Kumagai Genji
Kumatani Genji (熊谷源二)[1] was a Japanese camera designer, who notably developed the Nippon, a wartime Leica copy, predecessor of the Nicca.
Kumatani was born in 1912.[2] He entered the company Seiki Kōgaku (predecessor of Canon) around 1935, and worked at the production of the Hansa Canon, distributed by Ōmiya Shashin-yōhin.[3]
Kumatani left Seiki Kōgaku in the late 1930s because the company's main activity was shifting to military contracts, whereas he was mainly interested in camera production.[3] He hired a small workshop in the same building as the company Ishii Shōkai, distributor of the Echt products, and specialized in the repair and transformation of high-end cameras, notably adding a coupled rangefinder to viewfinder-only Leica models.[4] Some of these converted Leica might still exist today, but none has been identified so far.
After some time, Kumatani was ordered by Ōmiya's boss Noro Hikota (野呂彦田) to set up a repair workshop for the Canon models, together with seven other former employees of Seiki Kōgaku.[5] This was run as a semi-independent business called Kōgaku Seiki, with Ōmiya's funds and at the first floor of one of Ōmiya's buildings. In parallel to the repair activity, Kumatani began to work on his own Leica-like design, and made the first Nippon in the early 1940s.[6] Kumatani later related that during that period, German people working at Schmidt Shōkai, the importer of the Leica, offered him to set up a company using the Leitz patents, but this was probably an informal offer, with no prior approval of the German company.[7]
Kumatani's workshop moved to another building belonging to the distributor Ōsawa Shōkai in March 1945, and escaped Tokyo's fire bombings unscathed.[8] The workshop moved again in 1946 and in 1947, while the production of the Nippon was slowly restarting.[8] Kumatani left the company in 1948, shortly after the model name was changed to Nicca.[9]
Kumatani related that he participated in the production of the Honor S1, taking over a project by Daiichi Kōgaku after the latter's bankruptcy — this was certainly the Ichicon-35.[10] However his exact role in the development and production of the Honor remains unclear. His last attempt at camera production was the Jeicy,[7] a Leica copy with opening back and 1/1000 top speed, reusing some parts of the Ichicon-35 and early Honor S1. The name Jeicy Camera Works engraved on the camera's top cover was invented by Kumatani Genji, and did not correspond to an actual company.[11]
Various other Leica copies were created by former employees of Kumatani at Kōgaku Seiki, such as the Tanack by Tanaka, the Chiyoca and Chiyotax by Reise or the Melcon by Meguro.
Notes
- ↑ The name is given in the Japanese order: Kumatani is the family name and Genji is the given name.
- ↑ Shirai, p.21 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shirai, p.22 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, pp.22–3 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, pp.21 and 23 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, pp.23–4 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Shirai, p.26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shirai, p.24 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, p.25 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, p.25 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte: さらには、ニッポンカメラの製造を譲りうけたいといって、カメラを持っていったゼノビア光学は倒産して、だれかがそこから持ち出したカメラが、「オーナー」という名で熊谷氏にことわりなく作られた.
- ↑ Shirai, p.25 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte: これはカメラ界で最後に作ろうとして果たせなかった会社の名である.
Bibliography
- Shirai Tatsuo (白井達男). "Nippon Kamera" (ニッポンカメラ, Nippon Camera). Pp.17–26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte (幻のカメラを追って, Pursuing phantom cameras). Gendai Kamera Shinsho (現代カメラ新書). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1982. ISBN 4-257-08077-9. (First published in Kamera Rebyū / Camera Review no.2, February 1978.) Contains an interview of Kumatani Genji.
