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The Amazing History of Japanese Toys, Part One: A Serious Business · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Today we're talking about toys and toys
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  Speaker 1: r I don't know about you guys, but Noel super producer,
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  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. What were your some of your favorite
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  Speaker 1: toys growing up? I'm Ben by the way, Hey Ben,
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  Speaker 1: it's all here. I thought I thought you were gonna
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  Speaker 1: say toys are us, and I would have agreed with you.
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  Speaker 1: I missed toys r us. I missed the big box
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  Speaker 1: toy stores that I used to get to go to
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  Speaker 1: after I did get at my violin lesson my papa. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: well Kabe was more of a mall institution, but like,
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  Speaker 1: yeah it was. It was I just for me growing up.
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  Speaker 1: It was the brightly colored like it looked like it
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  Speaker 1: was made of sticks of plato or like clay, like multicolored,
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  Speaker 1: you know, different sticks, and it was the it was
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  Speaker 1: the toys are us and um, if I did well
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  Speaker 1: on my violin lesson, I would get to get a
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  Speaker 1: Ninja Turtle action figure. And I distinctly remember, just like
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  Speaker 1: we kind of have vague memories of like the price
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  Speaker 1: of gas from a bygone era. I remember those figures
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  Speaker 1: were four ninety nine. Yeah, I remember that too. You
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  Speaker 1: could get a really good action figure for those I would,
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  Speaker 1: you know, be indoctrinated in the very pro military things
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  Speaker 1: like g I Joe. I loved being able to go there.
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  Speaker 1: I also remember there was Fao Schwartz, which I didn't
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  Speaker 1: vibe with as much as a child. I thought those
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  Speaker 1: were toy stores for parents who wanted to buy toys
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  Speaker 1: they wanted their kids to like. Oh yeah, And I
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  Speaker 1: remember going to the New York one when I was
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  Speaker 1: a kid, visiting my mom when she was working, and
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  Speaker 1: also the way I think it was home alone too
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  Speaker 1: lost in New York. It was an Fao Schwartz esque
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  Speaker 1: type toy store. You know where he got the doves
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  Speaker 1: or what are the turtle doves? But it wasn't exactly
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't actually called that. It was called like Duncan's
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  Speaker 1: Toy Chest or something. And toy stores toys in general,
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  Speaker 1: I think hold a special place in most people's hearts.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of people, especially when you're very young, you
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  Speaker 1: might have a toy you get attached to. Sometimes we
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  Speaker 1: still have toys in our grown live shout out to
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  Speaker 1: our intern Steve, who is a puppet on camera now.
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  Speaker 1: But we're an audio podcast. You'll have to take our
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  Speaker 1: word for it. Today we're talking about toys. We're also
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  Speaker 1: talking about there's another toy nols holding. We're talking about
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  Speaker 1: World War Two. We're talking about Japan because I'll tell you,
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  Speaker 1: even as an adult, you guys, Japan and Korea make
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  Speaker 1: the most amazing toys. I catch myself looking at him online.
