In 1964, Madeleine Edison Sloane traveled to Japan and visited Iwashimizu Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine located in Kyoto Prefecture near the city of Yawata. The purpose of her visit was not tourism but rather to personally see a memorial within its walls and take part in one of the two festivals held there in memory of her father. Madeleine’s father was no ordinary man: he was Thomas Alva Edison. You might now be wondering what connection he had to that place. Let’s explore.

The famous American inventor was born in 1847 in Milan, a town in the state of Ohio, to a family of Dutch descent. Interestingly, as a child, he was dismissed at school for being considered incapable of studying, which led him to work various jobs, selling newspapers, groceries, and other goods aboard the train route to Detroit. At his destination, he had six free hours, which he spent voraciously reading in the library.

This sparked his interest in science, and he began conducting experiments on his own, using an empty railway car as a laboratory. He also installed a small manual printing press in it, producing a weekly paper called Grand Trunk Herald, which he sold during his trips, distributing 400 copies.

Edison
Edison in his childhood. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Later, he saved the life of a telegraph operator’s son who was about to be run over by a train. In gratitude, the telegraph operator taught him Morse code and telegraphy, enabling him to find work in the sector when the demand for operators increased during the Civil War.

At the time, Edison was still a teenager but had already created his first invention: an automatic repeater for telegraphic signals. However, he didn’t patent it, so his first official patent, in 1868, was for an instrument to mechanically count votes. The world of American politics, for which it was intended, rejected the invention, but Edison was already fully committed to his vocation as an inventor. Over the years, until his death in 1931, his prodigious mind produced over a thousand ideas, including the phonograph, the kinetoscope, the vitascope, celluloid film (though George Eastman beat him to the patent), and the movie camera (a claim also made by the Lumière brothers).

Among all his inventions, the most significant—and the one relevant here—was the light bulb. There is some controversy surrounding this, as British inventor Joseph Wilson Swan claimed authorship a year before Edison, in 1879. However, Edison is credited with creating the first commercially viable incandescent lamp. In fact, he wasn’t exactly the inventor; pioneers like Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans, James Bowman Lindsay, William Sawyer, and Warren de la Rue had presented their models before Swan.

Edison’s major contribution was his improvement of the light bulb, achieving a filament that lasted a long time without burning out, thanks to the absence of air inside the glass bulb. This brings us to the crux of the matter: he found that the ideal material for the filament was bamboo. Until then, he had experimented with cotton thread—carbonized and coated in tar—which didn’t stay lit for more than 40 hours. By contrast, carbonized bamboo, an excellent electrical conductor, allowed his bulb to surpass that limit, remaining lit for a hundred continuous hours.

Edison
Edison next to a phonograph in 1878. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

This breakthrough was tested in the latter half of 1879, and a few months later, on New Year’s Day, the first electric lighting system was inaugurated in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It featured 53 lights installed by Edison, earning him the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park”. The following year, he founded the Edison Electric Light Company, which eventually became General Electric. Thus began the era of electric lighting, which gradually replaced urban gas lamps, candles, and oil lamps in homes.

But this isn’t the end of the story, as we still need to explain the connection to Japan, which, as mentioned earlier, involved bamboo. The key to marketing light bulbs was achieving a lifespan of over 600 hours, so Edison assigned several collaborators to investigate. They traveled the world, gathering materials that could serve as conductors. Thousands of materials were collected, but the idea of using bamboo came to Edison by chance. He tried the bamboo rods from a Japanese fan and discovered that the bulb shattered all records, staying lit for 200 hours.

He then dismissed all other materials and sent his collaborators worldwide to find the best bamboo (there are over a thousand types). One of them, William H. Moore, traveled to Japan, where he was advised to search in Kyoto, known for cultivating a particularly fine variety. Even today, the Arashiyama bamboo forest on the city’s outskirts remains a popular tourist attraction. Moore collected numerous samples and sent them to Edison, who tested each type and gradually refined his light bulbs until they lasted over 2,450 hours. Japanese bamboo filaments were used for a decade until they were replaced by cellulose in 1894.

The best bamboo, it seems, grew atop Mount Otoyama, overlooking Yawata. That’s where the Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine is located, the one Madeleine Edison visited to see a memorial erected in 1934 in honor of her father. She was moved, declaring it more magnificent than any she had seen in the United States. The shrine itself is quite old, with its first structures built in the 9th century during the Heian period (the last of Japan’s classical eras before the feudal Kamakura period), and it has ties to the imperial throne since Emperor Seiwa ordered its construction.

Light bulb Edison
One of the original light bulbs installed by Edison in Menlo Park. Credit: Terren / Wikimedia Commons

Thus, the site offers triple interest for visitors: its historical and artistic value, its religious significance (for Shinto practitioners), and the anecdote of Edison, who is honored there with several festivals. One is the Tōryōka, or Festival of Light, held on May 4, featuring lanterns lit with local bamboo-filament bulbs. Another, Edison Seitan-sai, takes place on November 11, his birthday (and coincidentally Japan’s foundation day). A third, Edison Hizen-sai, occurs on October 18, the anniversary of his death.

During the latter, Japan’s and the United States’ national anthems are played in front of the memorial as their flags are raised, and a wreath is laid. Representatives of electric companies and members of the Edison Shōtokukai association officiate the event.

These festivals add to the list of unique and even quirky celebrations (known in Japan as kisai, meaning “rare festivals”) that the country is famous for, as those familiar with our article on matsuris might recall.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 20, 2018: La curiosa relación entre Edison y un santuario japonés a través del bambú

SOURCES

Yokoso Japan, Thomas Alva Edison, the Bamboos of Yawata and the light for Humankind

Iwasimizu, Thomas Edison and Iwashimizu Hachimangu

Tokyo Weekender, The Unlikely Connection Between Thomas Edison and Iwashimizu Hachimangu

Ernest Freeberg, The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America

Ronald Clark, Edison: The Man Who Made the Future

  • Share on:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News