Pachinko designs

6 Apr 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Japan, Podcast

Pachinko designs

One of the most popular pachinko machines, Go! Go! Marine

Pachinko: Loud, obnoxious and like your drunk uncle at every family reunion, a ubiquitous part of life in Japan. (Click here for a little sound example!) What is it about the local pachinko parlor that lures the haggard businessman on his way home from the office or the housewife away from her mid-day errands? The glib answer might be gambling or, barring that particular vice, a simple raccoon-like fascination with bright, shiny objects. I suspected a larger force at work however, and eager to lose my pachinko virginity, I made a perilous, weekend-long trek into this well-lit, noisy world.

Written by Adam DuShole

inside of a pachinko parlor

Although pachinko is usually ranked alongside geisha, green tea and Mt. Fuji on the list of “Really Japanese Stuff,” the love affair with the game has been a comparatively short one. The origins of the game aren’t precisely clear, yet many historians agree that the game likely evolved from observing an early American machine called the “Coringth Game.” Yet another theory is that pachinko was the brainchild of Japanese soldiers who found themselves as heirs to a surplus of ball bearings following the end of World War I. The name pachinko is actually derived from the Japanese, pachi-pachi, for the sound of the steel bearings hitting together. Whatever the origin, pachinko first appeared in Japan during the early 1920s and soon thereafter the first pachinko parlor opened in Osaka prefecture. The first machines, however, were only distant cousins of their modern incarnation; humble combinations of wood and metal and infinitely less earsplitting.


Kaibutsu-kun model

Hakushon-Daimao model

Terauchi Kantaro Ikka model

Some manga model

Given how quickly pachinko parlors accommodate customers by continually replacing older machines with newer, flashier models, I wondered how I would get a glimpse of the original models. Thankfully, there is always an aficionado, or fanatic, at work behind any scene.

By way of recommendation from a friend working in the pachinko industry, I heard about the Pachinko Museum. After a little searching, I found it a few days later tucked away in Tokyo’s Higashi-Ueno; an area known as pachinkomura (pachinko village). With this name in mind, I (mistakenly) imagined I would be heading in to a modern-day neon Mecca of gamble-tastic goodness.

Pachinko village, like a Vegas-girl on her day off, is disarmingly reserved and decidedly unglamorous despite being home to some of Japan’s largest pachinko companies, retailers and designers. A bit disheartened by the neighborhood’s lack of the frenetic energy I immediately associate with pachinko, I nevertheless made my to the third floor of the subdued Yamashita building. Even before the elevator doors had opened, I could hear the pachi-pachi of ball bearings. I wasn’t disappointed by what I found inside.


Yamashita Building, Higashi-Ueno. Home to the Pachinko Museum

The history of pachinko - now in pamphlet form!

The Pachinko Museum

Pachinko machines

The Pachinko Museum currently exhibits 148 pachinko machines, with the models ranging from around pachinko’s debut in Japan in the 1920s all the way up until 1999, which as the brochure tells me, is the beginning of a new era in pachinko altogether.

Beautiful pachinko machines from the 1920s

A simpler age in pachinko’s history

20s model with a traditional Kintaro theme

A geisha-themed model

Early model based on a Tokyo Tower motif

A simple two-tone asymmetric design

Well-used model with a traditional flower motif

With the popularization of home television sets in Japan during the economic boom following World War II, traditional themes gradually began to be replaced with popular images from animated programs and comic books. Moreover, the influx and pervasive influence of foreign culture had a profound effect on pachinko designers.


A machine based on the Jack and the Beanstalk tale

Areddin, Japanese pronunciation for Aladdin.

A “Super Brothers” model. Notice the slot figure details

The Ballerina machine circa 1980s. The ballerina figure spins!

Aside from the visual aspects, one of the more interesting developments in pachinko design are the additions made to accommodate the parlor habitués that might linger for hours; the metal handle is replaced by a far more ergonomic rounded handle and ashtrays are molded into the plastic frames.


Notice the burn marks on this well-loved machine.

Who could refuse?

Easy-to-use pachinko handle.

The special “High-touch” handle - for her pleasure

Arguably, one of the biggest perks of stopping into the Pachinko Museum is the chance to have your hand at gambling on some of the older machines, most of them 1980s and 1970s era models, set up specifically for visitors to the museum. Just hand over 500 yen and have 30-minute spin!


