Hikosuke Tamasu, founder of Tamasu Co., Ltd., was born on August 20, 1920, in Yanai Town, Yamaguchi Prefecture (now Yanai City), as the eldest son of the Tamasu family. Drawn to table tennis at a time when few people were involved in the sport, he threw himself into it with remarkable dedication. As he grew older, he refined his skills to the point of reaching the podium in every event at the All Japan Table Tennis Championships, finishing second in men's singles and men's doubles and winning the mixed doubles title.
His devotion to table tennis was, at times, so intense it astonished those around him. In 1941, when table tennis was dropped from the Meiji Shrine Sports Meet (now the Japan Games) on the grounds that it was a “soft sport,” Hikosuke was outraged. He fired off a scathing protest letter to government authorities and the Japan Table Tennis Association, and went even further by participating in a local marathon in Yamaguchi Prefecture to defend the honor of table tennis. Running with the resolution of “victory or death,” he won. The next morning, newspapers ran the headline “Tamasu of Table Tennis Wins,” and he knew his mission was accomplished.
During his years as a player, Hikosuke struggled to obtain rubbers, an experience that sparked a clear ambition: to manufacture high–performance rubbers in Japan that were available to anyone. In 1950, he founded Tamasu Co., Ltd., a company dedicated to table tennis equipment. Since then, guided by the motto “Keep digging the small well, sticking to the table tennis world,” the company has devoted itself to in–house production of high–performance, high–quality blades and rubbers.
In 1957, driven by a long–held passion to create a practical coaching guide for junior high and high school students who had no coaches, he launched The Table Tennis Report. The publication gained a wide readership as a trusted technical guide for table tennis fans across Japan, while also contributing to the overall rise in the country's competitive level.
In 1983, driven by a desire to give back to the table tennis community through the profits earned from equipment sales, he built the Butterfly Table Tennis Dohjo as a training ground for young players. Since then, and to this day, players and coaches from many countries have visited the facility, which has also served as an important hub for international exchange.
These energetic initiatives, reaching far beyond the conventional role of an equipment manufacturer, inspired and captivated countless people in the table tennis world. In July 2004, after witnessing both the growth of the Butterfly brand he had founded and the advancement of his lifelong dream to promote and expand table tennis, he passed away, deeply mourned by many.
“Imagine that the player is the flower and we would like to be the butterfly flying around the flower providing the necessities.”
The spirit Hikosuke instilled in the Butterfly continues to live on today, carried forward by those who follow in his footsteps, even many years after his passing.