened. |
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| from the same photo series, hey it's a penny arcade! |
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| and next to the Penny Arcade is a Japanese Rolling Ball building! no date on this and the prior photo, but probably best to assume 1914 or 1915. |
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| a photo of the same building, but from the back. It comes with the caption "Main landing on Park Island (north side). This looking out to the lake with village on far shore ; ticket office" |
Thank you to James E. Ingram (1936-2008) who preserved these photos and donated them to the Orion Historical Society. He has a book on Lake Orion that came out in 2006.
Here is a smaller, though uncropped, version of the above image.
This newspaper clipping, apparently from 1925, still makes claims of "Japanese Ball"
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| 1925-09-20: mentions "Japanese Ball" |
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| 1915 Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA -- boardwalk photo courtesy Detroit Publishing |
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| Zoomed in, we can see a "Japanese Ping Pong" booth right by Brady's Baths |
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| 1920-08-26 - Atlantic City Boardwalk |
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Taken from the 1915 Reform Bulletin, this article gets an impressive number of things wrong. I am including it here to get a sense of the limited backlash there might have been against Japanese Rolling Ball. The Reform Bulletin was "Devoted to the interests of All Moral Reforms in the state of New York", which primarily means against alcohol, but also anything perceived as gambling, and even the emerging medium of movies.
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| 1915-07-02 Reform Bulletin - Vol. 6 No 27 Albany NY |
I am unable to confirm the location of this photograph:
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| 1915 postcard Palace Baths - unknown location JAPANESE ROLLING BALL sign seen |
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| 1918-06-30 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania, USA) Wildwood, New Jersey place run by Adachi & Oishi Co. |
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| 1918-06-12 Arizona Republican |
When at Riverside Don't Fail to Play theJAPANESE PING PONG GAMEBeautiful Japanese Art Goods will be given to the most skillful. There are no blanks. It is the new features of the park.Conducted by the Proprietor of theRAMONA CANDY SHOPF.Y. SANO, Prop.
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| 1919-05-24 The Billboard |
1920:
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| "The Jersey Shore circa 1920. Atlantic City Boardwalk and New Garden Pier" -- via Detroit Publishing company |
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| zooming in we find another "Japanese Ping Pong" business |
This business, moved one unit over, can be seen in this photo of unknown year:
The address is probably 1627 Boardwalk
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| Boyds Atlantic City Directory 1920 |
1922:
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| 1922-06-14 Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Adachi & Oishi Japanese Rolling Ball Game |
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| 1922-08-05 The Billboard |
The closing of all concession booths running games at Wildwood, N.J. last week brought a lot of disgusted showfolks into town. The supply houses also felt the cancelling of many orders for supplies. A test is going on at Atlantic City, and the results are being watched by the closed concessioners. The contention is why the Japanese roll-ball games are permitted and others stopped. The Japs have a game of chance the same as the others and give away prizes. It doesn't look fair, is the comment.
Here is an excerpt from the United States Treasury Department where they specify that their tax on 'Bowling Alleys' does not apply to Japanese Rolling Ball.
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| 1923 - Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws "Bagatelle and tivoli tables and Japanese rolling ball games are not subject to tax." |
1924:
I can't find an image of any signs, but we have a setup here where along the top there are Japanese-style paper lanterns. Even if Japanese Roll Ball was brought over by Japanese immigrants, at some point it became a name for a carnival game. Maybe there were still Japanese people involved at this point? The paper lanterns suggest they were trying to continue the theme, at least.
The tables here have 4 rows of holes, 5 holes each, for 20 holes total. This suggests it is not a Japanese Rolling Ball game, but a "Japanese Roll Down".
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| Riverton Park, Portland, 1924 - Collections of Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media |
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| Midway game, Riverton Park, Portland, 1924 - Collections of Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media |
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| detail of the above game - Collections of Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media |
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| 1924-05-03 Reading Times (Pennsylvania, USA) |
1928:
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| 1928-05-26 Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia, USA) advertising Japanese Rolling Ball at Buckroe Beach |
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| 1928-05-27 The Morning Call (Pennsylvania, USA) |
LET'S GO!Start the Season Right!Roll the Balls and Win the PrizesThe Japanese Rolling Ball Game At the Same Old Spot!Save Your Coupons Until the End of the Season For One of the Big PrizesT.SHIOZAK, Prop.
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| 1928-06-10 Hartford Courant (Connecticut, USA) CAPITOL PARK "The Happiness Center" PLAY THE NEW JAPANESE ROLLING BALL! Save The Coupons! Valuable Prizes! |
1929:
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| from the 1929 H.C. Evans catalogue table dimensions are 19" wide by 72" long, with 2.25" hardwood balls The top table is a classic "Japanese Rolling Ball' table where you would aim to score the highest number of points. The emphasis is on it being a legit skill game. Note the line "The possibility of outcounting a player is reduced to a minimum" which means the carnival worker would have a hard time cheating by moving the balls as they counted them. When they say "strictly high class outfit", it's a reference to how the game would not get shut down by local authorities as a carnival scam. The bottom table? It's made to fleece the rubes. The "roll-down" style tables as we see seem to be a North American invention from this origin. Transcription:
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| here is the same image rotated so we can read the points better 25, 50, 10, 100, 10, 50, 25, 10, 25, 10 There are 10 balls included, and 10 holes, meaning a maximum possible score of 315 |
Japanese poet Hagiwara Sakutarō released a collection of poetry, including this poem titled Tamakorogashi:
球轉がし
萩原朔太郎
曇つた、陰鬱の午後であつた。どんよりとした太陽が、雲の厚みからして、鈍い光を街路の砂に照らしてゐる。人々の氣分は重苦しく、うなだれながら、馬のやうに風景の中を彷徨してゐる。
いま、何物の力も私の中に生れてゐない。意氣は銷沈し、情熱は涸れ、汗のやうな悪寒がきびわるく皮膚の上に流れてゐる。私は壓しつぶされ、稀薄になり、地下の底に滅入つてしまふのを感じてゐた。
ふと、ある賑やかな市街の裏通り、露店や飲食店のごてごてと並んでゐる、日影のまづしい横町で、私は古風な球轉がしの屋臺を見つけた。
「よし！ 私の力を試してみよう。」
つまらない賭けごとが、病氣のやうにからまつてきて、執拗に自分の心を苛らだたせた。幾度も幾度も、赤と白との球が轉がり、そして意地惡く穴の周圍をめぐつて逃げた。あらゆる機因がからかひながら、私の意志の届かぬ彼岸で、熱望のそれた標的に轉がり込んだ。
「何物もない！ 何物もない！」
私は齒を食ひしばつて絶叫した。いかなればかくも我々は無力であるか。見よ！ 意志は完全に否定されてる。それが感じられるほど、勇氣する理由がどこにあるか？
たちまち、若々しく明るい聲が耳に聽えた。蓮葉な、はしやいだ、連れ立つた若い女たちが來たのである。笑ひながら、戲れながら、無造作に彼女の一人が球を投げた。
「當り！」
一時に騒がしく、若い、にぎやかな凱歌と笑聲が入り亂れた。何たる名譽ぞ！ チヤンピオンぞ！ 見事に、彼女は我々の絶望に打ち勝つた。笑ひながら、戲れながら、嬉々として運命を征服し、すべての鬱陶しい氣分を解放した。
もはや私は、ふたたび考へこむことをしないであらう。
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| 1929-07-27 Reading Times (Pennsylvania, USA) a very large advertisement showing off many attractions. "Japanese Ping-Pong Games -- Imported Chinaware in Premiums, Premiums That Are Worth While" |
1930:
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| 1930-05-10 The Morning Call (Pennsylvania, USA) 10 years of Japanese Rolling Ball operated by T. Shiozaki |
In this article we see an interesting distinction, where the Penny Arcade is mentioned, and later it mentions 'the Japanese game' as being the only concession that is a game, meaning the only game where you win a prize.