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  Speaker 1: You know, absolutely, I mean, you know, certainly when we
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  Speaker 1: were maybe a little older, probably pasted our Ninja Turtles phase,
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  Speaker 1: but not much things like Power Rangers, you know, complete
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  Speaker 1: Japanese exports that just kind of took America by storm,
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  Speaker 1: and then those action figures became massively popular, not to
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  Speaker 1: mention things like Pokemon and all. I'm down the line,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll get there. Yeah, And along the way, we're
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  Speaker 1: going to find that the toy industry was not played
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  Speaker 1: around when it came to the Japanese economy. They actually
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  Speaker 1: the toy industry played a huge role in resuscitating the
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  Speaker 1: postwar Japanese economy. And I guess our story really starts
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  Speaker 1: with a guy named Matsuzo cosuj. Absolutely, this is a
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  Speaker 1: monumental figure, not an action figure, a human figure in
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  Speaker 1: the toy explosion that Japan experienced after a different explosion
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  Speaker 1: that we'll also talk about it. You may know what
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  Speaker 1: we're hinting at there, but let's let's not get to
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  Speaker 1: Kosuge right away. Let's talk a little bit more about
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  Speaker 1: Japan's history with leisure goods and design. You know, any
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  Speaker 1: any any folks out there who were super into Japanese
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  Speaker 1: culture probably are aware of things like bento boxes, you know,
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  Speaker 1: these beautifully little kind of very organized ergonomic displays for
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  Speaker 1: your lunch. You know, where there's little compartments for every
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  Speaker 1: little thing. Like Japan has always had a flare for
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  Speaker 1: design and for like layout and for aesthetics. And when
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  Speaker 1: the US sort of entered Japan, they expected to see,
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  Speaker 1: not that they expected to see something maybe they experienced
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  Speaker 1: in other examples of kind of colonization, you know, maybe
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  Speaker 1: more what what Americans at the time would were colonizing
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  Speaker 1: forces usually describe as backwards civilizations. But instead they found society,
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  Speaker 1: but not only could meet its citizens needs, you know,
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  Speaker 1: daily needs for shelter and food and clothing and all
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  Speaker 1: of that stuff in safety, but also fun little leisure items,
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  Speaker 1: little treasures. Yeah, and this comes to us from Gary
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  Speaker 1: Cross and Gregory Smitz, who wrote a piece called Japan,
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  Speaker 1: the US and the Globalization of Children's consumer culture. What
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  Speaker 1: we're saving, folks, is this esthetic has roots that go
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  Speaker 1: way past, you know, way past the cool little toys
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  Speaker 1: you might see in a store today. And in fact,
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  Speaker 1: these authors say quote boxes, both metaphoric and literal, define
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  Speaker 1: Japanese material culture. They talked about the bento box, as
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned. They also talk about things like the limitations
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  Speaker 1: of literary forms the haiku right three lines of five,
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  Speaker 1: seven and five, and of course yes there are multiple
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  Speaker 1: versions of haiku, but that's the most popular format. And
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  Speaker 1: then they talked about the art of wrapping something and
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  Speaker 1: how the esthetics of a presentation can be as important
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  Speaker 1: as the object itself. You see this reflected too in
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  Speaker 1: things like the traditional ta seram pimonies and the ways
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  Speaker 1: in which a gift might be given in an envelope
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  Speaker 1: or box so elaborate, so impressive, that might actually be
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  Speaker 1: worth more than the contents within the box. And if
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  Speaker 1: you look at this, you see that Western artists began
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  Speaker 1: to pick up on this in the late nineteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: and it triggered some important questions about aesthetics and design.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Whistler van Go all sorts of artists really
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  Speaker 1: got into the artwork of Japanese creators, and they thought
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  Speaker 1: of this as a way of freeing themselves from European style,
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  Speaker 1: which they found a little stuffy stayed and you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's the art we have at home, so let's do
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  Speaker 1: something different. And before long the Japanese esthetics and cultural
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  Speaker 1: norms began to be associated with the very definition of culture.
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  Speaker 1: And you can see this in everything from stationary to
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  Speaker 1: find art, to textiles to fabric honestly all sorts of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But while Western tastemakers, the influencers of their day were
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  Speaker 1: all about these prints and these glassware pieces and so on,
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  Speaker 1: the real backbone of Japan's growing export industry was toys.
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  Speaker 1: And this, I mean, we're still not even the World
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  Speaker 1: War two. The it's it's pretty nuts to think about
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  Speaker 1: how popular these were. It is it is, and it's
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  Speaker 1: also just nuts in general to think of something that
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  Speaker 1: you know, we as adults, I guess, with our loss
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  Speaker 1: of wonder and all of that that comes with becoming
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  Speaker 1: a boring old adults, something that we might view as frivolous,
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  Speaker 1: like toys, you know, could have such an impact so
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  Speaker 1: early on, you know, you don't even really think of that,
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  Speaker 1: I mean early toys. It's almost like we think of
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  Speaker 1: them as like being made like in the home, or
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  Speaker 1: like just hear a kid play with this stick, you
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  Speaker 1: know what I mean. But it was like they kind
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  Speaker 1: of had cracked the coat on this, as as had
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  Speaker 1: the Germans. You know, Germans were really known for their
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  Speaker 1: engineering and their craftsmanship, and the quality of German toys
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  Speaker 1: were already very much a thing, and you know there
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  Speaker 1: was an awareness around them in Japan, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The way that Matt Alts puts it, in pure invention
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  Speaker 1: is Germany, the Uniting Kingdom in France were in this
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  Speaker 1: three way race to be the number one supplier, giving
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  Speaker 1: the children of the world dolls, rocking horses, and cast
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  Speaker 1: iron soldiers and alt says. Japan watched all this with envy,
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  Speaker 1: and was the cost of World War One that gave
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  Speaker 1: Japan this opening to create their own international export market,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, World War one kind of rough for
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  Speaker 1: European industry, and European toy production was no exception. So
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  Speaker 1: the entire industry tanked during World War One because people
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  Speaker 1: were tried to survive, and in Japan and Britain were
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  Speaker 1: actually allied at the time, correct, that's correct. Yeah, And
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  Speaker 1: because they were allies, Japan's leaders saw this European conflict
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  Speaker 1: as an opportunity to advance their nation in the global order.
