Japanese formats
Until about 1960, the name of plate and film formats in Japan was usually not a direct translation of what was used in other countries.
Plate formats
The plate formats used in Japan came either from the inch-based English system or from the metric continental system. From the beginning of the XXth century to the 1920s, inch-based formats were the most popular. The three main formats were called kabine, tefuda and meishi. Kabine corresponds to "half-plate": 4¾×6½″=12.1×16.5cm. Tefuda corresponds to "quarter-plate": 3¼×4¼″=8.3×10.8cm. Meishi is the half of tefuda, about 5.4×8.3cm. In today's sources, these formats are usually rounded to 12×16.5cm, 8×10.5cm and 5.5×8cm respectively. The American 4×5″ format was called nimaigake and was used for a few cameras only.
No.0 size was a smaller format, half of meishi, about 4.2×5.4cm, usually rounded to 4×5cm in modern sources. It was introduced in 1901 on the Britannia No.0 sold by Ueda, and met some success with the Sweet camera sold by Sone, to the point that it was often called sweet-size as well. Sweet-size was mainly used for inexpensive cameras and was supplemented by metric 4.5×6cm, called atom after the ICA Atom models.
In the 1910s and 1920s, meishi was gradually replaced by metric 6.5×9cm, called daimeishi, meaning large meishi. Similarly, metric 13×18cm was called daikabine and was used on view or studio cameras. Tefuda was the only inch-based format to remain popular until World War II.
Film formats
The common film formats received a nickname in Japan, used until the late 1950s. This name was usually that of the camera which made the format popular in the country, the same as for plate sweet and atom size. Full-frame 6×9cm on 120 film was dubbed brownie-size, after the Kodak Brownie, and 4×6.5cm on 127 film was vest-size, after the Vest Pocket Kodak.
The half-frame and square formats on 120 film were called semi (4.5×6cm) and six (6×6cm) after the "Semi Ikonta" and "Ikonta Six", commercial names of the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 4.5×6cm and 6×6cm models in Japan. This is why most of the cameras produced in that format have "Semi" or "Six" in their name.
For 127 film, most of the 3×4cm cameras were called "Baby", after the "Baby Ikonta", and most of the 4×4cm cameras were called "Four" by analogy with the "Six". However the film formats themselves were usually given as "sixteen exposures on Vest film" or "twelve exposures on Vest film". The name leica-size was sometimes used for 24×36mm format on 35mm film, but this was less common.
After World War II, brownie-size and vest-size disappeared and the names "Brownie film" or "Vest film" for 120 and 127 film gradually went into disuse. The names Semi and Six were used until about 1960, and were replaced by "645" and "66" on later cameras. After 1960, the Japanese names for film formats became direct translations of the foreign equivalents, and the tradition of giving nicknames after a successful camera brand disappeared: after the introduction of the Olympus Pen in 1959, 18×24mm was significantly called half-size instead of pen-size.
