Jap

[Mullins, Bill]

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>Subject:      Re: Jap
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>A standard prop for magicians is the "Jap Box", for production of
>various small items.  Magicians are aware that this is at best a dated
>name for the prop, but no one has come up with a substitute that has
>been accepted.

Both Mark Mandel and Arnold Zwicky inquire if the origin of the name of this piece of equipment may come from "japanned", meaning lacquered. I didn' know for sure, but agreed it was possible.  

Max Maven is one of the world's premier mentalists and quite a creative magician.  He is also as knowledgeable on this sort of history as anyone I can think of.  I asked:

 Max --
I recently got into a discussion on the email list of the American Dialect Society about the word "Jap" and when and how it is offensive.  I brought up the term "Jap Box" as a magician's prop and was asked if the name might have originated from "japanning", or lacquering, the finish of the box.  I don't know.

Do you know how the term originated, and if it refers to "Japanese" (since so much pre-war magic portrayed itself as Asian/Indian/Chinese/etc), or "japanning"?

and he replied:

The name does not come from "Japanning," as the device is not usually lacquered.

It is of Japanese invention, and showed up in the west in the 1870s. Early English references were more formal: [Professor] Hoffmann called it the "Japanese Inexhaustible Box."

[Magic historian Bart] Whaley cites an ad in 1911 as the first print reference using the term "Jap Box."


Cordially,

Max Maven
www.maxmaven.com

After seeing his input, I found a reference to the "Japanese Inexhaustible Box" in Professor Hoffman's _Modern Magic_, Chap 16, Miscellaneous Tricks (my copy is an undated edition).

The trick was still called this as late as Nov 1906 in Ellis Stanyon's _Magic_ magazine.  The  Dec 1911 issue, page 19, does use the term "Jap Box".