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  Speaker 1: They declared war on Germany and Austria nineteen fourteen. And
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  Speaker 1: even though they declared war, the Japanese military didn't do
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  Speaker 1: much more than get rid of some small German garrisons
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  Speaker 1: that were on some islands in the South Pacific, and
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  Speaker 1: then they took over some German occupied territory in China.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout most of the war, Japan devoted its attention to
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  Speaker 1: manufacturing stuff ammunition, uniforms, other staple goods, and they made
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  Speaker 1: bank with us too. Absolutely, they did, like we were saying,
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  Speaker 1: it really was an economic boom, you know, for the
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  Speaker 1: whole country. This was not an insignificant industry at the
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  Speaker 1: very least the beginnings of one. And as we said before,
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  Speaker 1: somewhat inspired by you know, the quality of German toys.
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  Speaker 1: And actually, you know, I've mentioned on the show that
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  Speaker 1: I was once a young German boy and when I
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  Speaker 1: was growing up in Germany, I do remember having really
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  Speaker 1: fine wooden toys and you know, things like a playmobile.
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  Speaker 1: It's a really popular that was obviously later, but it
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  Speaker 1: really was a cultural thing. In Japan was able to
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  Speaker 1: kind of carry that forward and include their own cultural touchdoones,
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  Speaker 1: which will get to in a bit as well. That
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  Speaker 1: wartime reduction and competition allowed some Japanese manufacturers to produce,
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  Speaker 1: to kind of scale their operations right, and then the
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  Speaker 1: value at this point in nineteen fourteen of all Japanese
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  Speaker 1: toy exports tripled, and then in nineteen sixteen it tripled again.
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  Speaker 1: Between nineteen sixteen nineteen twenty, about twenty one million yen
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  Speaker 1: was sort of the cap of that industry. There was
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  Speaker 1: a particular popular kind of breed of toys or flavor
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  Speaker 1: of toys called celluloid toys, which became Japan's thirteenth and
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  Speaker 1: most valuable export commodity during those war years. And this
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  Speaker 1: also comes from Japan the US and the globalization of
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  Speaker 1: childre's consumer culture by Gary Cross and Gregory Smith's and
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  Speaker 1: if we go back to pure invention by Matt Alt,
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  Speaker 1: we see that there's a pretty cool snapshot we can
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  Speaker 1: take from the nineteen fifteen Panama Pacific International Exposition out
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  Speaker 1: in San Francisco. They had tons of like roly Polly,
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  Speaker 1: paper mache, Daruma dolls, miniature paper umbrellas, celluloid figures. Celluloid
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  Speaker 1: figures were one of the biggest export commodities during the
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  Speaker 1: war years for Japan, and they were toys, and they
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  Speaker 1: also had very exquisite, opulent, just so porcelain dolls from
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  Speaker 1: toymakers in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya. The Japanese government really
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  Speaker 1: leaned into this and they wanted to show off Japanese
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  Speaker 1: toys as this not only the new hot thing for
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  Speaker 1: people in the know, but also as an example of
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  Speaker 1: Japan's manufacturing acumen their abilities, and so they would they
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  Speaker 1: would treat this like a piece of diplomacy, and they
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  Speaker 1: were actually able to leap frog Western toy manufacturers by
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  Speaker 1: making new things that were way lower in price because
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  Speaker 1: at the time labor was way cheaper in Japan. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and this is something that we've always kind of known
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  Speaker 1: to some degree over here in the States, you know,
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  Speaker 1: made in China, made in Japan. A lot of the
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  Speaker 1: consumer goods that we rely on or just kind of
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  Speaker 1: enjoy have historically been made overseas because of that labor disparity,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And yeah, so for instance, a skilled Japanese
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  Speaker 1: manufacturer toymaker would earn maybe in an entire day, what
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  Speaker 1: an American toymaker would be paid per hour. And US
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  Speaker 1: toy companies got a little bit shook about this. A
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, in nineteen thirty four, they asked Uncle
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  Speaker 1: Sam for tariffs. They said, we need your help to quote,
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  Speaker 1: stem the invasion of the American market by Japanese toys.