Some pachinko pros take the wheel

A few of the machines set-up for museum visitors

Admittedly, after the first 2 minutes I wondered to myself what the appeal of pachinko could ever be. It was something akin to having a child with a newly purchased megaphone and strobe light standing a foot from my head and screaming. Continuously. That was, however, until I began winning. Conceivably, part of pachinko’s popularity can be attributed to the utter simplicity of the game. The player’s interaction with the game is limited to adjusting the force with which the pachinkodama (pachinko balls) are ejected. After that, it’s only a matter of the bearings either finding their way down the pins into a winning pocket to activate the slot machine component or, as more often happens, falling with total disgrace to the bottom of the machine. Still, I ended my 30 minutes with reluctance; confused, but reluctant. As it happened, I had a good streak of beginner’s luck and had I been actually gambling (instead of faux-gambling) I could have walked home with a nice chunk of change. Oddly enough, most forms of gambling are illegal in Japan. Pachinko parlors manage to avoid the hassles of legality by not exchanging the ball-bearings for cash on the premises. Instead, the transaction occurs elsewhere; generally at small inconspicuous windows located across a street or around a corner from the parlor itself.


The lucky machine.

If you are even more lucky you will see this

There are pachinko machines at the museum, which the curator of the museum keeps working on, so he has always has some spare parts he doesn’t need. So: when you visit the museum, don’t forget to take home your complimentary piece of pachinko history! (I made a picture frame out of mine!) Or better yet, indulge your burgeoning gambling addiction with a personal pachinko machine at home.

Can’t afford a whole pachinko machine? Just take home a piece

I don’t know if I’ll ever become a serious parlor denizen, but after taking this dip into the shallow end of the pachinko pool I can say that pachinko, and the art required to create such machines, is worth closer examination. Just don’t bet the kids’ college fund in the process.

53 Comments

  1. What a visually fun read! I dont know if you saved me a trip to the pachinko museum with your thorough photo documenting or if I need to go down and try my faux luck too.

    Posted by: Clint Taniguchi on April 6th, 2006 at 11:21 pm

  2. Well, this makes me want to go to Japan and play Pachinko now. and I MEAN NOW! Great pics.

    Posted by: Shay on April 7th, 2006 at 2:22 pm

  3. I’ve always wondered how the game worked but was never brave enough to enter a parlor myself! Thanks for doing the work for me! Great article!

    Posted by: natalie on April 8th, 2006 at 5:35 pm

  4. I would like to know if the Pachinko Museum exhibits any vintage machines by Okumura Yuki (Monako or Monaco). I’m wondering if you happened upon any machines similar to mine (see website link) or to those displayed in the “Monaco Historical Mansion” which can be seen at http://www.monako.co.jp/products/rekishi_00.html.

    I wish I could travel to Japan myself … I am fascinated by these machines!

    Thank you so very much for the wonderful article and photographs.

    Posted by: Laurie on May 21st, 2006 at 5:03 am

  5. Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!

    Posted by: Azzurra on November 5th, 2006 at 1:53 pm

  6. Look at this website for TONS of info:
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    Be well:
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    Posted by: DrDark on December 7th, 2006 at 6:30 am

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  8. Great article, the 3rd set of photos, machine on the bottom right is called Dai Yamato 2, based on the very popular Yamato series by Leiji Matsumoto. I have this machine at home and it is very cool - guns rotate, lights flash like the vegas strip!

    Posted by: Stu on April 27th, 2007 at 1:08 am

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  10. this is cool :)
    i like pachinko very much :D tooo much, so i got myself a pachinko machine just for the fun.. machine name: new sea story ;)

    Posted by: Dexx on June 20th, 2007 at 3:30 am

  11. I FOUND A PACHINKO MACHINE IN A FLEA MARKET SEVERAL YEARS AGO AND DID SOME REPAIR WORK AND MY GRANDCHILDREN AND I NOW ARE ADDICTS AND WE WANT TO GO TO JAPAN FOR THE REAL THING.

    Posted by: DALE on July 15th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

  12. I ALSO HAVE A MACHINE THAT PLAYS SOMEWHAT LIKE A PACHINKO BUT PAYS OUT QUARTERS AND HAS JAPANESE WRITING ON IT. IF GAMBLING IS ILLEGAL IN JAPAN WHERE DID THIS COME FROM???

    Posted by: DALE on July 15th, 2007 at 7:51 pm

  13. I have a pachinko game on my computer in Visual Pinball, it is a old-style pachinko game, but in the game on the computer you can even bump the game left and right in an attempt to control the ball after you set the strength and launched the ball.

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  17. Pachinko, as far as I’ve been able to learn, actually has its origins in a European game (that went to America, and thence to Japan, I imagine) called Bagatelle; it also evolved into pinball, pool, and skeeball. The game was a table-top board and players used a cue to knock balls into the pins, pockets, and bonus rods. Any image search can bring you up a picture of a bagatelle table, and it’s easy to see how it could evolve into all of these games. (If you’re lucky you can even find a cartoon of Abraham Lincoln playing it.)

    Posted by: Durvin on December 20th, 2008 at 3:09 am

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