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| 1930-04-19 - The Billboard Great Improvements for Woodside Park (Philadelphia) |
A new Penny Arcade building will house the various classes of machines. Quite a number of new machines have been added.
....
The only concession in the nature of a game operated in the park is the Japanese ball game. Other concessions consist entirely of eating and drinking stands. A new building is being constructed for the Japanese game.
1932:
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| 1932-02-07 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York, USA) "Yesterday's fire spread to an adjoining Japanese rolling-ball concession, from which two Japanese children were rescued by police and firemen. The total loss was estimated at $25,000" |
1934:
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| 1934-04-12 Ashbury Park Press identifies the proprietor as Shoki Kaneshiro as operator two "Japanese rolling ball" stands at 708-710 Boardwalk in the casino, and at 1427-29 Boardwalk. |
1935:
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| 1935-06-15 - The Billboard p 43 |
Atlantic CityBy WILLIAM H. McMAHONATLANTIC CITY, June 8 -- Decoration Day crowds lingered, giving the resort over last week-end a midsummer appearance, with plenty of money floating and if weather holds out another big week-end is in sight. Lower 'Walksprang into action and, despite Mayor Harry Bacharach's declaration that certain games are out this year, nearly a dozen places with elaborate setups have opened. Looks like more coin-operated amusement machine arcades than ever before.Kiddie park, Texas avenue and 'Walk, getting ready for opening. Steeplechase kiddie park already going. Steel pier taking down winter front. Million-Dollar Pier has winter setup down and is changing its front. Concessioners flocking in and getting set fast: should be a good year for them. Last Japanese ping-pong setup on 'Walk makes way for coin-machine arcade.Carver's Diving Horses took first plunge from Steel Pier over week-end. . . . Steel Pier stole the show with first showing of Ross-McLarnin fight pix two days after match. . . . Annette Kellerman, original bathing girl, made plenty of friends during week here with good showmanship. . . . Four Fantinos made their debut at Steel Pier circus arena this week-end, with new comedy act built by Charlie Hart clicking in good style.
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| 1938-08-13 The Billboard |
...and that's where the research mostly ends for now, with a fire, a bankruptcy, and the rise of coinop arcades.
France
Japanese Rolling Ball seems to have arrived in France in the late 1920s. If you look at the "Beyond Japanese Rolling Ball" section at the bottom you will see that some tables still operate at fairs. In France it was primarily called "Billard Japonais", and still has some popularity today as a simple fair game.
This is an excerpt from "The Paris Review", 1927-09-15:
BILLARD JAPONAIS. — Après dîner, vers neuf heures. Le del a pâli, l’azur tourne au gris clair, légèrement mêlé d’une pointe de vert, comme au fond des allégories véronésiennes, De très légères vapeurs de beau temps et d'été, flottent dans cet éther d’allégresse, fait pour les triomphes aïlés, au faîte des salles de palais et pour d’autres triomphes, réservés jadis, aux alcôves décorées par Fragonard et Boucher, où les génies et les dieux se sont métamorphosés en Mnconscients bambins, occupés à environner de roses des courtisanes endormies sur la croupe tiède des nuages. Soir des débuts d’août… Soirs de Degas, jadis, aux Ambassadeurs, quand la lumière des ballons de verre dépoli, où dansait la flamme du gaz l’emportait, enfin, sur l'intensité de ce ciel verdâtre, lisse comme une soie.
Plus loin que les hôtels élégants, le long d’une route bordée de platanes qui longe le parc et la rivière, sous le dôme frais des feuillages qu’un souffle subit anime, des baraques alignées. Je les ai toujours connues là. Des bannes de toile rayée les précèdent, abritent de la pluie ou de la trop grande chaleur, les badauds, les promeneurs, tout ce que déverse à certaines heures, d'humanité rassemblée autour des sources, une grande ville d'eaux. Toutes les classes et tous les états.
Le paysan et le politicien, l’aristocrate et le boutiquier, tous également dépaysés et ne frayant point. Dans ces sortes de baraques, à toits de zinc, à cloisons de briques et de bois, mais qui ne sont qu’éventaire du côté du trottoir, sous les platanes, des marchands de dentelles et broderies et, même, entre un antiquaire et un dépositaire de bijoux faux, un vendeur de ces objets de bois sculptés, forestiers, qui évoquent la Suisse et les bords du Rhin, coucous et coupe-papie’, vide-poches, encriers, dont les branches destinées à recevoir les porte-plume sont faites avec les bois d’un izard. Ici accessoires bien dépaysés.
Pas davantage, sans doute, que cette grande boutique remplie d’étagères et de vitrines garnies d’objets du Japon, de lanternes de papier de riz, de toutes nuances, bleu d’outremer se dégradant, orange et noir, ivoires, satzumas, netzkés et corbeilles de jonc tressé et verni, kakemonos, services de thé complets, dans une boîte garnie d’ouate et de papier de soie.
Sur le devant de la boutique, côte à côte, alignés, des billards japonais, auxquels les passants peuvent jouer, du trottoir même. Étroits et longs, de bois clair, avec leurs «trous » cernés de rouge et marqués d’un nombre, de 10 à 100...
Le soir, après dîner, des grands hôtels les plus proches, eomme des modestes pensions, alentour, sur les flancs de la vieille petite ville aux rues étroites et brisées à angles droits, les gens viennent jouer à ces billards. Un franc la partie. Douze billes de bois. Le roulement de ces boules sur le parquet des billards cause une sorte de rumeur, assourdissante d’abord, puis, que l'oreille ne surprend plus. Les joueurs sont disparates. Le veston domine parmi eux, mais il en est qui portent le smoking. Une jeune femme fait de grands cris en jouant; elle est coiffée avec de petits peignes qui massent en arrière ses cheveux courts et assez crépus, elle est drapée dans un châle espagnol, à franges longues, brodé de fleurs carminées et de feuillages couleur d’émeraude. À ma gauche, une femme molle, dont le jeu est surveillé par un homme chauve qui fume mélancoliquement, lance six boules à la fois, de toutes ses forces, sur le billard, puis, avec la demi-douzaine qui lui reste s'efforce de faire revenir celles qui n’ont pas été placées du premier coup.
Un prêtre, habitué quotidien du billard japonais, après le dîner, un prêtre s’est glissé entre la cloison et le billard pour surveiller le jeu et donner des indications à la bruyante et folle personne drapée dans le châle blanc.
