Photo/Illutration Visitors to the Sharp Museum can view valuable historical materials in chronological order. One of these is the Soro-cal, which combines an abacus and a calculator in one, since some people doubted the accuracy of calculators when they first appeared. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

Plasmacluster Ion Generator? When I first heard these words, I imagined a sci-fi weapon used by otherworldly beings to zap each other instead of an air purifier.

I own three such top-of-the-line contraptions, which I was told disinfect the air that I breathe by suppressing airborne viruses and mold, or something along those lines.

I’ve had them for several years now. The thing is, other products made by Sharp over the years, such as radios, TVs, calculators and microwave ovens, don’t require expensive replacement filters and parts.

OK, OK, I’m comparing apples with oranges.

The Sharp Technology Innovation Museum in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, has to be one of the least snazzy corporate museums I’ve visited. It’s housed in a dated, nondescript building among Sharp factories and offices.

Reservations are a must, and once inside, you’re on your own to browse around at your own pace. I liked that, unlike many corporate museums, it embraced authenticity over spectacle.

On more than one occasion, I have heard that “the founder, Tokuji Hayakawa, invented the sharp pencil, hence the company name.”

Well, it turns out that’s not entirely true. The modern mechanical pencil, “Ever Sharp,” was invented and patented by an American engineer. Hayakawa made a Japanese version a little later and called it “Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil.”

Still, Hayakawa was quite the inventor. One of his first inventions was a belt buckle that didn’t require a hole to be punched in the leather belt.

His company has birthed many firsts: the solar-powered transistor radio, made-in-Japan TV set, transistor calculator, an affordable microwave oven and the now-ubiquitous wall-mountable TV.

Walking through the museum was a treat. I recognized old double cassette tape recorders, televideos (a TV with a built-in VHS recorder) and early Aquos TVs with squarish (not rectangular) screens and boomerang-shaped “feet.”

I laughed when I came to a Soro-cal, a fusion of a traditional soroban abacus and a digital calculator. Back then, people still didn’t trust technology and needed to double-check calculations on the abacus!

If you’re curious about what one looks like, you can find many for sale on Mercari. Sharp’s slogan when it was introduced was befitting: “New Life Now.”

Steadfastly focusing on LCD technology businesses, Sharp landed in rough waters and was acquired by Foxconn, a Taiwanese company.

The current slogan, “Be Original,” is perhaps what the company needs, and with new ownership, the hundred-plus-year-old company will once again hopefully become sharp and cutting-edge.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the May 19 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series “Lisa’s Things, Places and Events,” which depicts various parts of the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University. 

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