Adam Japan
President, Mutsuo Takahira

The number of billiard players in Japan is about 7.5 million. Although it is one of the "lifelong sports" which the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is recommending, it has a stronger image as an indoor game or entertainment, rather than a competitive sport. However, World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS) was formally approved as an accreditation body at the executive board/general meeting of the International Olympic Committee in 1998, and a path has opened up for billiard to make an appearance at the Olympics in the near future as one of the competitive sport events.

Billiard is played by striking a round ball with a stick called a cue, and for the player, an ideal cue that suits his body is an indispensable tool, just like a bat for baseball and a golf club for golf. The cue manufacturer which is widely known as the best in the world is Adam Japan, located in Sayama city, Saitama prefecture. The factory which also serves as the company building is situated in a section of a lush green countryside dotted by tea plantations. "Musashi" which was developed by this company has become a top brand that is used by 70% of the world's professional players.

Began to make the cues by chance

"I got into this business really by chance. You might say that it was fated."

Mutsuo Takahira, the company's president, talks recalling the old days. "My father died in the war when I was four years old, and I moved to Tokyo from Miyazaki, my hometown, when I was twenty years old. The economy was enjoying a boom in those days, also because it was just before the Tokyo Olympics. While I was moving through various jobs, a factory near my relative's house that was manufacturing cues happened to be recruiting people, so I applied for it. Of course, I did not know the first thing about billiard."

Takahira recalls that in 1965, for the young 28 year-old, "the work to shave the wood felt just like making kokeshi wooden dolls." This was how he started his career as a cue artisan. The movie, "The Hustler", starring Paul Newman premiered in Japan four years before that and it was a time when pool halls were built one after another in various places.

It was 1970 when a turning point came to Takahira, a young man who was devoting himself to work with a wish to "make a good cue." He received an offer from an American engineer to join a company that manufactured cues for export to the U.S. It seems that the new company, Adam Custom Cue Japan, needed the young Takahira's craftsmanship by any means.

At that time, hardly anyone in the world paid attention to Japanese cues, but it is said that the cues for export were selling quite well.

Various woods to be used as material from all over the world are stored.

Adam Japan, a company that has been manufacturing a multitude of cues, developed "Musashi" using all of its technologies, and built it with an entirely new crafting technique

His life motto is "Never give up"

Later on, as the yen became stronger, the cues made in Japan became expensive, and their production facilities were moved to the Philippines or Indonesia. Seeking a market within Japan was to no avail, as the billiard boom was gone. Mr. Takahira took over the position of president at such an "unlucky" era – it was 1986.

"I was at a loss with the huge excess stock," recalls Mr. Takahira, the company's president, with a wry smile. However, a lucky break came right away. In the same year, "The Color of Money," co-starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman premiered, and a billiard boom was revived. In place of pool halls which had a dark image, pool bars that young people can enjoy at ease sprang up one after another. The stock of cues quickly disappeared. Moreover, the number of professional billiard players rapidly increased in Japan, and events began to be held everywhere.

As the player's techniques also improved dramatically, they naturally began to ask for cues with higher quality, and the manufacturing of cues also began to meet such stringent demands. A cue that is manufactured from a single wood absorbs moisture in the air and begins to warp by change of temperature, etc. no matter how straight it has been shaved and processed.

"If the cue warps by even a fraction of a millimeter, the path of the cue ball deviates from the expected path and an accurate shot cannot be performed. The balance of weight is also required, and twists or wobbles must be eliminated as much as possible."

Mr. Takahira, the company's president, says that whenever he got an inspiration on an idea to make a cue that doesn't warp, he verified it immediately, but most of them "failed miserably." One such example was to boil the wood material with oil. "It came from a simple idea that oil will block off the water, but it didn't work at all because the oil seeped out when it became dry," he smiled cheerfully. He probably challenged this idea by trying various kinds of oil and by changing the time/temperature to dip into the oil or to dry.

"Musashi" is what he arrived at after a great deal of such trial and error, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was able to develop it with his spirit of "never give up."

Challenging with originality and ingenuity

Unlike the conventional cue which is made from a single piece of wood such as ebony wood, boxwood or maple tree, "Musashi" is made by using a one-centimeter square timber as a center core, and by surrounding it with wood of different material from the core divided into four equal pieces, and assembling them. The assembling method is that used for parquet, which alternately pastes slash cut and radial cut pieces. With this method, it became possible to drastically suppress the bending or warping that wood originally possesses.

Moreover, since the repulsive force of slash cut and radial cut differs, this caused the traveling direction of the cue ball to deviate slightly; combining them both yields a characteristic of reducing the difference of repulsive forces and wobbling when it strikes the cue ball, as well as maximizing the pleasant feel when the ball is struck. Whenever the work process of the day, such as shaving the material or pasting them is finished, it is dried and observed how it will warp, and then proceed to the next work process. That is why it takes more than 80 days to make one cue.

"The drawback is that we cannot mass produce them since they are handmade one-by-one by the craftsmen. Furthermore, we finish them by listening to the players' demands, so they become custom-made products," Mr. Takahira, the company's president says. "Musashi," which satisfies the professional players, is based on four patented technologies. It is a proof that the originality and ingenuity of Mr. Takahira, the company's president, as well as all of the staff are alive.

"My challenge is to find out if it is possible to compress the wood cells and mold them in the future, rather than shave the wood. Also, I would like to help the wide popularization of billiard as a competitive sport," Mr. Takahira, the company's president said with hope in his words.

Cues are painstakingly handmade one-by-one by the craftsmen

Adam Japan:
Development/manufacturing/sales of billiard cues, sales/export and import of billiard accessories

744 Shimohirose, Sayama city, Saitama prefecture, Japan 350-1322
TEL: +81-4-2969-6177
FAX: +81-4-2969-6188
Capital: 10 million yen
Employees: 30 people
http://www.adam-japan.com/