Location Kanazawa University Museum

The Fourth Higher School Physics Experiment Apparatus: Japanese Magic Mirror

One of the pieces of educational experiment apparatus used at The Fourth Higher School. This item is a Japanese Magic Mirror, and was used for optics education. It is comprised of cast (iron) mirrors with the letters "taka" , "takasago" and pine tree's picture The embossed on the back. If you shine light on the surface of these mirrors and reflect it onto a wall, you will see that they are mysterious mirrors that project the characters and design found on the back onto the wall. The characters and landscape pattern on the back of the mirrors are created during casting. Next, the surface of the mirror is polished. At this time, a difference in thickness is created and a slight unevenness on the surface is produced. This causes it to act as a concave mirror, reflecting light and creating an image on the wall. Such magic mirrors have been made in Japan since ancient times. They are listed in the Shimadzu Corporation catalog as Japanese magic mirrors. The creator is said to be a person named FUJIWARA Yoshinobu.

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