Shigeichi Negishi
Shigeichi Negishi | |
|---|---|
根岸 重一 | |
| Born | November 29, 1923 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | January 26, 2024 (aged 100) |
| Education | Hosei University |
| Children | 3 |
Shigeichi Negishi (November 29, 1923 – January 26, 2024) was a Japanese engineer who invented the earliest prototype of the karaoke machine. Using a speaker, a microphone, and a tape deck, he was able to simultaneously amplify his voice and play an instrumental backing track. Although Daisuke Inoue receives more international recognition for a similar invention, the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association recognizes Negishi as the first among five independent inventors of the karaoke machine.[1]
Biography[edit]
Negishi was born in the ward of Itabashi in Tokyo, Japan on November 29, 1923.[2] His mother ran a tobacco store and his father was a public official who oversaw regional elections. As a child, he made cardboard cityscapes[2] and gained a reputation for studiousness, winning a national calligraphy competition at the age of eleven.[1] Negishi studied economics at Hosei University in Tokyo and was drafted into the Japanese Army during the Second World War. After Japan was defeated, he became a prisoner of war and was detained for two years in Singapore.[3] After his release in 1947, Negishi sold Olympus cameras and later founded the consumer electronics company Nichiden Kogyo in 1956.[1]
Eleven years later, an employee supposedly teased Negishi for his bad voice while he was singing to himself at work. Believing he would sound better with a backing track, he and his staff wired together a speaker, microphone, and tape deck. To test the machine, Negishi used an 8-track instrumental rendering of the song "Mujo no Yume"[a] by Yoshio Kodama.[1] To market the product, Negishi partnered with a friend who worked at the Japan Broadcasting Corporation and travelled throughout Japan, giving demonstrations.[4][1] After Negishi found a distributor, the machine was dubbed the "Sparko Box" as the word karaoke sounded similar to kan'oke, the Japanese word for coffin. Marketed under various names, Negishi sold about 8,000 Sparko Boxes.[4] In 1975, Negishi dissolved his karaoke business after facing difficulties and fully retired around 1993.[3] He never patented Sparko Box, and other inventors such as Daisuke Inoue have created similar products, also receiving credit for inventing the karaoke machine.[3] His daughter expressed that he was not bothered by the lack of a patent that could have made him wealthy, stating that her father had "felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world."[2]
Negishi died due to natural causes following a fall on January 26, 2024, at the age of 100.[5][3]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Translation: "The Heartless Dream"
Further reading[edit]
- Alt, Matt (2020). Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World. New York, New York: Crown Publishing Group. pp. 75–100. ISBN 978-1-9848-2669-5.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Alt, Matt (March 14, 2024). "Shigeichi Negishi, the Inventor of Karaoke, Dies at 100". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ a b c Obituaries, Telegraph (March 19, 2024). "Shigeichi Negishi, inventor of the karaoke machine – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Veltman, Chloe (March 15, 2024). "Karaoke inventor Shigeichi Negishi dies at 100". National Public Radio.
- ^ a b Alt, pp. 87–88.
- ^ "Shigeichi Negishi, inventor of first karaoke machine, dead at 100". CBC Music. March 15, 2024.