The Onosaka family’s Tokyo magic shop is famous around the world, and renowned for its link to Japanese magic. This is their 49th year of business. They’ve had two locations over those years, and recently settled in a new location. The new shop is a little smaller, but jammed with innovative magic and stacked with books. Ton-san works mostly at home creating new magic while his wife, Mama-san, presides behind the counter and demonstrates. Satoshi-san, their son, is busy with the business and is enlarging the website. Thanks to Marty Gross, who provided the translation.
Meet the Proprietors: The Onosakas
Ton-san: Because there is less magic on television or in theaters, there is a decreasing number of customers interested in studying magic. Magic in Japan is poorer than it used to be. Close-up magic is still popular, and there are magic bars in Tokyo that draw customers. I spend much of my time developing magic for the shop, and our good friend Max Maven—really a family member—arranged a number of tricks for us by the end of his life. We’ve been marketing those by saying, “Thank you to Max.” We’ve featured over a dozen of those popular tricks recently.
