Mushroom's Perspective #12 / Field Guide: Why Wasn't the Mizutani Jun Wood Brought In?
This installment’s theme: why wasn’t the Mizutani Jun all-wood blade brought in?
Quick Take
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After Mizutani Jun retired, he kept up his work promoting and spreading the sport of table tennis. To let the general public experience the fun of the game, he specifically made this entry-level Mizutani Jun all-wood blade.
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It uses a limba outer ply plus ayous middle plies and an ayous core — a 5-ply all-wood construction. I think this design is fairly sensible: the limba provides a nice ball-grabbing feel, while the ayous provides a vibrating-yet-crisp feel along with a degree of support.
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This blade is currently only released in Japan; the model was never brought to the Chinese domestic market. Here’s why:
First: in China, Butterfly’s high-end blades are more popular, while the mid-to-low-end market is taken up by brands like DHS, Yinhe, and Sanwei. Butterfly’s value-for-money simply doesn’t look as strong there.
Second: the Mizutani all-wood also faces in-house competitors from the same brand — the Maze all-wood, the new Innerforce, the Kong Linghui, the Fortissimo, and so on. There isn’t much need to introduce it; it would just be competing against itself.
PS: The contents of the Mushroom Field Guide are all the author’s subjective impressions. Rubbers vary from piece to piece, and results also differ depending on the blade you pair them with. Comments and corrections are welcome.