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Hello everyone. This is Takashi Park writing from Hi-Fi Do Kyoto Repair Department. It seems Kyoto has Jakuchu fever this autumn. This year is the 300th anniversary of his birth and his major retrospective is coming to his birth place Kyoto as well. Some of his works have been shown already at Shokokuji Jotenkaku Museum and the rest is to be exhibited at Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art from October. I will pay a visit during the end of the year since it was a huge success in Tokyo. Today's theme is "Kurashi No Techo" magazine (meaning "pocket book of life") that I found very interesting while watching NHK's soap opera "Toto Neechan" more than the show itself. Before then, I was only aware of the presence and thought one of listing mags for ladies.

	In Showa 23 (Japanese calendar, 1948 in A.D.), soon after the end of WW II, the magazine was first published. For impartiality, it didn't have any ads. In Showa 28 (1953), the publisher established a new division "Kurashi No Techo Laboratory" and it started a serial of through comparisons of home appliances, which became one of favorite topics to chat among the masses. The investigations were so drastic that there are many legends left. The latter part of the show focused on those stories as well. Here are the examples:
1961, issue 56 "Stroller test" Spending a few days, women investigated and compared seven different strollers by actually walking 100km with weights as heavy as kids.

1966, issue 87 "Fire test" Try burning an actual house in various ways including oil heater, iron, and stove, investigated the results, and inspect extinguishment.

1969, issue 99 "Automatic toaster test" 33 units tasted about 2000 slices of bread each. The total number of toasts ended up 43,088.

Needless to say, this serial heavily influenced manufacturers as well as consumers. This might contributed to the high reputation of Japanese made products, I assume. Out of curiosity I purchased some copies of the magazine. After "modern" cover designed by the editor Yasuji Hanamori herself follows widely acknowledged introduction and index page which is also beautifully designed by Yasuji. The rest is just full of contents such as feature articles in color, articles on food, clothing, DIY, medicine, overseas, and so on. Additionally, there are endless recipes in the corners of some pages. The atmosphere is very different from what I am used to without ads. I could feel Yasuji's philosophy in every details.
Okay, let's move to the main theme: how audio was treated in "Kurashi No Techo". Since the main target was women and the focus was on daily life, they didn't feature audio often. But some can be found in the context of enriching life with music.
1956, issue 36 "Invitation to doughnut" Ginza Osuki-ya, Tsukasa Fuji
	This seems to be the time LP & EP were starting to be popular. This article starts from introduction of three Japanese speed players. The advice was to use radio that many already had instead of expensive amps and speakers or to buy an used auto changer player (RCA, USA) and play cheap & high quality single records rather than costly & low quality LPs.
1959, issue 48, page 108 SHOPPING GUIDE "Should I buy stereo now or wait?"
	This was when stereo records were just released. The advice was to wait until stereo becomes popularized and cheaper. If you cannot wait, buy a stereo tape recorder which is cheaper and sounds better.
1963, issue 68, page 138 Kurashi No Techo Record Shop "Which should I buy Beethoven's Fifth or Schubert's Unfinished Symphony?" Written by Kenji Tsumori and Okihiko Kanno
	Records were still expensive then. This article compared 30 records with either or both of the two typical classical tunes. They sorted into "recommended" and "not to buy". Kanno, then one of the editors of monthly mag Asahi Sonorama who also was doing recording directing-ish works and his colleague Tsumori wrote it. This was very popular. After a few times of features, later it became a serial by Kyoichi Kuroda.
1965, issue 80, page 103 "Tape recorders anybody can use" by Yasuji Hanamori
	The magazine is one of the first to introduce compact cassette recorder EL3300 by Philips a Dutch company. Orders for the player flooded in Mistukoshi (one of major department stores) as soon as it was published. The next year Sony followed with the first Japanese cassette recorder TC-100.
PHILIPS EL3300 1964
	SONY TC-100 1966
1965, issue 86, page 38 "What is the best stereo around \20,000?"
The seven newest models at that time by seven manufacturers including National (Panasonic) and Victor were listened to and compared by ordinary people, not audioheads. ST-55 by Onkyo (Okasaonkyo) was by far the best. At that time, Onkyo just withdrew from TV and was about to focus on audio. This article boosted their move it seems.

That's all major articles. Yasuji Hanamori herself was an audiophile some say. I feel her uniqueness in her taste in the area as well. After Toto Neechan, now NHK is broadcasting Beppinsan (old-fashion way to call a beauty). The opening title is by a famous Japanese band Mr. Children. It is based on the life story of Atsuko Banno founder of children's wear company Familia (His father Yasohachi Sasaki founded Renown). She lived the same era as Yasuji from Toto Neechan. Next one will be on the controversial loss of headphone jack of iPhone7. I will write on the future of audio such as wireless stuffs.

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