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  Speaker 1: So when they can't get lang, yeah, when they couldn't
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  Speaker 1: compete fairly, they said, okay, you know, cut off the race.
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  Speaker 1: Does the word invasion? You know, they seem a little
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  Speaker 1: mothering and kind of I could picture some crass imagery
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  Speaker 1: associated with a campaign like that, if I'm using my
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  Speaker 1: gross American imagination. Yeah, and there's renewed German competition two right.
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  Speaker 1: At least around this time, Japanese manufacturers also say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: we can't just make a bunch of stuff. We need
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  Speaker 1: to make quality products. And in nineteen twenty seven, the
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  Speaker 1: Ministry of Education in Japan issued a statement saying that
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  Speaker 1: Japanese toys and picture books were inferior to those of
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  Speaker 1: other countries, and they made a commission to investigate and
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  Speaker 1: recommend improvements. That's right in a book called kongu' sorry
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  Speaker 1: Apologies not Japanese native speaker Kanju, perhaps to Kodomo no Kayoku,
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  Speaker 1: which translates to Toys and Children's education. An education professor
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  Speaker 1: at Toyo University named seki Hiroyuki agreed with this assessment,
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  Speaker 1: saying that Japanese children were kind of lagging behind in
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  Speaker 1: their ability to think creatively. Let's just call it like
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  Speaker 1: outside the box. And he said part of the reason
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  Speaker 1: was because of these kind of shoddy toys that were
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  Speaker 1: being made in the country, Because he said, the industry
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  Speaker 1: at this point was pretty much just content like making
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  Speaker 1: kind of knockoffs of some of these other toys that
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  Speaker 1: were coming from other countries, which weren't particularly creative or
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  Speaker 1: mentally stimulating. Right, Yeah, So he said, I said, I
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  Speaker 1: think the kids aren't doing well, and I blame their toys.
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  Speaker 1: That's part of it. And this meant that from the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenties on, Japanese toymakers increasingly looked at themselves in
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  Speaker 1: a very serious light. They said, we're not distracting children.
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  Speaker 1: What we're doing is providing a key piece of childhood
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  Speaker 1: development and education. Therefore, don't call us, you know, dollmakers.
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  Speaker 1: We're not just engineers of action figures. We're engineers of
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  Speaker 1: Japan's future, which is a really cool way to look
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  Speaker 1: at it. Yeah, and proved to be quite accurate. You know. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: we know things like Nintendo and a lot of these
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  Speaker 1: other kind of brands they come out of Japan that
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  Speaker 1: were you know, just took the world by storm, many
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  Speaker 1: of them, like Nintendo, for example. I've always said, and
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  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people agree and say as well,
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  Speaker 1: that they don't need the best graphics in the world.
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  Speaker 1: They don't need to have PS five or Xbox three
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  Speaker 1: six or whatever. The newest Xbox is level graphics because
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  Speaker 1: the design of the games so perfect, so well put together,
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  Speaker 1: and just purely fun. It all comes from this sort
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  Speaker 1: of spirit of design and creativity that we're starting to
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  Speaker 1: see kind of flourish here. I mean, the Nintendo we
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: is always going to have a special place in my
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  Speaker 1: heart because it's where I played one of the most
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: beautiful games I've ever played, Okami. Please to check it out, folks.
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  Speaker 1: It's odd, it's so good. I still play the old
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  Speaker 1: school Nintendo games. Yeah, there's there's definitely something to be
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  Speaker 1: said there. You don't have to make a thing very
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  Speaker 1: complicated for it to be beautiful and fund and compelling. However,
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  Speaker 1: you may have heard us allude to wars folks, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, at the time all of this stuff was happening,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't call it World War One. They just called
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  Speaker 1: it the World War and hoped it would never happen again.
