Mizuno

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Mizuno Shashinki-ten (水野写真機店) was a Japanese company based in Tokyo.

Before the war, it was installed as a camera shop facing the Ueno station.[1] It was already active in 1926, and manufactured field cameras.[2] The company distributed various cameras in the late 1930s and early 1940s, some of which were perhaps specifically made for it.

Mizuno survived the war and distributed the Gelto and Middl 120 in the early 1950s. The address at the time was Tōkyō-to Taitō-ku Kita-inarichō 1 (東京都台東区北稲荷町1).[3] The trace of the company is lost after 1953.

Cameras sold as a distributor

Cameras sold as an authorized dealer

Field cameras

In an advertisement in Ars Camera June 1926, Mizuno Shōten offered four models of field cameras (野外暗函), made in its own factory (弊工場). All have double extension bellows, true leather bellows and a Thornton-type (roller-blind) shutter, and were supplied with a three-stage tripod, a dedicated case and a tripod bag. The various models were listed as follows:

  • Model A, kabine size (12×16.5cm), Carl Zeiss Tessar #16, ¥175;
  • Model B, kabine size (12×16.5cm), Meyer Aristoplanat 7½″ f/7.7, ¥69;
  • Model C, yottsukiri size, Carl Zeiss Tessar #18, ¥365;
  • Model D, yottsukiri size, Meyer Aristoplanat f/7.7, ¥167.

Notes

  1. The address is merely Tōkyō Ueno-ekimae (東京上野駅前) in the advertisement in Ars Camera June 1926. It is Tōkyō-shi Shitaya-ku Kurumazaka-chō 39 Ueno-ekimae (東京市下谷区車坂町三九・上野駅前) in other documents dated 1936 to 1943: advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.72–3, 80–1 and 105–6, and undated leaflet by Ōhashi Takeji Shōten.
  2. Advertisement in Ars Camera June 1926.
  3. Advertisements dated July 1952 to January 1953 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.136 and 192.
  4. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.80.
  5. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.81.
  6. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.105–6.
  7. "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō", November 1941, type 3, sections 4A and 7A.
  8. Undated leaflet by Ōhashi Takeji Shōten.
  9. Advertisement in Asahi Camera, February 1938, p.A42.
  10. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.72–3.
  11. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.58, 60 and 99.
  12. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.136.
  13. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.192.

Bibliography

  • Ars Camera. Advertisement by Mizuno Shōten in June 1926. No page number.
  • Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7.
  • "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō" (カメラの公定価格官報発表, Official announcement of the set prices of the cameras), November 1941. Extract of a table listing Japanese camera production and setting the retail prices, reproduced in "Bebī Semi Fāsuto 'Kore ha bebī wo nanotta semi-ki da'" (ベビーセミファースト"これはベビーを名乗ったセミ機だ", Baby Semi First, 'this is a Semi camera called Baby'), an article by Furukawa Yasuo (古川保男) in Camera Collectors' News no. 277 (July 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P. 27.
  • Ōhashi Takeji Shōten (大橋武治商店). Leaflet for the Baby Light and the Cross filters and hood. Date not indicated. Document partly reproduced in this Flickr album by Rebollo_fr.