Mima

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Mima Shōkai (美馬商会) was a Japanese company of the 1950s. Its address was Minami-ku Shiomachi (南区塩町) 2–35 in Osaka.[1]

Mima distributed the Princeflex and Prince Junior 6×6 TLR cameras from 1953 to 1956. These were made by the company Tōyō Seiki Kōgaku, and perhaps by Cosmo Camera Seisakusho after 1955. They were advertised with a P.C.W. logo and the name "Prince Camera Works" (プリンスカメラワークス) next to the distributor's name.[2] (This is certainly why these cameras are sometimes mistakenly attributed to a "Prince Camera Co.")[3] The Prince brand name, "Prince Camera Works" trademark and P.C.W. logo were already used before 1945 by Fukada Shōkai. They were probably recovered by Mima from Fukada, of which it was perhaps a successor.

Notes

  1. Advertisements dated September 1953 to January 1956, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.176–7.
  2. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.167–7. A very similar advertisement is reproduced here at Shashin-Bako.
  3. For example in Sugiyama, item 2225, and McKeown, p.803.

Bibliography

Links

In Japanese: