Meeting with a Tokunaga descendant (Osaka trip Jan 19-20)

[shiroaiko]

I took an overnight trip to Osaka earlier this week on 19-20. It started with a phone call from Ryotaro Matsuno, the owner of Matsuno Industry (the only marble maker in the country), inviting me to join a special meeting: he was going to meet a descendant of Tamakichi Tokunaga for the first time. 

Tamakichi is the man who made Japan's first marble-stopper bottles in 1892, after 5 years of studying an original British Codd bottle. After his death at 34, his family continued the business and the company eventually became one of the major glassworks, introducing advanced bottle making techniques from the US and Germany. Below are photographs of Tokunaga factories from a book "The Tokunaga Brothers: Four Key Figures in Japan’s Glass Industry/硝子工業界の重鎮　徳永氏四兄弟の巻”.

The main factory in Yoriki-cho, Osaka (near the city center)

East factory and Asahi-bashi Factory (both in Osaka)

Amagasaki factory and Moji factory (both outside Osaka)

Because every Codd bottle needs a glass marble, Tamakichi's success also meant the starting point of marble manufacture in Osaka. I had been collecting fragmentary references to Tokunaga and marbles for years, so I felt a honor to meet a member from the family. 

The man holding the bottle is Takashi Tokunaga (from the bloodline of Tamakichi’s third son). The bottle is a rare Tokunaga ramune bottle stamped “1922,” kindly lent by my collector friend Yoshinori Kakizaki. Takashi was so happy to see it, as no such old bottles have been passed down in his family.

Takashi also mentioned that his father keeps a company history book that is carefully preserved. He offered to try persuading his father to let me read it. If I learn anything related to marble history, I hope to share an update in this thread.

We ended up talking happily until the izakaya's (Japanese-style pub) closing time, and before we parted we exchanged contact information. During my marble research these years I come to realize people who are willing to meet and talk are not many. I’m grateful to the openness of Takashi and Ryotaro who kindly let me join the gathering. 

 

[shiroaiko]

Before I traveled to Osaka, @MaxxNaoyukiYamasaki reached out to me in "Duck Marbles from the Seike family" thread. Through him, I learned that some of Naoyuki’s children had inherited his inventive spirit and chosen careers in engineering. The Tokunaga family shares this same spirit of innovation: Tamakichi’s sons obtained numerous patents and utility models, and Takashi holds a PhD and works in chemical research. Takashi’s father has also been involved in a nanorobotics startup.

[Chad G.]

Thank you for sharing Shiroaiko, this information is all one of a kind and invaluable to all of us in the Marable community.