The following photograph-rich
article features fortune telling (and divination), fortune
teller’s shops in Coney Island, legal issues associated with
fortune tellers’ business practices, prediction of Islamo
fascists’ attack on America on September 11, 2001, criteria of
real seers, fraud of Global Warming cult, artworks of fortune
tellers & diviners, and other fascinating topics. Most of
photographs featured in this article were never shown in public
before. Yamada is one of the most active educators
and artists in New York City and has had over 450 fine art
exhibitions internationally with his paintings and sculptures.
The manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted art
critic and New York City author, as told by Yamada.
TAKESHI YAMADA
ON
FORTUNE TELLING & DIVINATION
- CONEY ISLAND SIDESHOW AND BEYOND -
Article by Dr.
Eriko N. Bond as told by Takeshi Yamada
Chapter 19
Takeshi Yamada and Seara (sea rabbit) at the Boardwalk entrance
of
the Astroland Amusement Park on its historical closing day on
September 7, 2008.
Yamada started wearing his signature art performance outfit of
tuxedo,
French beret, dozens of Mardi Gras beads when he lived in New
Orleans, Louisiana.
Human Factors in Devolution of Automaton Fortune Tellers
In the world of
electric fortune telling machines, highly educated and
experienced manufacturers “predicted” their new units to be
equipped with even more realistically human-like androids which
respond to the customer in wider subject matters in greater
details in the future. Technologies advance every year and the
parts become cheaper, so, that was a reasonable future
prediction at the time. Unfortunately, as we all know, their
predictions were completely wrong. Today’s electric psychic
machines and fortune telling machines as featured in this
article are completely different from what they thought it would
be 40 years later.
Takeshi Yamada
explains it as following. “You can NOT predict human feelings
and emotions in the future. Thus you can NOT predict things
created by human’s feelings and emotions in the future. They do
NOT change, advance, or develop one-dimensionally or like a rail
for a train. In short, when it comes to this specific field, you
can NOT predict the future simply by connecting dots of past and
present, and making its extension line into the future. Here is
a good example. By the mid 20th century, almost all the cultural
anthropologists ‘predicted’ confidently that the culture of
human tattooing will be extinct from any civilized societies in
a few generations. As we all know today, those trained
professional scholars and scientists were all completely wrong.
On the contrary, in fact, human tattooing became a big boom and
popular fashion (especially among women) in the most
technologically, economically, and culturally advanced nation
called the United States of America. Prediction of the future is
NOT mere mathematics nor science; it is art – trained
craftsmanship with inspirations.”
Note: In common
parlance, "devolution", or “backward evolution” is the notion a
species may evolve into more "primitive" forms. From a
scientific perspective, devolution does not exist. (Evolution
simply means changes in gene pool. Evolution can be beneficial
or unbeneficial to the specific species of creature.) In short,
devolution is just a poetic expression of a species seemingly
changing into less well-adapted condition. This author used this
word poetically to express the external changes of the
coin-operated fortune tellers happened in recent decades.
“Freedom of Choice” record album cover of Devo. American new
wave music group.
Their “Whip it” is one of the first “freak” American music,
which Yamada encountered
when he arrived in Oakland California from Japan in the summer
of 1983.
The band, Devo was supported by a whole philosophical tenet
known as devolution.
Modern Automated Fortune Tellers in Coney Island
According to Takeshi
Yamada, as of September 1, 2008, there are only two units of
electric psychics in the amusement park district in Coney
Island. They are both quite old but in good condition and
working well.
Example #1:
Zytronics Sex Analyst
Shown below is a
coin-operated psychic supposed to “reveal his/her hidden
fantasies & desires, sexual rhythms, and sensitivities”. At the
left of the display reads: Your sex analysis card delivered
below. The left knob is for left hand reading, and the right
knob is for the right hand reading. Only one hand at a time, it
says.
“Zytronics Sex Analyst”
Detail in the right.
The solid color silk
screen printed 1960’s distinctive style - psychedelic hippie
generation’s design - indicates this machine must be released
into the market in the late 1950’s to early 1960s, Yamada
explained. Details of this psychic machine are unknown. You
receive a large long sheet of paper (printed both side) with sex
analysis from this machine.
Example #2:
Talking Love Meter
Talking Love Meter
shown below is located next to the Grandma’s Prediction at the
Dino’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. This electric psychic, just
like the one shown above, only handle the matter of the sexual
compatibility of the couple.
“Based on the
appearance of this machine, it must be released into the market
in the late 1960’s to early 1970s”, Yamada explained.
“Talking Love Meter”
Detail in the right.
“Talking Love Meter”. Close-up detail.
Operational instructions on the unit. Close-up detail.
Today’s Touch-screen Fortune Tellers in Coney Island
Using a computer for
fortune telling and divination is called cybermacy. Here is one
of the examples here in Coney Island.
Yamada was informed
that new computerized fortune teller machines were installed
this year (2007) at amusement parks’ arcades in Coney Island. He
was thrilled and immediately visited the locations and took
photographs of them. They are called “Coney Island Gypsy”. This
is a completely new generation of fortune telling machine
supposed to appeal to today’s wider audience’s taste and
feelings. Or is it?
