These were made in Japan and owned by J. A. Storer in the 1960's. The Cleverwood Page credits these simple types of burrs to Tsunetaro Yamanaka (born 1874) and his descendants; here is a diagram of a cube from the 1942 Filipiak book, and an inexpensive circa 2000 plastic ball:



Further Reading
Cleverwood Page, from: http://www.cleverwood.com/kumiki.htm