First known in the west through “Takagi's Blank Card Trick,” 1972, released by Lloyd Jones. Shigeo Takagi's original handling, as described by Arnold Furst in Lecture Notes of Shigeo Takagi, 1976, n.p. (item 8), did not incorporate flipping the packet over before dealing each card. Instead the hand holding the packet turned alternately palm up and palm down as the other hand dealt the upper card off the packet after each turn. Flipping the packet over may have been Jeff Busby's tweak; see Busby's note in Back to Back, 1977, n.p.

A very similar procedure was recorded by Gerald Kosky in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 20 No. 1, Sep. 1962, p. 3, in the trick “Four Messages.” Here the turn-over-and-deal procedure is done over a bottom card that remains stationary throughout. For further details, see Reinhard Müller's Escorial 2003: Cartomagia Japonesa, 2003, p. 17.