Le prêtre est grand, d’une taille au-dessus de la moyenne, sans courbes le long du corps, ni estomac, ni ventre. Trois rubans discrets superposés à la boutonnière au milieu de la soutane, légion d’honneur, croix de guerre, et un troisième qui est peut-être military cross ou autre. Il a les épaules larges, les mains moyennes et fait des gestes brefs en parlant. Il conseille la dame, que son mari vêtu du smoking surveille de l’autre côté. On est devenu assez familiers, au jeu, chaque soir répété, de ce billard japonais qui fait digérer, qui est bruyant et précis et dont on additionne avant de rentrer à l’hôtel les quatre ou cinq mille points, pour s’en aller, à la fin de la saison, avec un des objets « rares » des vitrines éclairées.
Un des billards étant devenu vacant, le grand prêtre décidé, s'y est installé. Un autre abbé plus âgé, plus petit, tout rond, douillet, qui l'accompagne, et qui est officier de la Légion d'honneur, celui-là, s’est installé à l'extrémité opposée... Puis, la dame au châle, s'étant fatiguée à lancer trop vivement tant de boules, vient s'asseoir sur une chaise dans le magasin.
Voir jouer ce prêtre qui appartient à l’ordre des Jésuites et qui est un prédicateur de grande allure, «est un plaisir bien particulier. Il ne fait point rouler les boules. Il ne se contente point d'essayer de les loger dans les trous qui les attendent. Il les lance, à la volée, pourrait-on dire. Lorsque l’une d’elles est demeurée au bord du trou, il l'attaque d’en haut, avec une autre boule violemment lancée. Une autre, à l'instant même, vient à la rescousse. Ce n’est plus un jeu tranquille, d’après dîner, c’est de l'artillerie. Lorsqu'une ou deux de ces boules s’immobilisent le long du parquet, il en lance une avec violence, qui vient les chasser, leur fait faire le tour du jeu et les lui ramènent.
Je regarde son visage. C’est un prêtre qu’on imagine portant un uniforme de soldat. Le menton avance, il est dessiné d’un trait ferme, le mez est assez long. Mais les proportions sont mesurées, complices, réduites à un ensemble ho mogène. C’est un masque pour un sculpteur plus que pour un ‘peintre. La couleur n’y existe pour ainsi dire pas. Il est plutôt pâle. Il n’a pas de teint. Mais quels traits, quelle grande arcade sourcilière, quel œil droït, droit comme la bouche, comme la narine de profil, comme le dessus du crâne où les cheveux sont taïllés en brosse!
On se demande s’il n’y a pas là quelque grande erreur sur la vocation. Mais, à la réflexion, on conclut que la force, l'énergie devinées chez ce prêtre de quarante et quelques années n’est point perdue pour la religion. Comme il sait aller désembusquer une boule qui semblait imprenable, derrière une autre! Comme il couvre à la fois tout le billard de ses attaques brusquées, serrées, intempestives. C’est un passe-temps précieux de l’observer. Les boules cessent d’être de vulgaires billes de bois, elles deviennent vivantes, humaines, ce sont des âmes que l’on s’efforce de placer où il faut.
La femme drapée dans le châle à franges a cessé de rire. Des spectateurs, impressionnés par ce jeu intense et intelligent, se pressent derrière l’abbé.
English machine translation:
JAPANESE BILLIARDS. — After dinner, around nine o'clock. The light has paled, the azure turns to light gray, slightly mixed with a hint of green, as in the background of Veronesian allegories, Very light vapors of good weather and summer, float in this ether of joy, made for the winged triumphs, at the top of the palace rooms and for other triumphs, formerly reserved for the alcoves decorated by Fragonard and Boucher, where the genies and the gods have metamorphosed into unconscious toddlers, busy surrounding sleeping courtesans with roses on the warm crest of the clouds. Evening at the beginning of August... Evenings of Degas, long ago, at Les Ambassadeurs, when the light of the frosted glass balloons, where the gas flame danced, finally prevailed over the intensity of this greenish sky, smooth as silk .
Further than the elegant hotels, along a road lined with plane trees which runs along the park and the river, under the cool dome of foliage that a sudden breeze animates, huts lined up. I always knew them there. Striped canvas awnings precede them, sheltering from the rain or the excessive heat, the onlookers, the walkers, all that pours out at certain hours, of humanity gathered around the springs, a large spa town. All classes and all states.
The peasant and the politician, the aristocrat and the shopkeeper, all equally out of their element and unable to find anything. In these kinds of huts, with zinc roofs, brick and wood partitions, but which are only stalls on the side of the sidewalk, under the plane trees, lace and embroidery merchants and, even, between an antique dealer and a depository of fake jewelry, a seller of these carved, forest wooden objects, which evoke Switzerland and the banks of the Rhine, cuckoo clocks and paper cutters, pocket trays, inkwells, whose branches intended to receive the pen holders are made with the antlers of an izard. Very unusual accessories here.
No more, doubtless, than this large shop filled with shelves and display cases filled with objects from Japan, rice paper lanterns, of all shades, degrading ultramarine blue, orange and black, ivories, satzumas, netzkés and baskets of woven and varnished rush, kakemonos, complete tea services, in a box lined with cotton wool and tissue paper.
At the front of the store, side by side, lined up, are Japanese billiards tables, which passers-by can play from the sidewalk itself. Narrow and long, of light wood, with their “holes” outlined in red and marked with a number, from 10 to 100...
In the evening, after dinner, from the nearest large hotels, as well as from the modest guesthouses, around, on the slopes of the old little town with its narrow, broken streets at right angles, people come to play these billiards tables. One franc per game. Twelve balls. The rolling of these balls on the billiards floor causes a kind of noise, deafening at first, then no longer surprising to the ear. The players are disparate. The jacket dominates among them, but there are some who wear the tuxedo. A young woman makes loud cries while playing; her hair is styled with small combs which massage her short, rather frizzy hair back, she is draped in a Spanish shawl, with long fringes, embroidered with crimson flowers and emerald-colored foliage. To my left, a sluggish woman, whose game is watched by a bald man who smokes melancholy, throws six balls at once, with all her might, onto the billiards table, then, with the half dozen that remain to her, tries to to bring back those which were not placed the first time.
A priest, a daily regular at Japanese billiards. After dinner, the priest slipped between the partition and the billiards table to monitor the game and give directions to the noisy and crazy person draped in the white shawl.
The priest is tall, above average height, with no curves along his body, neither stomach nor belly. Three discreet ribbons superimposed on the buttonhole in the middle of the cassock, Legion of Honor, War Cross, and a third which is perhaps military cross or other. He has broad shoulders, medium hands and makes brief gestures when speaking. He advises the lady, whom her tuxedo-clad husband watches from the other side. We have become quite familiar with the game, repeated every evening, of this Japanese billiards which makes you digest, which is noisy and precise and of which we add up the four or five thousand points before returning to the hotel, to leave, at the end of the season, with one of the “rare” objects in the illuminated windows.
One of the billiard tables having become vacant, the high priest decided and installed himself there. Another abbot, older, smaller, rounded, cozy, who accompanies him, and who is an officer of the Legion of Honor, this one, has installed himself at the opposite end... Then, the lady at the shawl, having tired herself from throwing so many balls too quickly, comes and sits on a chair in the store.