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  Speaker 1: There's a key tip to you if you become a
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  Speaker 1: time traveler. Don't give the war's numbers. You'll give yourself away.
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  Speaker 1: Japan again is wrapped up in World War two, right,
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  Speaker 1: and the end of war population in Japan is two
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  Speaker 1: point eight million compared with six point seven million in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty. Tokyo is devastated, you know, the atomic bomb
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  Speaker 1: is dropped, massive industries are laid to waste. And this
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  Speaker 1: is where the guy would tease. At the very top,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Matsuzo Kosuja comes into play. Forgive pronunciation. We're not native speakers.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about him. He's born in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine in Intifu, which is northeast of Hakaido.
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  Speaker 1: Hakaido is the big the big deally Bop at the
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  Speaker 1: top of Japan. I've been there quite recently. It is.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: When I was there, snow was like up to two
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  Speaker 1: feet in places. Yeah, it's it's cold. It's very cold.
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  Speaker 1: It's like if you have contact lenses overnight and you
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: don't put them somewhere warm, your contact lenses might freeze
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: in their containers. That's how cold. No, and but and
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: make sure you realize that before you shove those things
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  Speaker 1: in your eyeballs. I imagine. Yeah, And it's it's an
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: island that I'd never heard of. I think the name
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: a Toro food is just I don't know, it's beautiful
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  Speaker 1: for some reason, maybe we kind of think of of
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  Speaker 1: a magical land, and that apparently it was. It was
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  Speaker 1: very much off of the radar until the late seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: century when you started to see it showing up on
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  Speaker 1: maps due to a kind of turf war between I knew,
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  Speaker 1: Japanese and Russian uh you know, factions, I guess, for
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  Speaker 1: control over the territory. It was remote, but it also
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  Speaker 1: was strategically located. It had deep, fertile waters surrounding it,
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  Speaker 1: so it was a good place, you know, for war.
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  Speaker 1: It was a good strategic place to say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: court an imperial carrier fleet which happened in November of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. That fleet is the one that set
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  Speaker 1: sail for Pearl Harbor. As it turns out, we're not
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  Speaker 1: going to get too into the weeds here because we
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  Speaker 1: need to talk about how our hero became the hero
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  Speaker 1: that we know. Yeah, he definitely was witnessing this with
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  Speaker 1: those authors called a tug of war, and you can
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  Speaker 1: still see it today if you go to rural parts
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  Speaker 1: of Kaido, you go to the islands off hug Kaido.
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  Speaker 1: Russia and Japan both claim them, and it's not uncommon
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  Speaker 1: to see stuff in a couple languages Japanese Russian than English.
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  Speaker 1: So he knows about this stuff. And there's a quote
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  Speaker 1: that stood out that says, over years of tutelage from
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  Speaker 1: elder craftsman, Kasuge mastered the largely unglamorous elements of the
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  Speaker 1: toy trade. So he's learning from the bottom, right. He
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  Speaker 1: has to learn blueprints, planning, how to fit and souder stuff,
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  Speaker 1: how to paint and print designs, and the most important
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  Speaker 1: thing for him to learn was the molds, these chunks
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  Speaker 1: of cold steel that you have to hand tool to
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  Speaker 1: make sheets of tin into the specific shapes for each product.
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  Speaker 1: These are the main hearts. They're the engine of any
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  Speaker 1: tin toy workshop. And so in nineteen twenty two, this
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  Speaker 1: guy's only twenty three years old, he makes his own company,
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  Speaker 1: the Kasuga Toy Manufacturing Company. Nobody's sure exactly how he
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  Speaker 1: got all the resources in the capital he needed to
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: go independent, but we know that it was tough to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: do so because apparently back in the day, if you
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: were an apprentice to one of these established toymakers, the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: only way you could go independent is to work for
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: your master for a full year without pay and then
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: maybe they would let you go. Labor laws still had
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you know, a work in progress, so you know, we
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: talked about kind of the handmade, sort of inspired quality
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: of these toys, and that is exactly, you know, how
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: he wanted it, Howcasuge wanted it. His company was really
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: more of like a creative workspace, you know, a creative
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: environment for developing ideas and building these these things, rather
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: than the feeling, will say, a factory, and all of
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the people that worked there had that kind of same
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you know, spirit of inspiration. So there's a lot of
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: experimenting going on a lot of like you know, trying
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: new creative ideas. But also you know, they were this
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: was a business, and they were tending to kind of
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: have the stuff be able to scale and to sell wholesale.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: But then were they so were they like outsourcing their
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: manufacturing to some degree or like was it all handmade?
