Sumida

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K.K. Sumida Kōki Seisakusho (株式会社隅田光機製作所) or Sumida Optical Works was a Japanese camera maker from 1950 to 1953.[1]

Name and history

"Sumida" is the name of a river in Tokyo, and also of one of the 23 boroughs (区, ku, conventionally if misleadingly translated as "wards") of the Japanese capital. The company was installed there, first in Arakawa-ku from 1950 to 1952, then in Setagaya-ku in 1953.[2]

Sumida made a number of cameras called Proud, and it is related to the prewar Proud company. The sales department briefly used the name "Proud-sha" that was used by the earlier company. Sumida used from 1950 to 1952 a logo formed by the letters KSK, with the "S" vertically elongated to draw some sort of cross. From late 1952 to the end it used a logo formed by the words KSK Proud inside an oval, with a stylized "P". This logo is very close to the one used by the older company.

It seems that Sumida worked in cooperation with Nishida to produce the Apollo and Mikado folders.[3] It is likely that the body was made by Sumida while Nishida provided the lens and shutter, and maybe marketed the camera. These cameras are the continuation the Roavic by Miyoshi Kōgaku, itself descending from the Semi Prux by Proud. There is certainly a continuity from Proud to Miyoshi to Sumida.

Lewis says that Sumida was first called "Million Optical".[4] No further evidence has been found to sustain this. Sumida indeed marketed a camera called Million Proud, but Million is a part of the model name.


4.5×6 folding

6×6 folding

Notes

  1. The dates correspond to the earliest and latest Sumida advertisements mentioned in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 362.
  2. Source: advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 172–3. The main address from 1950 to 1952 was Tōkyō-to Arakawa-ku Minami-Senju 2, 13 (東京都荒川区南千住2の13), with the sales department (営業所) at the following address Tōkyō-to Minato-ku Shibasakurada Bizen-chō 12 (東京都港区芝桜田備前町12). In 1953 the only address is Tōkyō-to Setagaya-ku Daita 1, 748 (東京都世田谷区代田1の748).
  3. They are attributed to both companies in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 345 (for the Apollo II), and in McKeown, pp. 737–8 and 907.
  4. Lewis, p. 73.

Bibliography