Seeing this priest play, who belongs to the order of the Jesuits and who is a preacher of great appearance, is a very special pleasure. He doesn't make the balls roll. He is not content with trying to accommodate them in the holes that await them. He throws them, on the fly, you could say. When one of them remains at the edge of the hole, he attacks it from above, with another violently thrown ball. Another, right now, comes to the rescue. It's no longer a quiet game, after dinner, it's artillery. When one or two of these balls come to rest along the floor, he throws one violently, which chases them away, makes them go around the game and brings them back to him.
I look at his face. He is a priest who we imagine wearing a soldier's uniform. The chin advances, it is defined with a firm line, the nose is quite long. But the proportions are measured, complicit, reduced to a homogeneous whole. It is a mask for a sculptor more than for a painter. Color hardly exists there. He's rather pale. He has no complexion. But what features, what a large brow bone, what a straight eye, straight like the mouth, like the nostril in profile, like the top of the head where the hair is cut into a crew cut!
We wonder if there is not some great error about vocation here. But, upon reflection, we conclude that the strength, the energy divined in this priest of forty and some years is not lost for religion. How he knows how to uncover a ball that seemed impregnable, behind another! As he covers the entire billiards table with his sudden, tight, untimely attacks. It is a valuable pastime to observe it. The balls cease to be common logs of wood, they become alive, human, they are souls that we try to place where we need them.
The woman draped in the fringed shawl stopped laughing. Spectators, impressed by this intense and intelligent game, crowd behind the abbot.
This French catalogue entry gives their table length as 1m80, which is nearly 71" long, or just under 6 feet.
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| from the Jost & Cie catalogue No. 26 published mid 1920s (assumed) thank you to Patrick Carrière for the scan. |
BILLARDS JAPONAIS
Les Billards Japonais sont d'un emploi récent. Ils ne sont qu'une applica- tion du billard bagatelle en vue d'une combinaison appropriée qui permet leur emploi rémunérateur dans les établissements publics ou dans les fêtes foraines.
SERIE DE 3 JEUX DE 1 m. 80
Ils se font sur pieds et sans pieds. Dans ce dernier cas, on les place sur supports appropriés, généralement établis par les tenanciers.
On les groupe généralement par série de jeux, côte à côte, comme nous l'indiquons ci-dessus, mais dont le nombre n'est limité que par l'emplacement dont on dispose.
Nous fabriquons ces jeux avec les plus plus grands soins, de façon à assurer leur précision et qu'ils répondent à ce que doivent exiger les joueurs.
Ils sont faits avec table en trois épaisseurs et habituellement en imitation noyer.
Chacun est livré avec 10 billes de bois.
PRIX Celui-ci varie selon le nombre de jeux demandés.
English machine translation:
JAPANESE BILLIARDS
Japanese billiards are of recent use. They are only an application of trifle billiards with a view to an appropriate combination which allows their remunerative employment in public establishments or in fairgrounds.
SERIES OF 3 GAMES OF 1 m. 80
They are done on feet and without feet. In the latter case, they are placed on appropriate supports, generally established by the tenants.
They are generally grouped by series of games, side by side, as we indicate above, but the number is only limited by the space available.
We manufacture these games with the greatest care, to ensure they are accurate and meet what players demand.
They are made with a table in three thicknesses and usually in imitation walnut.
Each comes with 10 wooden balls.
PRICE This varies depending on the number of games requested.
This article is about the Pourville beach, France, made famous globally by the paintings of Claude Monet.
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| 1932-08-29 Evening Standard |
General Sir William and Lady Pitcairn Campbell have been there long enough to become expert over the game called "Japanese billiards." They won a plush dog as a prize at one attempt!
This is a fascinating article on the state of penny arcades (kermesses) in France. In discussing developments at the famous Moulin Rouge in Montmartre, they say:
Breaking away from old ideas, Four & Rogers installed not only coin machines but also a rifle gallery, "Tip 'Em Out of Bed," Japanese billiards and other attractions.
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| 1933-02-04 The Billboard |
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| 1933-03-18 The Billboard - referencing Paris, France "Japanese billiard stands have recently been installed in several theater lobbies and unoccupied stores and appear to be doing good business." |
Found on the website LeMaison du Billard, this post card is from around the 1930s.
Casino d'Arachon is still a place you can visit.
2 more postcards, found from Histoire Et Traditions Du Bassin D'Arcachon (archive) This text by Thierry Perreaud contains mention of a 1906 law, but I have not been able to figure out if it references rolling ball specifically.
The next two images are from https://archives.somme.fr
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| Le Crotoy (Somme) |
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| Le Crotoy (Somme) |
More postcard images:
unknown date, and unknown context, but here are some prize tickets for Billard Japonais that came up on ebay. This might have no real connection to Japan whatsoever, but it does give an example of carnival prize tickets.
au lotus d'orbillard japonaismaison esnaultticket de 5 lotsLe nombre de tickets additionnes donne droit au lot correspondant
golden lotusjapanese billiardshouse esnault5 lot ticketThe number of tickets added gives entitlement to the corresponding lot
Another set of tickets, from the amazing collection of
Transcriptopn:
Billard Japonais
G. Monnier, Cauterets (H-P)
Bon pour 3.000 Points
Imprimerie Bresson, Bessèges
More tickets:
This lovely photo is a great example of Billard Japonais at French fairs:
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| unknown date postcard photo - via ebay |
A set of "Japanese Rolling Ball Tables from France" that appeared at auction:
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| rolling ball tables from France |
The Japanese Roll-Down
The Japanese Roll-Down was the American carnival's way to cash in on the popularity of Japanese Rolling Ball. Instead of being a game of skill with a somewhat equitable return of prizes for your money, it was a scam carnival game designed to dupe the rubes and seldom ever pay out prizes.
It uses a grid 6x6 of holes, and has the player roll all 6 balls simultaneously. This board layout would later be seen in Pokerino setup (see Beyond Japanese Rolling Ball near the bottom).
The board for "Japanese Roll-Down" has numbers 1 to 6 and is based around similar carnival games where the winning numbers are the ones least likely to be arrived at given the mathematical distribution. You would see this sort of math also employed in 1950s Germany slot machine games.
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| A Japanese Roll-Down table from a 1929 H.C. Evans catalogue. See the "1929" section above for the full advertisement, and to contrast against a Japanese Rolling Board. |
The earliest mention I have found so far describing a Japanese Roll-Down game is in this article from 1910 warning of carnival scams. They say it is similar to Japanese Ping-Pong, but what they warn about in the article is actually the Japanese Roll-Down.
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| 1910-07-18 The Baltimore Sun |
At one of the stands the method is similar to the Japanese ping-pong game, a number of large glass marbles being rolled into numbered holes on the board. The total of the numbers at which the marbles stop represents the player's prize, and the red numbers, which are greatly in the minority, are the 'large,' or dollar, prizes. But the player doesn't count the totals; that is done by the operator, who is an expert at this work and reminds one of a human adding machine.The red numbers are all the operator has in mind, and he rarely allows himself to bring the total to one of them. If interest in the game lags he offers a bargain, giving two chances for the price of one, provided always that the player does not win a 'large' prize on the first roll. And the two-for-one bait usually succeeds in reviving interest. When a red number is called it is practically certain that only the operator's 'clerks' are playing, and their winnings furnish them fresh capital with which to work among the crowd.
