Don't Even Try To Top Koma Zuru

by Bill Giduz

 

He spins tops that are smaller than his fingenail, and tops that weigh ten pounds. Koma Zuru is the foremost performer in an ancient art that also counts him as its last professional practitioner.

 

He came to the USA from his native Japan in 1960 as part of a 32-person show from Japan. Since then he has toured the world many times over, though his performing days may be numbered at this point.

 

His family has entertained in Japan for seven generations. Zuru began performing as a dancer, and it shows in his graceful moves around the stage now as he spins tops with his fingers, palms and string and manipulates them on his palm, ropes, lanterns and fans.

 

He makes all his tops, and set up a lathe in the comer of the gym in Rapid City where he turned new ones all the time. Those which he uses in his act are made from different types of hardwood, and must be sanded and painted eight times before they are ready for public display. His novelty tops include double-decker models, those fashioned and painted as fruits and vegetables, and small hollow tops that split apart to reveal three even tinier tops hidden inside.

 

He makes tops with wooden tips, and professional models driven through with a metal spike. The latter type can spin for up to nine minutes on a smooth surface like glass, he said. A friend with a measuring machine clocked one such top at 89 revolutions per second. That combination of spike and speed can also inflict bodily harm if the top isn't caught in the hand exactly right, he noted. His hands bear numerous old scars, including one that required 13 stitches to close. When he catches a top out of the air, he first strikes the side of the spike between his thumb and forefinger. He immediately turns his hand sideways so that the top can spin on his palm.

 

As a young man, he danced in shows on US military bases in Japan, and the GIs he came to know inspired his dreams of coming to the USA. He made his father happy by deciding he would have more success as a top spinner than a dancer, and began learning the act. He first performed it publicly during ceremonies for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

 

His career was launched when Ed Sullivan saw his act shortly thereafter during a trip to Japan. He invited Zuru to appear on his show and flew him to Los Angeles for taping on Sept. 26, 1965. It was only the second Ed Sullivan Show ever broadcast in color. He was invited back for another show on Dec. 26, this time in New York. Those shows have been perpetuated as one of the acts on the new "Best of Sullivan" video, and Zuru happily accepts the pennies of royalties he receives from each sale!

 

The second appearance led to a six-week booking at Radio City Music Hall, where he created larger props for the big stage. He ended up spending four years in the USA, then went to West Germany to tape a TV show. Like his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, that led to further bookings that carried him through the next three years. Since then he has performed all over the world, but he has been disappointed to watch the market shrink during the past 15-20 years. Night clubs like the Copacabana and Latin Quarter in New York have closed, and the new influx of performers from formerly Communist countries has depressed salaries. "It was a golden time when I started. At first in Japan I had a year­long contract and was making equivalent of a monthly salary of a university graduate in just a day," he said.

 

But he notes that there are now some new amateur top spinners in Japan, and perhaps one of them will rise to take his place after he retires soon. He said his future plans may include writing a book about top spinning, and teaching young children. Their act is likely to be as different from his as his was from his father's, however.

 

His current act, which he performed in the Cascade of Stars show at Rapid City, is about seven minutes long and uses eight different tops. He presents his manipulations with a Ninja character and strong music that have evolved a long way from the traditional Japanese act he first performed, but Zuru says that's a natural result of more than three decades of international travel. He concluded, "It's not an act made in Japan anymore, it's an act created around the world."