Tougodo

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Tougodo is a Japanese camera maker, active from 1930 to the early 1960s.

History

Prewar and wartime period

The first Tougo (Tōgō) camera was released in 1930, and used the no-need-darkroom process.[1] In the late 1930s, the company was called Tōgōdō Shashin Kōgyō K.K. (東郷堂写真工業㈱) and made the Meisupi and Meikai side-by-side TLR cameras.[2]

Postwar, Toyohashi

It is said that Tōgōdō was split in two parts after the war, one based in Toyohashi City (豊橋市, in Aichi Prefecture) and the other based in Enzan City (塩山市, in Yamanashi Prefecture).[3] The best known company is that in Toyohashi. It was called Tōgōdō Seisakusho (東郷堂製作所) at the end of the 1940s,[4] and released the Hobix camera using Bolta film in 1948. The address in 1949 was Chiyoda-ku Kanda Tsukasamachi 1–9 (千代田区神田司町1–9) in Tokyo.[5] Around that time, the company was using a logo made of the letters "T" and "G" (the "G" is inside a fat "T") above the schema of a cemented doublet lens.[6]

The company name was Tōgōdō Sangyō Y.K. (東郷堂有限会社) in 1952–5, sometimes given as Y.K. Tōgōdō (有限会社東郷堂) or simply Tōgōdō (東郷堂), and sometimes preceded by the city name Toyohashi (豊橋).[7] The address was in Komoguchi, in the city of Toyohashi (豊橋市菰口町).[8] The name had become Tōgōdō Kōki K.K. (東郷堂光機㈱) in mid-1957.[9]

The Toyohashi Tōgōdō company mainly used the brands Hit, Hobix, Hobiflex and Toyoca for the Japanese market. Many of the Tougodo products were also sold under various names for export, and the Toyocaflex 6×6 TLRs is notably known for its seemingly endless list of name variants.

The Toyohashi-based company became Daishin Seiki (大真精機) at some time, stopped making cameras in the early 1960s and was still existing in the 1980s as a subcontractor for Pioneer Corp.[10]

Postwar, Yamanashi

The other Tōgōdō camera maker was called K.K. Tōgōdō (㈱東郷堂) in 1953–4, and the plant was in the Prefecture of Yamanashi (山梨).[11] It made the Muse Flex TLR and Shinkoh Rabbit or Semi Rabbit folder, distributed by Shinkō Shōji. It also had an associated sales company called Tōgōdō Shōji K.K. (東郷堂商事㈱) in 1954, whose address was Chiyoda-ku Kanda Sakuma-chō 3–21 (千代田区神田佐久間町3–21) in Tokyo, and which also advertised the Muse Flex.[12]

The Yamanashi company K.K. Tōgōdō revived the brand names Meisupii and Meikai (for the Meikaiflex pseudo TLR).[13] The company became Meikai Sangyō (メイカイ産業) in 1971 and was still producing cameras in the 1980s.[14]

Camera list

120 film

1990022468_10a9b006a8_t_d.jpg
(Image rights)

127 film

35mm film

35mm folding

35mm stereo

35mm TLR

17.5mm film

No-need-darkroom

Special rollfilm

Notes

  1. ↑ Date: Lewis, p.43, and this page by Nekosan.
  2. ↑ Advertisements dated August 1937 and April 1940 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.99. The address in 1937 was Tōkyō, Kanda (東京・神田), and it was given as Tōkyō Kanda Tachō 2–9 (東京神田多町2–9) in 1940.
  3. ↑ Sugiyama, p.265, and this page by Nekosan.
  4. ↑ Advertisement dated January 1949 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.181.
  5. ↑ Advertisement dated January 1949 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.181.
  6. ↑ Logo on the advertisement dated January 1949 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.181, and on some examples of the Semi Hobix.
  7. ↑ "Tōgōdō Sangyō Y.K.": advertisements dated May and December 1952, May 1953, January, October and November 1955 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.152, 182 and 205. "Toyohashi Y.K. Tōgōdō": advertisement dated February 1954 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.182. "Toyohashi Tōgōdō": advertisements dated June, July and August 1953 and August 1954 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.166, 181 and 182. "Tōgōdō": advertisements dated April, June and September 1955, November 1956 and March 1957, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.152, 165 and 259.
  8. ↑ Komoguchi-chō 30 (菰口町30): advertisements dated May and December 1952 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.182. Komoguchi-chō Tsubura 30 (菰口町津夫良30): advertisements dated June, July and August 1953 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.166, 181 and 182. Komoguchi-chō 3–95 (菰口町3–95): advertisements dated February and August 1954, January, April, June, October and November 1955, June and November 1957 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.152, 181, 182, 205, 259 and 260.
  9. ↑ "Tōgōdō Kōki K.K.": advertisements dated June and November 1957 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.259 and 260.
  10. ↑ Sugiyama, p.265.
  11. ↑ "K.K. Tōgōdō": advertisements dated January 1953 and May 1954 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.140, 200 and 205. Plant in Yamanashi: advertisement dated May 1954 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.200.
  12. ↑ Advertisement dated May 1954, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.200.
  13. ↑ Sugiyama, p.265. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp.370 and 409, attribute the Meisupii and Meica 35 to a company called Meikōsha (明興社), for an unknown reason.
  14. ↑ Sugiyama, p.265.

Bibliography

  • 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.
  • 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).
  • Naka Kazunori (中一訓). "Shashin Zuisō: Tōgō kamera" (写真随想・トーゴーカメラ, Photographic thoughts: Tougo cameras). In Camera Collectors' News no.47 (May 1981). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.25–6.
  • 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.

Links

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In Japanese:

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