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| an antique Japanese rolldown game. |
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| A closer view of the scoring, though it is partially obscured by the wear. The winning "red numbers" referred to in the article can be seen here. |
In 1923 the author Walter Gibson began writing a series called "Bunco Games To Beware Of", which would explain how carnival games could cheat the player unknowingly. This article goes into great depth explaining how the game is played.
It offers a few curious insights: He reinforces that "Japanese Ping-Pong" is a synonym for "Japanese Rolling Ball".
It offers "Japanola" as a name variant for Japanese Rolling Ball. which is a name given to Rolling Ball toys that were sold starting 1906 (see "TOYS" section at the bottom of this post). I have not seen an arcade operation referred to as Japanola elsewhere, so I am assuming it was just the toy name.
Japanola refers to a type of silk, oil, music performance, a powder, cigars, performance troupe, but ALSO a kid's version of Japanese Rolling Ball.
He suggests that the score earned in Rolling Ball has nothing to do with the game, suggesting players merely get 'Japanese curio' in direct relation to how much they've spent. This would seem like an odd observation, like Gibson is somehow missing out on the skill involved, but given Gibson's experience with carnival games this is the outlook from the proprietor: after a certain amount of games, the scores probably do average out for everyone but the best players, and the whole game is a spectacle for 'winning' Japanese prizes.
Gibson says says the Roll-Down was devised by carnival gamesters playing off the Rolling Ball popularity. He also states that Japanese Rolling Ball proprietors are "usually a Japanese".
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| this clip is from 1924-11-16, Dayton Daily News the earliest appearance of this syndicated work (so far) is 1923-11-03 |
The entire "Bunco Games to Beware Of" series has been compiled over here.
If you roll a 6-sided dice 6 times and add the numbers, the distribution of totals is such that you will almost never win a big prize, about 1 in 1000. It's about 2% for a medium prize, 10% for a small prize. That is your best case scenario!
Normally the game is played by all 6 balls being released simultaneously. Some jurisdictions would force the operators to let players roll each ball individually, but even if a player was quite good the odds would still be ridiculously stacked against them.
In the actual Roll-Down game, if you hit a 1 or a 6, for example, your subsequent rolls do not have that pocket as an option, so the odds are less in your favour. On top of that proprietors can modify some holes to be harder to hit, and when that fails they can "out count" the player, which means they shift the balls as they count them. In the above diagram, moving a 1 to a 6 or a 6 to a 1 will immediately ruin a BIG or MEDIUM prize win.
Here are 2 more articles on the Japanese Roll-Down chicanery:
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| 1924-05-16 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) not only were the proprietors offering money instead of prizes, they were caught modifying the holes (with pasteboard) to decrease the odds of winning |
Similar to the Bunco Games To Beware Of article, this 1937 feature showed off carnival tricks, including The Japanese Roll-Down
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| 1937-08-29 Democrat and Chronicle Sun (New York, USA) |
From the same syndicated material, but a better view of this photo:
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| 1937-09-05 The Des Moines Register (Iowa, USA) |
Here are examples of how the Roll-Down game looked in Europe
Toys
Japanese Rolling Ball was surging in popularity at Coney Island when it first (as best I can find) became a toy circa 1906. It had popular releases in the 1920s, 1930s, and even some that look as though they arrived shortly after World War 2.
Advertisements for a game called Japanola first appeared for the 1906 Christmas season:
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| 1906-12-14 - The Philadelphia Inquirer The first advertisement for any toy version of Japanese Rolling Ball I could find. |
Japanola, like at the "shore," $2
This 1911 advertisement describes the game as a long board, much more similar to the arcade version. Later versions, that just included the holes and the balls, were probably made to cut down on costs.
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| 1911-08-11 The Quebec Chronicle (Quebec, Canada) |
JAPNOLA consists of a well made hardwood board and comes with four polished balls which are rolled the full length of the board towards the holes at the end. Board 43 inches long and 11 inches. Price... $2.50
$2.50 Canadian in 1911 would be about $60 Canadian in 2021.
Most toy versions of Japanese Rolling Ball would not include the full length board.
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| 1911-12-05 Asbury Park Press another reference to the sea-side arcades: Japanola, or Roll At It, a popular summer pastime $1.69 |
This Brownie Skee Ball is from the 1920s, as the game "skee ball" had taken off in popularity by this time, but the game bears little resemblance to the skee ball arcade games, unless you count the slight lip on the tin as a part of the jump.
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| "Brownie Skee Ball" - circa 1920s? |
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| "Brownie Skee Ball" - circa 1920s? |
Circa 1923, Japanola was being offered as a combination set to include bowling variant.
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| 1923-12-01 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania, USA) |
Partial Transcript:
Imported Japanola-and-Bowling AlleyThe only photo of a game labelled Japonala I have is the 1928 Parker bros version:
Combination Game
$2.50
Made of strong wood, 28 1/2 inches long.
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| JAPANOLA by Parker Bros, copyrighted 1928 |
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| 1929-11-26 Democrat and Chronicle |
Introduce Adult Games Into the Home for ThanksgivingJapanola, Japanese ball rolling game, offering many possibilities for ingenious hosts ..... $1.50
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| 1932-11-18 Los Angeles Record (California, USA) |
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| 1937 Sears Christmas Book page 55 |
One game is titled "Japanese Ball Game", which seems to have come out in the 1930s. Girard Toys existed until 1935. (archive)
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| Japanese Ball Game by Girard Toys - before 1935 |
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| Japanese Ball Game - box art redrawn by AJ |
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| Japanese Marble Game by Girard Toys - before 1935 |
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| Japanese Marble Game by Girard Toys - before 1935 |
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| French advertisement for Billard Japonais circa 1935 - via ebay |
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| unknown maker |
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| unknown maker |
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| Skill Ball by Pressman Toys - wooden clown version |
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| Skill Ball instructions |
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| Skill Ball by Pressman Toys - metal, probably 1950s+ |
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| Japatelle game (probably by International Playthings Corp) via ebay the board is only 15" long |
As early as 1903 Japanese Rolling Ball was found as many smaller bazaars, fundraisers, church fairs, and small community gatherings. There are far too many mentions to include, but I do see it as a barometer for its' popularity. It was seemingly a staple event at so many small community events. for 20+ years.
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| 1913-05-27 Fall River Globe - describing a county fair at the YMCA |
The Hoop-la game was certainly a big attraction, as was the Japanese Rolling Balls which are a great test of the skill and nerve of its patrons in their endeavor to skillfully place the rings over objects and the balls in their little pockets, all of which is rewarded in the form of presents for the most skillful.
