Messy Mysteries Drill Down #1: Who INVENTED Our Hobby? I Found the FATHER of DIAMOND PAINTING

💎 Who INVENTED Diamond Painting? 💎 Google says a Chinese laser company in 2010. I believed it too. Then I opened the patent everybody links to: it's from 2013, and it's about cutting VELVET. 😳 So I kept clicking, through Chinese filings, a Diamond Art Club patent and a Japanese government database, to one name: a man in Nara, Japan, who wrote our hobby down in September 1969. 🥹 Welcome to the first ever Messy Mysteries Drill Down! 🔍 I take one question about this hobby that everybody thinks they know the answer to, and I keep clicking until I find the proof. Grab your pen, this one's a journey. ✨ ⚠️ READ THIS FIRST ⚠️ I am NOT here to take credit away from anybody. Masao Ishida may be the father of this hobby, but it took a whole lot of grandparents, aunties and uncs to raise it, and I want every one of them on the record. 💕 The family tree, in order: 👴 Joe C. Gunn, 1963: number on the bag matches the picture. With BEANS. 👴 John C. Geraty, 1965: sticky board, peel-off cover, sprinkle plastic bits. Sand art's grandpa. 🌟 Masao Ishida, Nara, 1969: THE idea. Sticky layer that never dries, peel the cover, press one bead onto its color, move it if you messed up, seal under glass. That's us. That's what we do every night. 🏭 Hamanaka, Kyoto, 1970s: boxed it as Bea Touch and sold it with a PEN. Earliest pick-and-place pen I could find. Thank you, Hamanaka. 🖊️ 🧵 China's cross-stitch industry, 2001 to 2012: the grid, the symbols, the numbered bags, the shops. 🧵 Zhejiang Dicai Crafts, 2011: a cross-stitch maker that said "what if... sparkly?" 💎 Ma Hong'ai, March 2012: earliest filing named 钻石画, diamond painting, full modern kit. Possibly named our hobby. 🟦 Zhou Licheng, Sept 2012: full coverage SQUARE drills. Square gang, this is your guy. 🖊️ Wu Xiaoming, Dec 2012: first written mention of the pick-up tool as already in use. 🏢 Yiwu Lanxin, May 2013: first company filing, nine-facet square drills. 🔦 Han's Yueming Laser, July 2013: laser-cut velvet. Mistaken for the invention because nobody read it. 🏆 Diamond Art Club, 2024: the patent where an examiner reached back to 1969 and handed me the clue. And the thousands of factory workers, kit designers, shop owners and crafters whose names are on nothing at all, who turned a Japanese bead kit and a Chinese cross-stitch chart into the thing on your desk right now. I see you. 🫶 📚 SOURCES, in video order. Click them. That's the whole point. 😉 The story everybody tells: Diamond Art Club blog: diamondartclub.com/blogs/diamond-painting/who-invented-diamond-painting Outside the Box Mom, Apr 21, 2021: outsidetheboxmom.com/a-complete-outlook-of-the-diamond-painting/ Fillmore County Journal, May 3, 2021: fillmorecountyjournal.com/hobby-a-new-mosaic-art-form-diamond-painting/ Floating Styles (Wayback, 2021): web.archive.org/web/20210419161047/https://www.floatingstyles.com/blogs/diamond-painting/what-is-diamond-painting-your-intro-guide-to-this-cool-craft Wikipedia draft (EverybodyWiki copy): en.everybodywiki.com/Diamond_Painting The patent everybody cites: patents.google.com/patent/CN103358798A/en The Chinese paper trail: patents.google.com/patent/CN202541180U/zh patents.google.com/patent/CN202742965U/zh patents.google.com/patent/CN203032271U/zh patents.google.com/patent/CN203344610U/zh patents.google.com/patent/CN203564000U/zh patents.google.com/patent/CN102628203A/zh Sina Finance, Dec 27, 2003: finance.sina.cn/sa/2003-12-27/detail-ikknscsi1018460.d.html Dicai: pitchhub.36kr.com/project/2143023409463554 The clue: patents.google.com/patent/US11878547B1/en Masao Ishida 🌟 patents.google.com/patent/JPS4737747Y1/en patents.google.com/patent/JPS512078Y1/en patents.google.com/patent/US3680225A/en patents.google.com/patent/GB1327054A/en J-PlatPat, search 実公昭47-037747: j-platpat.inpit.go.jp Gunn: patents.google.com/patent/US3176836A/en Geraty: patents.google.com/patent/US3315374A/en The kit that got made: Hamanaka: patents.google.com/patent/US4083740A/en Yahoo Japan Q&A (Wayback): web.archive.org/web/2026/https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q10299805320 Vintage Bea Touch kit (Rakuma listing, Kintoki Shoten): item.fril.jp/5bb4b4ef00b148ceb3b1d79b9128432e Hamanaka Bea Touch (Japan only): amuuse-hamanaka.com/html/page65.html 🙏 HELP ME No photo of Masao Ishida exists online. No interview, no obituary. If you're in Japan or read Japanese, PLEASE comment. I want to put his face in a video and say thank you. 🥹 ✏️ Got something wrong? Tell me and I'll pin the fix. I'd rather be corrected than be another copy of a copy. 🔜 Next: Who Owns a Render, the Company or the Artist? DAC v Hannah Lynn Subscribe if this was worth your time! 💎 No human-drawn logo until I hit a thousand of you. Tell me what origin story YOU'D heard, and whether you ever clicked the link. I hadn't. Not until now. 😅 #diamondpainting #diamondart #crafthistory #messydiamonds #messymysteries #mysterydiamondpainting #diamondpaintingmystery #whodunit