Misuzu Shōkai
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Misuzu Shōkai (i.e. Misuzu Trading Company) was a Japanese distributor from 1936 to 1944, then again from 1947 to the early 1950s. It sold a number of cameras under its own brands, and it perhaps made some cameras as well: it is said that the Midget subminiature was manufactured by the company.[1]
It was founded on June 1st, 1922 as simply Misuzu Shōkai (美篶商会) and became K.K. Misuzu Shōkai (株式会社美篶商会) on May 16th, 1936. On June 24th, 1965, it changed its name again to Misuzu Shōkai K.K. (美スズ商会株式会社, abandoning the kanji character, whose reading is hard to guess). The company was still in existence in 2004.[2]
Contents
Cameras sold by Misuzu under its own name
- Vest Alex (4×6.5, 1936–1938), later sold by Riken as the Vest Olympic
- Midget (1937)
- Romax 6.5×9cm plate folder (1938)
- New Midget (1939, again in 1947)
- New Midget II f:4.5 (1940)
- Andes Four (1941)
- Semi Lead (4.5×6 folder, 1943–4)
The website of the company said that the Midget was made by Misuzu itself.
Other cameras distributed by Misuzu
- Alpenflex by Hachiyo Optical
- Semi Leotax by Shōwa Kōgaku (prewar and wartime period)
- Well Standard and Well Super by Nihon Kōki
- Olympus Standard and Semi Olympus II by Takachiho (Misuzu was an authorized dealer)
- Romax (6×6) (Misuzu was an authorized dealer)
Notes
- ↑ Midget page of the Misuzu official website (web archive version Sep 24, 2004).
- ↑ Chronology of the Misuzu official website (web archive version Sep 24, 2004).
Links
In Japanese:
- A web archive version (Sep 24, 2004) of the Misuzu Shōkai corporate site, which is currently (June 2006) offline. There is a company presentation, with a chronology (important source for this page) and the history of Misuzu's name, and a page presenting a Midget camera. (If the text is garbled rather than Japanese, switch the encoding to Shift-JIS.)