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| 1903-06-28 Omaha Daily Bee (Nebraska, USA) "You would be surprised to learn that many a girl of 16 years or a little more, whose parents ought to know better, will consider it a veritable triumph to secure a position in a cigar stand or as the presiding genius over a Japanese bowling alley" |
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| 1905-08-09 St. Louis Post Dispatch (Missouri, USA) |
JAPANESE PING-PONGThe Wily, Smiley Oriental Collects an Indemnity From St. Louisan.I HOPE Russia will refuse to pay the war indemnity demanded by Japan," said the St. Louisan who spent his week's vacation in a mad whirl among St. Louis' summer-garden resorts.“Why?" asked the man at the next desk. "It can't make you any the poorer, can it, since you had to draw your salary in advance to pay the freight on your stay-at-home holiday?""Yes, and the Japanese got my money!" snorted the returned vacationist. "They took it away from me at Japanese ping-pong, confound 'em--from me and my wife together."“How did it happen?" again queried his companion in penury, whose own vacation had been spent abroad-- about 200 miles from St. Louis abroad. "And what the mischief is Japanese ping-pong, any way?”"It's a gold-brick game based on woman's weakness for souvenirs," grunted the victim. “And the Japanese don't need any indemnity from Russia. If frost doesn't come early this year, they'll separate St. Louisans from enough money to pay the cost of their dad-blamed war with the Czar. I can't see that a ping-pong Jap's a bit better than a fan-tan chink!""Very interesting," chuckled the man at the other desk, “but still it fails to enlighten me as to what Japanese ping-pong is.""Japanese ping-pong," said the returned vacationist moodily, "is a sort of roly-poly diversion in which two blithering idiots, generally man and wife, or, headed in that direction, try to roll balls down a little incline plane so they will fall into numbered holes at the other end. You get prizes according to the numbers of the holes in which you place the balls."“Well, what more do you want?" asked the man at the other desk. “That gives you a chance for your money's worth, doesn't it?""Your money's worth," exploded the returned one. "Say, I've got the measliest collection of job-lot Japanese bric-a-bras at my house that you ever saw in all your born days. The World's Fair wasn't a marker to it--and it's what me and my wife won playing Japanese ping-pong at the Alps and Delmar Garden and Suburban Park and elsewhere on the outskirts of this Jap-buncoed community. My wife can't look at it without blushing and it makes me swear in 17 different languages. I'll prove what I say. I'll show you the whole blamed outfit, if she'll let me.""Can't you get rid of it by distributing it among friends for birthday and wedding presents and the like?” suggested the other.“Say, look here, where've you been this summer?" asked the returned vacationist indignantly. "You don't know your St. Louis of August, 1905, a little bit. I just dare you to make any resident St. Louisan a present of a Japanese ping-pong souvenir-a double-dog dare you! The market's glutted with 'em, all won playing the dodgasted game, and you can't crook your finger in a St. Louis home these days without danger of upsetting a bunch of 'em. They cost the Japs about 'steen cents a thousand and they cost us about 50 cents apiece, five games at 10 cents per is the average roll. And by the time the first game ends your wife has got the Japanese ping-pong-gamble souvenir fever and you couldn't drag her away from the table with a yoke of oxen. Oh, it's a fine game-- nit!”"But you have fun playing it, don't you?" asked the man at the other desk."Fun?" repeated the returned vacationist. "Yes, oh yes, lots of fun for the crowd that's guyin' you and for the Jap that's leading you and your wife on to waste your substance in riotous living. And it's fun for your wife, too, till she sees you pull out your roll and notices how much you have to pay and then looks at what she's got in return for the money. After that she's Mrs. R. E. Morse--and then both of you ride home on the cars like you were going to the funeral of your best friend and every time the car jolts the ping-pong souvenirs rattle in your pockets as if you were a junk wagon!""Fine game," commented the man at the other desk."You bet it is-- for the Japs!” growled the returned vacationist. "If I have anything to say about it, Russia won't give up a cent of her good money to Japan. St. Louis is paying war indemnity all right, all right."
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| 1906-05-20 St. Louis Post Dispatch (Missouri, USA) "Sure, the Japs are the Yankees of the Orient -- look at the garden prizes you get in Japanese ping-pong!" |
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| 1906-11-01 The Victoria Daily Times (British Columbia, Canada) |
This is a longer piece of fiction, and I include it to show how Japanese Rolling Ball was in the popular consciousness. I have included the whole text, and then excerpted one paragraph below.
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| 1910-07-17 The Pittsburgh Press (Pennsylvania, USA) |
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| 1910-07-17 The Pittsburgh Press (Pennsylvania, USA) relevant excerpt: "We walked along beside a lagoon, in a perfect frenzy of light, and the first thing we saw was father! He was standing in front of a Japanese shop, rolling balls of some sort. We watched him pay the Jap a bill and get a queer-looking little hair-pin tray." |
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| 1922-07-02 New York Tribune Sun "Perhaps South Beach may boast of more Japanese rolling ball games to the square foot than any other amusement place. It might be a base for the Jap army should they ever decide to invade us. One can almost imagine them rolling bombs into the subway entrances in New York and triumphantly running a huge score. Right there where we will have our revenge. "You made 1,236,876 points," we will add. "Try another frame. No? Well, then you win as a prize one fine painted ash tray!" |
Another humour article:
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| 1922-12-06 The Evening World (NY, New York, USA) - excerpt "JAPAN -- Japanese Rolling Ball Academy graduates 18,500,000 students. Coney Island gets quota of 1,700,000 and even 1,000,000 are ticketed for Atlantic City. Continued rain demoralizes Jap parasol industry. Half of national output will be exported to America to accommodate wire walking trade." |
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| 1922-12-06 The Evening World (NY, New York, USA) full article version |
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| 1924-08-03 The Long Beach Telegram and The Long Beach Daily News |
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| 1924-08-03 The Long Beach Telegram and The Long Beach Daily News - detail |
There are other jokes I found in newspapers. Less interesting, but including for reference
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| 1925-07-20 The Neosho Daily News (Neosho, Missouri, USA) The joke here is that the police officer didn't win anything got really upset until they gave him a bribe? |
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| 1937-08-04 Nichibei Shinbun |
TODAY'S QUOTE: "Over here the Japanese look harmless enough running those rolling ball games at the amusement resorts. But even here, when you buck up against one, you can't win. Even if you get 28,000 points in the rolling ball contest, it still isn't enough to win the aluminum ash tray." Ken Murray, radio comic and erstwhile columnist, speaks of U.S. Japanese as he discusses the North China situation.
Another humour article:
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| 1938-08-14 The Atlanta Constitution (Georgia, USA) "Other things you can't miss are the Japanese rolling ball game, which will reward you with a doll if you succeed in achieving a score fifty points higher than all the numbers on all the holes added together" |
The essay The Scripts of Citizen Kane contains reference that the 2nd draft of the 1941 movie Citizen Kane contained a reference to Japanese Rolling Ball:
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| from The Scripts of Citizen Kane by Robert L. Carringer publish in Critical Inquiry, Winter 1978 Vol 5 No. 2 (University of Chicago Press) |
Excerpted transcript:
Scenes of Kane's early years with Susan appear for the first time in the second draft. The details of their first meeting are somewhat different from those in the shooting script. Susan and Kane bump into one another on the street and as he moves aside he steps on a plank covering a bad place on the sidewalk and is splashed with mud. Susan laughs: Kane reacts as a crusading editor would: "If these sidewalks were kept in condition instead of the money going to some cheap grafter-" In the description of Susan's room we are told of a few personal belongings on her chiffonier: "These include a photograph of a gent and lady, obviously Susan's parents, and a few objets d'art. One, 'At the Japanese Rolling Ball Game at Coney Island,' and perhaps this is part of the Japanese loot-- the glass globe with the snow scene Kane was holding in his hand in the first sequence."
