Oriental

Oriental Shashin Kōgyō K.K. (オリエンタル写真工業株式会社, Oriental Photo Industrial Co., Ltd.) was a Japanese film maker founded in 1919. It used the Orient, Peacock and OK trademarks, and was using an OPIC logo (presumably for Oriental Photo Industrial Co.) at least from 1936 onwards. It made or distributed large format field cameras in the 1920s or 1930s. It also published a photographic magazine, Photo-Times. It made an attempt at exporting some products in the mid-1930s, placing advertisements in the 1937 and 1938 editions of The British Journal Photographic Almanac.

It is said that the company Tōyō Kōki Seizō, which made the Peacock cameras from 1939, was a subsidiary of Oriental. It was merged into the main company in 1944, becoming its optical instruments branch (光機部門), dissolved in 1945.

The company became Cyber Graphics in 2000 and still (2012) exists under that name.

Advertisements

Advertisement for Oriental plates in Asahi Camera February 1930. (Image rights)	Advertisement for Oriental products in The British Journal Photographic Almanac 1937 and 1938. (Image rights)

Advertisement for Oriental film in Shinkō Graph August 1938. (Image rights)	Advertisement for Oriental paper in Shinkō Graph November 1940. (Image rights)

Bibliography

• Asahi Camera. Advertisement by Oriental Shashin Kōgyō in February 1930 (p.A14).
• 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.
• Fujishima Kōichi (藤島広一), Nakamura Kin (中村欽). "Kurashikku kamera Q&A" (クラシックカメラQ&A, Classic camera questions and answers). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.159–61.
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard).
• Shinkō Graph (新光グラフ). Advertisements by Oriental:
  • August 1938, back cover;
  • November 1940, back cover.
• Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Item 1014.
• The British Journal Photographic Almanac 1937, edited by Arthur J. Dalladay. London: Henri Greenwood & Co., Ltd. Publication date not indicated, certainly late 1936. Advertisement by Oriental Photo Industrial Co., Ltd. on p.642.
• The British Journal Photographic Almanac 1938, edited by Arthur J. Dalladay. London: Henri Greenwood & Co., Ltd. Publication date not indicated, certainly late 1937. Advertisement by Oriental Photo Industrial Co., Ltd. on p.660.

Links

• Official website of Cyber Graphics
• Oriental large format camera at Kan's Room, reproducing an e-mail sent from an employee of Cyber Graphics about the history of the company