The first patent obtained by a Japanese person in the United States
Posted date:2025/10/05
The first patent a Japanese person obtained in America was actually for fireworks.
Hirayama Jinta, a fireworks maker from Yokohama (Japan) during the Meiji period (1868-1912), applied for and obtained a patent in the United States. The patent notice is shown below. It is three pages long.
img src="https://simhanabi.org/art/image/20250724/US282891A_1.jpg" width="250px">
Enlarge the bibliographical information section.
Inventor: Hirayama Jinta. Title of invention: Daylight Fireworks. Patent number: 282,891. Date of patent registration: August 7, 1883.
The invention involved placing designs such as pictures inside firework shell and floating them in the sky, which is thought to be similar to what we now call "Tsurimono(吊物)" in Japanese.
1868 was a time when the concept of patents had not yet become widespread around the world, and it was nearly 100 years after this application that people began to understand the importance of patents. You can see how advanced Hirayama Jinta's overseas business utilizing his patents was.
This patent was obtained during the 1868, but there is actually an episode that connects it to the present day. In 2010, when the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit was held in Yokohama, Japan, US President Obama presented a replica plaque of this patent certificate to Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a gift. This is because Prime Minister Naoto Kan is a Japanese patent attorney. In the video (Japanese version only) we have posted on Udemy, we provide a detailed explanation of this patent along with footage of the shield. Please take a look.
