Sunday, January 23, 2022

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

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

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

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

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


Translations by nazox2016 with minor editing by me




Text of the translations:

1) The oldest extant treasure machine!

A major dissection of the "Masamura Gauge" that attracted the Showa guys to the "land of forgetfulness“.

Approaching the roots of Japanese pachinko.  

The "Masamura Gauge," which appeared in 1951 and fascinated people, was thought to be the invention of Takeichi Masamura.

However, Kazuo Sugiyama, a printmaker and pachinko researcher, found that the myth was wrong.

Mr. Sugiyama will explain with a number of holding stands. 


2) The number of prize balls released in several times "Oru-Mono", a surprising device that people got excited about .


3) Ten balls are put in this part called "showing prize ball case", and when a ball enters the winning pocket, all of them come out.


4) "Or-mono" is a system in which the same number of balls is paid out regardless of which winning  pocket. Until then, only a few balls came out even when entering the winning pocket, so this system was very epoch-defining. The "Masamura Gauge" was incorporated into the Oru-mono, making it even more popular. 


5) In 1945, balls came out of the pachinko machine. 

In the first pachinko machine, one ball appeared on the board when one coin was inserted, and a small coin was paid out when a prize was won, but this was prohibited by police regulations. In order to survive, the industry has developed a "ball pay type" (below one is the first) in which a ball is produced instead of money when a prize is won.


6) The appeal of "Masamura Gauge" was the placement of the windmills that focused the aim on one point. The nail arrangement called "Masamura Gauge" was very popular from the beginning of development. The attraction is the structure with four windmills on both sides of the center case and two windmills above it.

As a result, the only winning pocket that can be aimed and hit are under the Ten-Yon-Hon. Until then, there was no ingenuity in the placement of the windmills, and we were able to aim at many points, but by concentrating on one point, the player was drawn to the "land of forgetfulness.“  (Players would aim for the 4 nails along the top)  This feeling was epoch-making at that time. 

However, Mr. Sugiyama says that Mr. Masamura's achievements are not in the development of the nail layout.

Although it is called "Masamura Gauge", this arrangement was not devised by Mr. Masamura. His achievement is the mass production of rugged machines.

Since the table at that time was made of wood, the payout rate could easily increase due to deformation due to humidity or forcible tilting of the machine by customers. However, the platform of Masamura Shokai was made sturdy, so we were able to prevent this.

It was trusted by pachinko parlors and many products were distributed.  


7) An epoch-making nail arrangement of "Masamura Gauge" that concentrates the aim of pachinko players on one point of the top hole. 


8) Players have no choice but to aim at this one point and hit the ball, which made people at that time enthusiastic. 


9) The structure of the six windmills and six winning pockets of the "Masamura Gauge" was also epoch-making at that time.


10) The "Masamura Gauge" stand made by Masamura Shokai was very popular at that time, and a large number of imitations were on the market.  

Therefore, Takeichi Masamura registered the nameplate as a design to differentiate himself. 


11) (Previous page) All 15 “Goldfish Center” by Masamura Shokai (1952)


12) The oldest surviving pachinko machine in Japan was made in Osaka.

A 1 sen Pachinko “Oka style electric  Auto ball play machine” (1929)

Until now, it has been said that pachinko originated in Nagoya, but it was made at "Oka Seisakusho“ in Osaka.

Unlike the present, if you put in 1 sen, one ball will appear on the board, and if you win a prize, you will get 2 to 3 sen.   (“sen” is a minimum denomination of Japanese currency at that time.)


13) The predecessor of pachinko made in the late Taisho era. 

A Wall machine that made in Japan. (1926)

The photo is the oldest existing "wall machine" made in Japan that was the source of pachinko. 

Manufactured in Osaka at the end of the Taisho era. Unlike pachinko, there is only one winning pocket at the top, and if a ball enters there, you can get a prize or money. 


14) The "Pachinko Birth Museum" (opened in June last year), headed by Kazuo Sugiyama, holds more than 100 hand-made pachinko machines that have existed for about 50 years since the end of the Taisho era, and some of them are open to the public. 

"There are three epoch making in the history of pachinko. The birth of the" all pays in ball type "(1937), in which balls come out from the pachinko machine, and the birth of" all-things "(1950), in which a large number of balls automatically come out from the center case. It is the birth (1951) of the gauge arrangement (commonly known as "Masamura gauge") of "6 windmills 6 holes". However, "Masamura Gauge" was not devised by Takeichi Masamura, who is called the god of pachinko. In "Pachinko" (Hosei University Press) published this year, I explained in detail how Masamura Gauge was born. We hope that you will read this book before visiting the museum. 


No comments:

Post a Comment