Tsubasa Arawashi

Japanese Baby (3×4) and Four (4×4) (edit)

folding
3×4	Baby Balnet \| Doris \| Baby Doris \| Baby Germa \| Kinsi \| Baby Leotax \| Loren \| Baby Lyra \| Baby Pearl \| Baby Pilot \| Baby Rosen \| Baby Suzuka \| Walz
4×4	Adler Four \| Rosen Four
rigid or collapsible
3×4	Baika \| Baby Chrome \| Comet \| Cyclon \| Gelto \| Baby Germa \| Gokoku \| Hamond \| Baby Hawk \| Kinka Lucky \| Lausar \| Light \| Baby Light \| Molby \| Mulber \| Olympic \| Baby Ōso \| Peacock \| Picny \| Ricohl \| Rorox \| Shinko Baby \| Slick \| Baby Sport \| Tsubasa Arawashi \| Baby Uirus \| Zessan
3.5×4	Kenko 35
4×4	Alma Four \| Andes Four \| Anny 44 \| Arsen \| Balnet Four \| Bonny Four \| Freude \| Kalimar 44 \| Auto Keef \| Kraft \| Letix \| Mykey-4 \| Olympic Four \| Roico \| Royal Senior \| Seica \| Terra Junior \| Vero Four \| Welmy 44 \| Yashica Future 127
unknown
	Baby First \| Baby Lyra Flex
Japanese SLR, TLR, pseudo TLR and stereo models ->
Japanese 4×5 and 4×6.5, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The Tsubasa Arawashi^[1] (ベビー・オーソ) is a 3×4 camera made by the Japanese company Optochrom in 1939–40.

The body is surely metallic. There is a tubular optical finder centered on the top plate, and the advance knob is at the bottom right of the camera.

The Tsubasa Arawashi is advertised in 1939 in two variants:

f:6.3 lens and Tsubasa B, 25–100 shutter (¥20);
f:4.5 lens and Tsubasa T, B, 25–150 shutter (¥30).

The lens name is New Gold in an advertisement dated June^[2] and Lucomar in another dated September^[3].

The camera is still advertised in 1940^[4], in both f:6.3 and f:4.5 variants. They are offered at the same price as before but the shutter speeds are not precised.

The Tsubasa Arawashi also appears in a later Japanese catalogue^[5], together with the Tsubasa Chrome, Olympic Four and Vest Olympic. The only variant offered has B, 25, 50, 100 speeds and a Lucomar f:6.3 lens, and the price is ¥25 — case ¥6.70 extra.

Notes

↑ Arawashi means "wild eagle" or "ace pilot"; it can be written as 荒鷲 but it appears in katakana (アラワシ) in advertisements seen so far.
↑ Advertisement for the Tsubasa Arawashi, published in the June 1939 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, item 148.
↑ Advertisement for the Tsubasa Arawashi and Tsubasa Super Semi, published in the September 1939 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, item 148 and item 149.
↑ Advertisement for the Tsubasa II Super Semi and Tsubasa Arawashi, published in the April 1940 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, item 150.
↑ Observed at a Yahoo Japan auction

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. Item 148–50.