At first, Yamada
even could not locate the fortune telling machine at the arcade
because it was completely blended into the surrounding flashy
game machines. When he finally found it, he was deeply
disappointed. This newly introduced state of the art
computerized fortune telling machine, despite his overly high
expectations, looked like today’s common and completely
tasteless Automated Teller Machine (ATM). “This is not even an
evolution. This is a devolution!”, Yamada said.
Although hiring the
real people in the store setting is quite costly today, Yamada
hopes this kind of unattractive, tasteless, and emotionless
automated computer machine will not completely replace the
traditional/vintage style of entertaining fortune tellers here
in Coney Island.
http://www.coneyislandarcadeusa.com/main.htm
“Coney Island Gypsy” at Wonder Wheel Arcade.
Unfortunately, it was broken already.
(September 15, 2007)
“Coney Island Gypsy” at Coney Island Arcade (a privately
operated game center).
(September 15, 2007)
The picture displayed at the front of this state-of-the-art
fortune telling machine.
The picture at the
front of this fortune telling machine featuring the fuzzy low
resolution cheap printout image of an old stereotypical Gypsy
woman with young attractive face (is she carrying thin fire
woods on her back?). Yamada stated, “I was very disappointed.
This artwork was very poorly done. It seems it was done by an
uninformed and inexperienced artist who had no idea what he/she
was doing. These artwork on it are not even attractive enough to
compete visually to the game machines next to them!” (September
15, 2007)
Note: As of August
10, 2008, Takeshi Yamada could not locate any of the ugly ATM
style electronic fortune telling machines shown above in the
amusement park district in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. It
appears the people who engaged in the business of this
electronic fortune telling game machine predicted it’s business
outcome very poorly. (exactly the same can be said of many
psychic company once advertising on the late night TV
commercials/infomercials.)
Fortune Telling Computers in Japanese Manga & Anime
Shown below are
pages from a popular Japanese weekly-published manga, Urusei
Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens). In these pages, a
space alien princess Lum used a pachinko-machine-like
computer for cybermacy fortune telling. The scene is also
featured in the weekly television anime based on this manga.
(Note: Pachinko is a very popular form of gambling and the shop
can be found most of the cities in Japan.)
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 3. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around. Lum using computer
for cybermacy fortune telling.
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 4. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around. Lum using computer
for cybermacy fortune telling.
Urusei Yatsura. Anime. Episode 14. Mendou Brings Trouble!
Lum using computer for cybermacy fortune telling.
(Screenshot by Dr. Eriko N. Bond)
Urusei Yatsura. Anime. Episode 14. Mendou Brings Trouble!
Lum using computer for cybermacy fortune telling.
(Screenshot by Dr. Eriko N. Bond)
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 5. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around. Lum using computer
for cybermacy fortune telling.
Shown below are
pages from a popular Japanese weekly-published manga, Urusei
Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens). In these pages, a
space alien princess Lum used an alien interactive
intelligent voice-responding horoscope machine (sophisticate
computer-controlled holodeck-like machine as shown in the
television show Star Trek?) for fortune telling. This manga
episode also became one of the television anime episodes. (Note:
The Tiger-striped Unicorn is not a part of zodiacs in Western or
Eastern worlds.)
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 11. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around.
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine when participants are shrunk.
Urusei Yatsura.
Anime. Episode 14. Mendou Brings Trouble!
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine when participants are shrunk.
(Screenshot by Dr. Eriko N. Bond)
Urusei Yatsura. Anime. Episode 14. Mendou Brings Trouble!
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine when participants are shrunk.
(Screenshot by Dr. Eriko N. Bond)
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 13. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around.
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine when participants are shrunk.
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 14. Chapter 24: Zodiac-Go-Around.
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine (when participants are shrunk).
Urusei Yatsura. Anime. Episode 14. Mendou Brings Trouble!
An
interactive voice-responding life-size giant-scale fortune
telling machine when participants are shrunk.
(Screenshot by Dr. Eriko N. Bond)
Shown below are
pages from a popular Japanese weekly-published manga, Urusei
Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens). In these pages, a
formally dressed small doll, which came out from the miniature
Shinto shrine’s pavilion gave oracle to the customers. This
manga episode also became one of the television anime episodes.
In real life, the doll used for this form of fortune telling in
Japan is simply a puppet and not computerized. The man in black
outfit shown here is called Kuroko (lit. black baby).
Kuroko can be seen in Japanese traditional Noh theaters and
Kabuki theaters. Kuroko also appeared in several other
recent Japanese popular comedy anime such as Maburaho.
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 14. Chapter 64: Fortune Cookie. (This episode also became a
television anime.)
A
Japanese fortune telling animated doll.
Urusei Yatsura.
Page 15. Chapter 64: Fortune Cookie. (This episode also became a
television anime.)
A
Japanese fortune telling animated doll.
Rare Japanese Sailor moon fortune telling crystal globe.
(Sailor moon Tarot card set made in Germany is also available.)
http://www.freewebs.com/collectionf/009.jpg
Note: The copyright
of above shown anime and manga are belonged to respectable each
anime production company.