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: It gets a little a little confusing there. Yeah, it
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: seems like at least a few cases they were kind
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of manufacturing the proof of concept or ideas and then
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they would I think they played around with approaches, honestly,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and as well as playing around with toy concepts. Sometimes
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: they would build things to the specifications of these wholesalers.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: And then sometimes they would make something that they thought
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: was really cool but they didn't have the you know,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the manpower to produce, and they would take this prototype,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: this proof of concept around to other companies and see
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: if they could get those companies to pony up for it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: So they're they're like almost like an imprint pitching to
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: a bigger label. Yeah, I guess that's pretty common actually
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: with smaller kind of startups too, or like, you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: you don't always necessarily be hell even with larger companies,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: you know, you're sending your designs overseas to be manufactured
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: or perhaps like you know, the the supply chain you know,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: may well be in a different country, and then you
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: have to send your designs and specifications in a way
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: that the other, you know, company can then manufacture of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the stuff for you. And I guess it's not until
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you get really really, really really massive, too big to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: fail massive, that you maybe like own all your own
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: means of production. So it's all of this tracks. And
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: he had competitors. We talked about Germany as a German
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: company called Shuko that created kind of the gold standard
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: for like clockwork wind up toys, and he really dug
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: this stuff. He was he had a really great eye
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: for quality and for creativity, and he loved the work
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: of a lot of his competitors. But he was not
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: going to be satisfied with just copying them. That was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: never going to be his thing. He even said or
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: told his employees that he that our whole deal here,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: our business here is to make our own designs. Reminds
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: me of a modern equivalent, you know, in the country
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: of folks like Hideo Kajima, you know, very very hands
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: on thinker, kind of forward thinking individuals who have a
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: very hands on day to day relationship with their company
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and with their products. I think his studio ghibli as well.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: This is something that really those commonalities stand out. Yeah,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: he was on the front lines, took a personal hand
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in every single project, and he dreamed up all sorts
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Some of it was clearly based on day
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to day life, like he had a crawling clockwork baby.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Other things were anthropomorphized circus seals, dancing animals. He created
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the world's first mass produced toy robot. It was a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: boxy pin man named Lilliput, you know, like in Gulliver's Travels,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: And his favorite thing automobiles. He loved love making toy autos, Jeeps, sedans,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: you name it. He would say, yes, Well, because because
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: car culture was really becoming kind of mainstreamed at this point, right, Like,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: you know, there was a fascination with all things automotive,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I know you've studied this history
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: on cars, you know, back back in the day, I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: was wondering, like how attractive was that, you know, in
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a country like Japan, where I think cars were not
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: nearly adopted in the same way that they were in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the States. But they were kind of like this, you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: shiny object that was being seen from afar. It's very cool,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: it was very futuristic. It was seen as you know,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the way you would look at a private jet almost.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: It's it's a really neat thing. You're right. There were
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: only sixteen hundred private cars registered in all of Tokyo
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties nineteen thirty three. And to see
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: these vehicles, you it would be like you are seeing
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: something straight out of science fiction. So of course they're
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: great toys for kids. And you can just imagine how
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: excited a kid would be if they've played with a
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: toy blue Streak Sedan right for a few years and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: they later see one on the streets of Japan. It's nuts.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: It's like when you're a kid go to Disney and
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you all of a sudden see the real Uh, what's
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a good one? The real Simba, the real Mickey Mouse?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Why not Goofy is definitely one of these kids are
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: after that? Yeah, yeah, it's true. Yeah, I love the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: real the idea of the real for sure. Uh. And
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and again, Disney is another company that has always painstakingly
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: controlled every little aspect of their brand you know, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: when you go to a Disney theme park you kind
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of feel that same um, that same energy, you know.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: And you know, I can't speak specifically, but the timing
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: for Disney being created and a lot of this like
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Japanese kind of precision work that even inspired like artists
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: like Whistler for example, you know, to kind of like
