Tokiwa Kōgaku

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Tokiwa Kōgaku Kōgyō Y.K. (常盤光学工業有限会社) was a Japanese company based in Tokyo, Toshima, in the early 1940s.[1] (Tokiwa means "everlasting" or "evergreen", and it is also a fairly common family name in Japan.)

Camera maker

The company name Tokiwa Kōgaku Kōgyō appears in advertisements dated 1942 and 1943 for the Zeitax, a camera otherwise attributed to Motodori Kōgaku.[2] In the April 1943 government inquiry on Japanese cameras, Tokiwa Kōgaku Kōgyō and Motodori Kōgaku Kikai Kōgyō-sho are listed at the same address,[3] and there is obviously a relation between the two. (See also the Zeitax page.)

Lenses and shutters

Tokiwa Kōgaku supplied lenses and shutters to Kuribayashi. The following items are confirmed:

The Hit 7.5cm f/3.5 four-element lens (mounted on the Auto Semi First and First Reflex II) was likely made by Tokiwa too, but this is unconfirmed.[11]

Other Tokiwa

Some recent sources say that the Tokiwa plate folders of the mid-1930s were made by Kuribayashi for Tokiwa Kōgaku,[12] but the name similarity is perhaps a mere coincidence.

It is unknown if Tokiwa Kōgaku was related with Tokiwa Seiki which made the First Six and Firstflex cameras distributed after 1945 by Minagawa Shōten (owner of the "First" brand). A company called K.K. Tokiwa Kōgaku (㈱ときわ光学) exists today (2007) but it was founded in 1956.[13]

Notes

  1. Its address was Tōkyō-shi Toshima-ku Ikebukuro 1–606 (東京市豊島区池袋1の606). Source: Advertisement dated September 1942, formerly reproduced in the Gochamaze (archived) website, advertisement dated February 1943, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.73, and "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), dating April 1943.
  2. Advertisement dated September 1942, formerly reproduced in the Gochamaze (archived) website; advertisement dated February 1943, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.73.
  3. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras").
  4. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), shutter item 18-R-1.
  5. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item La2.
  6. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item Lb18.
  7. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item Lc2.
  8. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item K5.
  9. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item Lb21.
  10. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.88.
  11. See the discussion in the page on the First Reflex.
  12. Baird, pp.15 and 57; McKeown, p.576.
  13. See its official website.

Bibliography