Photo/Illutration Donated Cemedine B and C tubes (Provided by Cemedine Co.)

Rare tubes of glue produced before World War II were donated to their astonished manufacturer who described the returned discoveries as “unbelievable miracles through the internet.”

The two adhesives were known as “phantom Cemedines,” because even their producer, Cemedine Co., based in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward, did not have them.

But that all changed after Masaki Sato, 39, a company employee in Tokyo, sent a tube of Cemedine C to the manufacturer in early September.

In August this year, Sato was cleaning up an aged house he had bought on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. No one had lived there for more than 30 years, so the closet at the “butsuma” Buddhist altar room was filled with mountains of newspapers and magazines dating to the Showa Era (1926-1989).

The closet also contained a red paper package of mosquito-repelling incense coils.

Opening the container, Sato found the Cemedine C glue tube and its instructions, which featured now-abolished kanji characters meaning “new release.”

The tube showed signs that it had been pressed with a finger.

Sato said he instinctively felt it “must have high value” and asked Cemedine on Twitter about the product’s age.

The company’s official account, which said the glue is likely from 1938, could not hide its surprise: “Even Cemedine has no samples of it.”

Sato explained why he returned the rare find to the company.

“There currently is a trend among people of throwing away things as soon as they become unnecessary, but I wanted to preserve what could be important for someone,” he said.

SECOND DISCOVERY

Cemedine officials whooped for joy over the discovery of Cemedine C, which they said was Japan’s first synthetic adhesive made mainly of nitrocellulose.

The story about the finding was featured in an online media report on Sept. 16.

A man who read the article emerged with some more good news for Cemedine. He notified the business that he had in his possession another company product, called Cemedine B.

Marveling at the man’s report about the product, Cemedine’s Twitter account on Sept. 28 said the company “was so surprised that we could not help but get goose bumps.”

The company said the adhesive was long “shrouded in mystery because our company history simply describes it as having been sold before and during World War II along with Cemedine C.”

The tweet showed images of Cemedine B, which was donated by the man, along with another glue product, Mendine, from Britain. The name Cemedine, in fact, derives from Mendine.

According to Cemedine representatives, the Japanese adhesive brand was created and sold by the company’s founder in 1923 to “semedasu” (drive out) the popular foreign glue from the domestic market.

The company said the man who found the Cemedine B tube bought a set of radio parts produced in the early Showa Era through an online auction around 10 years ago. Cemedine B and Mendine tubes were discovered in the set.

“We are deeply astonished at and pleased with our being able to view actual (Cemedine B and C),” a company public relations official told The Asahi Shimbun. “We are very glad that the delightful discoveries were made owing to the assistance of social networking sites and online media.

“We want to show our sincere gratitude to the two owners for having contacted us and contributing the excellently preserved items to us.”

Cemedine said it expects another product, Cemedine A, to be found as well. Cemedine A used proteins as its primary ingredient and went on sale around 1927, but no samples remain at the company.

(This article was written by Eri Niiya and Kenji Komine.)

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