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: take a step back from some of their classical roots
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and maybe be a little more focused on kind of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: this like kind of esthetic kind of quality, you know,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: of design rather than you know, form over function kind
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of I would I would argue that that Walt Disney
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: had to have been aware of this stuff. Yeah, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you know, it didn't take long before people in the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: toy industry in Japan and the world started calling Matsuzo.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: They called him Kosuji the Carman, Cosi the Carman. By
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty five, he was kind of a big deal.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: He could still pretend it was a little shop, but
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: he was employing two hundred people. These became the top
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: ten smiths in all of Tokyo. They played a big
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: part in making Japan the world's second biggest toymaker, and
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: most of these toys were not staying in the country.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: They were being exported all the way to the United
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: States and the UK. Again, this was starting to really
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: be the version of what we've been describing and promising
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: all along, you know, where this is really becoming a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: massive export. It became a very popular phenomenon with its
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: own identity, right, Like, it's not just the Japanese are
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: producing a cheaper, more accessible version of something else that's
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: already out there. Sure they're toys, but they weren't copying anybody.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: They were creating something completely new that was based on creativity, design,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and kind of reading the room, you know, globally in
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: terms of what would be popular. You know, I love that.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I think it's a really inspiring thing to read. Yeah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and their neck and neck with Germany. For a while,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Japan was poised to become the number one toymaker in
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the world, but in nineteen thirty eight, the Japanese economy
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: ground to a halt. They had to pumpets breaks. The
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: protests over Japan's invasion of China and the atrocities they
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: were committing led to a lot of economic sanctions that
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: had a huge impact on the country. The Prime Minister said, look,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: we're going to build a new order in East Asia.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Parliament past the National Mobilization Law, which gave gave the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: ruling structure, the Prime minister the ability to set prices,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: put in rations, and draft people into forced labor. This
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: was the end of democratic rule in Japan. The whole
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: nation went to war. What's the toymaker to do? We'll
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: talk about turning the clock back, you know, or the
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the clockwork toy back, you know. I mean, this is guy,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but we have to have been such a heartbreaking letdown
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: for Cousuga, who is all about inclusivity, you know, who's
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: all about like reaching out into the global world, you know,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: outside of Japan, and now all of a sudden getting
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: pulled back into that, into this isolation, you know. And
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and then to me, I mean again, maybe I'm romanticizing
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: this guy a little bit, but to me it feels
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: almost like, yeah, sure, there's there's money, and there's there's
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: business to be considered, but I don't know, this guy
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: just could that really just wanted to spread like joy,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you know, as far as he possibly could, someone who
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: was driven by inspiration just as much as as monetization. Yeah,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: And the authorities ordered Kusuge to stop making toys. They said,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: take your presses, retool them so that you can help
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the warfare. We need you to stamp out casinges for
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: bomb fuses instead. And the streets get plastered with signs
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: saying stuff like luxuries the enemy, and housewives are getting
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: shamed in public for getting their hair done, for like
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: getting perms. So how could you make toys at a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: time like this? And they took down the sign that
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: said toy manufacturing. They put up another sign that said
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: precision fabrication, just to you know, to go with the
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: flow for the company to survive. And a lot of terrible,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: horrific things happen in World War Two. Ultimately, Japan's surrenders
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: in August of nineteen forty five. Kasuge stays put. There's
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: not much of a Tokyo to go back to. He
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: can't return home because the Soviet Union has taken over
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: these disputed islands in Hokkaido, and Kyoto was Japan's only
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: metro center still standing. So that's where he sets up
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: christ j Toy Works, and holy smokes, it happened again.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: We are going to have to make this tin type
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: car ride a two parter. It's going to be an
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: audio road trip, because Noel, the story is just too interesting.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: An audio road trip in tiny vehicles. I'm totally okay
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: with that. In the meantime, thanks to research associate extraordinaires
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Zach Doctor, z Williams, Jonathan Strickland, the Christ Ever mayhe Rain,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: and thanks of course to Alex Williams. Thanks to Eves Jeff,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: thanks to Christopher Hasiotis, thanks to you for tuning in,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: and Noel, Thank you man. It's been a pleasure. We'll
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from My
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.