Puffed rice machine invented by Japanese woman to feed hungry children
TOKYO – Driven by her desire to feed hungry children, Toshiko Yoshimura invented a puffed rice snack machine that helped alleviate food shortages in Japan after World War II, bringing smiles across the nation.
A piece of calligraphy hangs in the offices of Tachibana Kashiki, the confectionery machinery company founded in Kitakyushu by Yoshimura, now 99 years old. It reads, 'A pon-gashi machine is my life.'
Born into a prominent family in Yao, Osaka, in 1926, Yoshimura studied physics and chemistry at a vocational school for women. As the Pacific War escalated and male teachers were drafted, she wanted to do something useful, so she began substitute teaching at a local school about two years into the war.
Seeing the emaciated children at the school was a turning point in her life.
Yoshimura remembered going to see a vendor when she was 4 years old and secretly taking home a few small white grains of what would become puffed rice.
The snacks were made by using steam pressure to puff up the grains. Yoshimura believed this method would allow her to feed children nutritious food with very little fuel.
She consulted with someone she knew who taught at a university, and they drew up plans together. However, metal was being requisitioned for weapons manufacturing, so she couldn't get the iron she needed for the machine.
When they told her there was iron in Kitakyushu, Yoshimura decided to go. Her family strongly opposed this, but her resolve was unshakeable. 'All I could think about was giving the children puffed rice snacks,' she said.
For her own safety, Yoshimura cut her hair short and dressed as a man. She traveled alone to Kitakyushu with her blueprints and visited factories there.
'The craftsmen were all drunk, and their faces were covered in oil. I'd thought they would be more professional, but they were completely different,' she said.
Still, a few craftsmen took an interest in her idea, including the man who would eventually become her husband. Together, they completed a prototype in the spring of 1945, and the first machine was built that summer.
When the machine was struck with a wooden mallet, a loud 'pop' and a cloud of white smoke erupted, and a stream of puffed rice shot out. She named the snack 'pon-gashi' and secured a patent for the machine.
Amidst severe postwar food shortages, puffed rice machines were in high demand. Orders poured in from across the country because children loved the delicious taste. Apparent brokers would come from various regions, buying as many as five or six machines at a time.
All over Japan, people would bring their rationed rice to soot-blackened men who would make puffed rice for them. Seeing the children's smiles brought Yoshimura great happiness, and she decided to dedicate her life to puffed rice.
In 1946, she founded the Tachibana Kashiki company in Kitakyushu to manufacture and sell the puffed rice machines. Two years later, she got married.
However, as Japan entered its period of rapid economic growth, sales of pon-gashi declined due to the spread of other snack foods. Soon after, her husband was stricken with cancer, and Yoshimura took over running the factory herself.
Once, while working through the night grinding iron, her left hand got caught in a machine and she suffered a serious injury that required 78 stitches. Even so, she never took a day off.
In the mid-1970s, her business experienced a resurgence. A government campaign to promote rice consumption led to an increase in orders from agricultural cooperatives and local governments.
The machine's potential for an easy-to-start business also made it attractive to office workers looking to leave their corporate jobs.
Yoshimura traveled all over the country, taking orders. It was around this time that she penned the calligraphy that reads, 'A pon-gashi machine is my life.'
She retired from the front lines of the business about 20 years ago, but she continued bringing smiles to children's faces by giving demonstrations and promoting puffed rice snacks in various locations. Her third son, now 73, and others manufacture the machines.
Puffed rice snacks remain a staple at events and festivals today.
Yoshimura, who will soon turn 100, suffered an injury last autumn that made it difficult for her to keep working. During a recent interview, however, she gripped a wooden mallet in front of a puffed rice machine and said: 'I just gave it everything I had. I hope other young people will do their best with whatever they can.'
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