Jimmy Durante (1893-1980) casually mentions Japanese Rolling Ball in his autobiography, which is excerpted below from The Bowery - The Strange History of New York's Oldest Street:
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| lists "Japanese Ping Pong stands" one of the attractions on Bowery street |
These 2 are from World War 2 era, where Japanese rolling-ball would be a throwback reference.
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| 1944-04-23 The Boston Globe |
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| 1944-10-24 The Times |
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| "Desecrators" 1927 The Judge vol. 93 |
Memories Of Japanese Rolling Ball
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| 1978-11-21 The Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA) |
Atlantic City Glower Like a JewelWHEN I was a small child, Atlantic City glowed like a jewel in my mind. At the time of the first World War, we spent an entire winter there; I cannot imagine why. Now that it is becoming the East's response to Las Vegas, that jewel is small and remote, but nevertheless bright.I loved it most dearly. We lived in the Dennis Hotel, and never having stayed very long anywhere, I settled into its joys freely. On bright days the whole shining outside world, bisected by the boardwalk, waited. Up that boardwalk, my nurse and I trudged steadfastly. Our ultimate destination was the Japanese ping-pong tables far down, almost at the opposite end. I had 20 cents a day, which entitled me to two full games with their accumulating points, which a high-spirited Japanese in a gray felt hat noted down scrupulously in a giant ledger. On the shelves behind him radiated prizes to be earned: Japanese dolls with chalky faces and straight thick black hair above their brilliant kimonos; tea sets, lustrous in rose and green; bookends, gnarled and loaded with colored fruits (I still have a pair earned by enormous columns of figures), on and on in rainbow rows. I became skillful. "Come hundred!" cried my Japanese scorer, hanging over the bulbous rounded end of the table; and sometimes indeed the round wooden ball wallowed in the hundred hole, wallowed and settled. More often, wallowed, shot out, and rolled aimlessly against the six-inch side. There was a sinking feeling as the final ball of the second dime left my fingers.
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| 1982 Goldenseal magazine |
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| relevant excerpt: "There were games of chance, such as a roulette wheel, and a bowling place where, if the ball rolled fell into a certain pocket, you won a prize." |
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| "Japanese Rolling Ball Game" |
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| 1987-11-15 The Tampa Tribune (Florida, USA) - part 1 |
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| 1987-11-15 The Tampa Tribune (Florida, USA) - part 2 |
Japanese man brought mystery to Ballast Point Park boardwalkby LELAND HAWESTribute ColumnistValued correspondent Ralph Gower sent in this account of a colorful character in Ballast Point Park. He writes:"Dear Nostalgian:"I just remembered something I don't believe I ever told you about the Ballast Point area, where I lived as a kid."When the park was in its heyday, there was a boardwalk along the waterfront, with several small booths housing games and the like. One of these booths contained a game called 'Japanese Rolling Balls,' in which contestants would attempt to roll wooden balls in the alley — somewhat like a bowling alley in miniature."The game and others, I suppose - was operated by an old Japanese man, who I was told was a retired Japanese naval officer. His name was Y. Yokomato. Everyone called him 'Y.""This old boy was quite a character. He lived alone in a tiny cubicle behind one of the concession stands."Working at the Buckeye Grocery up at Knights Avenue, I used to deliver groceries to him occasionally. His order usually was very small, but invariably included several pounds of rice."He spoke very broken English but made himself understood, usually with a series of elongated grunts and mutterings. This always fascinated me, as well as the fact that he always doled out payments in nickels and dimes in a ceremonious manner."Once during a summer vacation, we got word that 'Y' was entertaining some Japanese friends from a visiting ship. We really didn't know what to expect, but went over to the park about dusk, as instructed by the park manager, Mr. Johnny Smith."Sure enough, there were a couple of dozen Orientals gathered underneath a park light out in the greenery, along with our friend 'Y.' The group was quiet and orderly, conversing in their native tongue in subdued voices."In addition to our own family group (onlooking) was a gathering from a leftover Sunday-school picnic."Shortly, two of the visitors stepped into the center of the gathering and removed their clothing down to their undershorts. They donned bamboo face masks and began fencing with bamboo swords – or whatever those implements are called."There were ceremonial gestures throughout the contest, little grunts and shouts, the meaning of which none of us understood. But it proved to be very entertaining, save for the Sunday-school crowd, who had disappeared rather hurriedly the moment pants were dropped."Each of the visitors took turns in the contest by pairs, until most had engaged one another. After each match, the contestants would stroll about, still dressed in their underwear, smoking long black cigars and fanning themselves to cool off."Another incident concerning our mysterious 'Y' was the time a couple of would-be robbers came up to his abode from a rowboat and attempted to rob him. Belief among many who knew him was that he had quite a lot of money."Well, not much was really known about the incident, because 'Y' was unable to convey many of the details because of his limited communication in English."However, it was learned that the two robbers had attempted to tie him up, and the old guy whipped both assailants, took their rope from put them to flight. They escaped into the bay in their boat."Yokomato lived to a ripe old age. After the park was closed, he was taken to live in the home of Mrs. Johnny Smith, widow of the former park manager, who lived on Marlin Avenue, just a bit north of the park near Gandy Boulevard."I doubt if very many of those living now even know about old 'Y,' as I have never heard his name mentioned since then. All of the incidents mentioned here occurred during the world War I era or shortly thereafter. I was in my early teens at the time."
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| 1990-09-18 Asbury Park Press (New Jersey, USA) |
Transcript:
Prized possessionI remember way back when there was a stand at the north end of Ocean Avenue, Belmar, opposite the Belmar Fishing Club's Pier. The concessionaires were Japanese who sold rice cakes and operated a game called Japanese Rolling Balls. The cakes were wafer thin, about 4 inches in diameter, served hot from the griddle. The game was similar to bowling except the pins were replaced by shallow pockets carved into the wooden alleys to trap the balls.The trip to the stand was a long walk for a young lad from our rented quarters at Ninth Avenue and "B" Street, opposite Barkalow's Livery and Garage. However, my older brother and I had two incentives to go there. We enjoyed the rice cakes and we had decided to save our point scores until the end of summer for a valuable prize.The prize turned out to be a molded clay figure of a Japanese man, sitting down, enjoying a smoke from the figure's mouth. Our prize was a minor disappointment at the time, but now I prefer to view him as a classic example of early Japanese commercial art.D.W. MetzOcean Township
Miscellaneous
Japanese Rolling Ball has a huge amount of mentions with community events, church bazaar, school fairs:, and the like. It seemed like an incredibly popular activity for early small town-run carnivals and social events. There was so many mentions of Rolling Ball at tiny community events that I stopped even paying attention to them.
