Maywa Denki

Maywa Denki is a Japanese art unit and musical toy company. It was re-established as an art unit in 1993 by brothers Masamichi Tosa and Nobumichi Tosa, who became president and vice president respectively. The unit develops nonsense machines based on four artistic themes: the NAKI (fish) series, the Tsukuba electric musical instrument series, the Voice Mechanics series, and the EDELWEISS series. The current corporate entity, Maywa Denki Co., Ltd., was established in November 2016 with Nobumichi Tosa as representative director, and is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo.

In 1960, Sakaichi Tosa, later chairman of Maywa Denki, joined Shin-Maywa Kogyo in Kobe, a company that had operated as Kawanishi Airplane during World War II. After leaving in 1969, he established Maywa Denki Ltd. in Ako city, Hyogo Prefecture in 1970, starting as a subcontract factory for Toshiba and Matsushita Electric producing vacuum tubes, and growing to over 100 workers at its peak. The company went bankrupt in 1979 due to the oil shock. In 1993, his sons Masamichi and Nobumichi Tosa re-established Maywa Denki as an art unit, with Masamichi as president and Nobumichi as vice president. They developed the NAKI series of fish-motif nonsense machines and the Tsukuba series of electric musical instruments. In 2001, Masamichi retired at age 35 and Nobumichi became president, starting the EDELWEISS series and participating in large exhibitions in Paris and London. In 2003, they participated in the 'Humans and Robots' exhibition in Paris and performed their first full-scale overseas live show. The current company, Maywa Denki Co., Ltd., was established in November 2016.

Parallel-world electricians creating nonsense machines and artistic products.

• NAKI series

  Fish-motif nonsense machines themed on 'Who am I?'.

• Tsukuba series

  100V powered electric musical instruments.

• Voice Mechanics series

  Machines reproducing the functionality and magical power of voice.

• EDELWEISS series

  Flower-motif series themed on 'What are females like?'.

1. 1明和電機 - Maywa Denki - アート・ユニット"明和電機"オフィシャルサイトmaywadenki.com
2. 2社史 Company History Archives - 明和電機 - Maywa Denkimaywadenki.com
3. 3製品 Products Archives - 明和電機 - Maywa Denkimaywadenki.com
4. 4会社概要 Company overview - 明和電機 - Maywa Denkimaywadenki.com
5. 5Maywa Denkiwikidata.org
6. 6明和電機zh.wikipedia.org