Automata and Robots
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Research on Traditional Technology from the Edo Period and Modern Robots
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Episode 7: Inventive Automata
We see many things and remember them. Inspiration is born as a result of accumulating memories and experience and is the source of inventions.
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It was previously explained that the mechanism used in the “Chahakobi Ningyo (Tea-serving doll)” was basically the same as that used in Japanese clocks. However, while most Japanese clocks were made of iron the doll was made of wood of far lower strength when compared with iron.
The gears which were stressed in transferring the power were weak in the direction of the wood grain. Measures such as laminating wooden materials together were taken to overcome this. And since the size of the baleen used as the power spring was limited because it derived from a living creature it was difficult to obtain the necessary power to drive an automaton. The manufacturers had to use all their ingenuity to deal with various difficulties such as the requirement of a light delicate structure that was limited in size.
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Chahakobi Ningyo
Made by Shobei Tamaya IX, possessed by National Science Museum
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A skilled technique can be found in the “Chahakobi Ningyo” made in the late Edo period. Upon the automaton being investigated for repair it was discovered that the form of the wooden gear made by laminating wooden materials together along their grain was basically identical to that of modern involute gears. The manufacturer may have created the ideal gear in the process of pursuing a gear that would lose very little power. We were very surprised at the ability of our ancestors to accumulate knowledge through experience.
A collection of drawings of nine automata including the tea-serving doll was published in the Edo period. The phrase shown below was included in the preface of “Karakuri-zui (Illustrated Machinery)” written by Hanzo Hosokawa, who was born in Tosa and worked as an assistant at Tenmongata (Bureau of Astronomy) under the Edo shogunate.
“What is important when manufacturing new machines is to examine and memorize as many things as possible and touching real things which can lead to inspiration. For example, one can watch how fish move their tails like rudders or how fish move their fins from side to side like sculls. Zhuge Liang (Kongming) watched his wife make a puppet and came up with the idea of the wooden ox and floating horse (automatic transportation device), and Omi Takeda watched some children playing with sand and invented the mechanism used in automata. The content of this book is not that different from that used in making children’s toys, but for some people, it may be of help in seeing something and coming up with an idea.”
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Some pages of “Karakuri-zui”
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Basically it is saying that “Seeing and memorizing a lot of things and accumulating memories and experience can result in the inspiration for an idea of a new product in your mind. And that idea can lead to an invention.” As shown in the tea-serving doll our ancestors practiced this process of “seeing something with the result being an idea.”
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[Samisenbiki, Koinotakinobori (Samisen Player and Carp Swimming Up Waterfall)]
Possessed by Yokohama Doll Museum
Automata hand-operated by turning lever
(Click the image to see the movie. 40 seconds 5,560KB)
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Kazuyoshi Suzuki
Senior curator of National Museum of Nature and Science
Specialty is the history of scientific technology. Involved in surveying and researching scientific and technological developments in Japan: Especially that of the Edo Period up to present time on a demonstration basis. Has experienced being a member of the METI “Traditional skill research study group”, and a conceptual committee member and exhibition supervision committee member of Osaka Children’s Castle, TOYOTA Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, EDO-TOKYO MUSEUM, and other museums.
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Automata and Robots 