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| billard japonais - setup at a community event this version is played with the white holes being zero points! |
As of this writing, the earliest documented example of Japanese Rolling Ball in North America was at the 1901 Pan-American exhibition (see '1901' above). Immediately following its success it was mimicked by community groups. Here is an example from the spring of 1902 where they set up a mock "Fair Japan" in specific reference to the Pan-American Exhibition, and include Japanese 'bowling':
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| 1902-04-07 Buffalo Evening News "The sweetness and beauty of the Pan-American's 'Fair Japan' is to be repeated, and there will be a tea garden, a bowling alley and other familiar attractions of that favorite resort." |
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| 1902-04-12 Buffalo Morning Express |
From 1904, another earlier examples of "Japanese Rolling Ball" as a game setup at a community fair.
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| 1904-11-16 The Berkshire County Eagle (Massachusetts, USA) "The Japanese bowling table will be of a most unique character. It will be decorated with the colors of Japan and with Japanese lanterns and will be in charge of six young Yankees of the East with their oriental garb. The attraction at this table aside from the Japanese women will be bowling, a parlor game to be introduced in this city for the first time." |
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| 1904-11-22 The Berkshire Evening Eagle (Massachusetts, USA) |
The Japanese Table.
The Japanese table occupies a position in the Northeast corner of the hall and is very conspicuous from the fact that its trimmings are entirely different from any of the other tables. Japanese parasols and lanterns are used to good effect, while yellow chrysanthemums add a touch of color that is pleasing to the eye. Miss Rose Crowley is in charge of this table and has seven assistants, all of whom are attired in the oriental gown so dear to the heart of the true Japanese woman. On this table are two Japanese bowling boards, and last evening was the first time that the game was ever played in this city. The board is about five feet long and two feet wide. At one end are gouged out seven round receptacles, into which the player is supposed to roll a ball. Each player is given six balls and if he succeeds in putting four of them in these openings, he receives a prize. It is a very fascinating game and this coupled with the fact that the young women in charge have a way of inducing one to play, makes the Japanese table a very busy place.
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| 1907-09-26 The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) my city! excerpt follows below... |
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| 1907-09-26 The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - excerpt: "A big Westmount Amateur Athletic Association bazaar, at which numerous new features will be displayed, including the enticing pasttime of Japanese rolling balls, will be held shortly in the Montreal Arena" |
unknown date, but a table was auctioned in 2020 that shows the classic Japanese Rolling Ball table. shape. This looks like a home game version, as it is a bit smaller, and there is ball storage.
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| 10cm tall |
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| 115cm long - about 45 inches, or just under 4 feet |
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| 29 cm wide |
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| home-made Japanese Ping Pong or Rolling Ball Board Game (via) |
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| the rear suggests sloppy staining of a home project. The height of the dresser behind it shows this to be a small toy. At some point a hook was attached at the top, presumably to hang it as decoration. |
Beyond Japanese Rolling Ball:
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| Playland 1930s - via OpenSFHistory / wnp66.457 |
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| detail of above - prizes that can be won |
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| "Fascination sold by Gibbs & Prosser -- Long Beach California" 1931 (via Getty) please note Getty has this labeled as 1931 but I have doubts as to the year |
Fascination at San Francisco, California. Owned and Operated by Whitney Bros. Grossed $12,163.05 in 46 days (rest of text illegible)Fascination at Ocean Park, California. 50 units grossed $97,315.40 in 4 1/2 months from April 4 to Aug 29 19xx (can't read year)Fascination at Long Beach, California. 25 tables grossed $66,989.58 (text illegible) Investment returned in 90 days
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| from the 2018 article What is Fascination, Anyway? |
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| Pokerino machines made to dispense tickets |
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| 1935-08-31 The Billboard this might be the start of "poker ball" aka "pokerino" |
Have a 50 by 60 store on the Boardwalk here with the new electric Poker Ball game. The capacity of the game is 25 players per game in group formation. The highest poker score wins groceries, lamps, china articles, etc.
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| 1939-05-18 Asbury Park Press |
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| 1941-08-24 The Baltimore Sun "There are nickel machines, too, but they are in the minority. One has a toy airplane in a cage, which may be manipulated in a wind stream. Most numerous are the pokerino outfits, an adaption of Japanese rolling ball. Five balls are rolled into holes, forming poker hands; coupons are given as prizes." |
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| a Pokerino (1947 Scientific Machine Corporation) setup in a parlor |
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| Pokerino advertisement (Scientific Machine Corp.) from The Billboard 1947 |
This amazing photo shows Pokerino-style tables within an arcade, where signs refer to it as "POKER GAME". While point values can't be discerned, the prizes are displayed on the back wall.
5 balls 5cPrize Every TimePOINTS1 pair 1/4 point2 pair 1/2 point3 of a kind 1 pointStraight 2 pointsFull House 5 points4 of a kind 10 pointsRoyal Flush 100 pointsSPECIAL4 Jacks 50 Points3 Jacks 10 Points or 1 package of cigarettes
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| 1947 Broadway Sports Palace Penny Arcade (1657 Broadway, New York, NY, USA) |
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| 1950s Playland Arcade NYC |
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| this photo appears to be a detail of the above photo |
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| this lower-resolution photo includes the hand values: 3 of a kind: 1 coupon straight: 1 coupon full house: 1 coupon flush: 2 coupons 4 of a kind: 2 coupons: 5 of a kind: 5 coupons |
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| this is a slightly higher resolution version of the above photo, though sadly cropped. Chase Ballpoint pens: 8 coupons a clock: 22 coupons the clock on the shelf: 60 coupons a set of 'Ha-Wi-An' glasses: 18 coupons In-B-Tween cigars: 1 coupon etc Can you identify any more items? |
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| 1954 Bing O Reno by Scientific Machine Corporation with the popularity of Bingo pinball in the 1950s, it makes sense that hybrid machines like this would be made to give that Pokerino / Bingo crossover appeal. |
A number of single-player roll-down arcade games were made through the 1940s and 50s, like 1947 Bally Hy-Roll, 1955 United Derby Roll, 1957 Genco Lucky 7, 1957 Genco Number Roll 21, and 1947 Williams Box Score.
One manufacturer tried a similar layout but with a pinball plunger.
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| 1936-03-28 The Billboard The name is a play off Poker + Keno |
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| Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball by Thaddeus O Cooper & Kevin B Kreitman |
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| from Skee-ball: Born in New Jersey and still rolling strong a century later |
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| Skee-ball prizes at Chutes at the Beach / Playland at the Beach (San Francisco, USA) from the James R. Smith Collection This skee-ball parlor photo showcases the redemption prizes, something immediately familiar to anyone who visits modern redemption arcades. The photo is undated but a sign mentions the Whitney Bros, who took over the place in 1929 according to this 'Playland at the Beach' website (archive), and the name shifted from "Chutes at the Beach" to "Playland at the Beach" another copy is at OpenSFHistory / wnp66.319 |
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| Playland 1930s (via OpenSFHistory / wnp66.317) |
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| Pokereno by Seidel Amusement |
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| roll-downs were made even simpler for the young redemption crowds |
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| Ponce City Market |
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| a massive 19-player derby rolling ball game installed in 2017 by Roll-A-Ball |
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| European-made rolling ball is generally seen with a slanted playfield like this, where missed balls would roll back towards the player. |
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| This Gondola Race machine allows 6 players to compete simultaneously. Electromechanical Derby race games like these are a lovely evolution from the all-wood rolling ball tables |
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