Yamashita
Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten (山下友治郎商店, meaning "Yamashita Yūjirō Trading") was a Japanese company based in Tokyo.[1] Yamashita Yūjirō is a personal name, perhaps the name of the founder. It acted as authorized dealers for a variety of cameras and it also sold some cameras under its own name, among which the Sun Stereo, a stereo box camera that it perhaps manufactured itself.
It was the distributed of the Rondo photographic products and used the Rondo logo on advertisements dated 1939 to 1942.[2] It also sold a variant of the Tsubasa Super Semi called Rondex.[3]
The company name became simply Yamashita Shōten[4] (山下商店, meaning Yamashita Trading), without the first name Yūjirō. The fact that it is the same company is confirmed by the common address. Under that name, it distributed products made by Shinkō, among which the Shinkoflex, the first Japanese 6×6 SLR.
Contents
Distributed cameras
- Rondex (4.5×6 folder, name variant of the Tsubasa Super Semi, 1940)
- Shinkoflex (6×6 SLR with focal plane shutter, 1940)
- Shinko Super (6×6 viewfinder with focal plane shutter, 1942)
- Shinko Baby (3×4 viewfinder)
Cameras sold as authorized dealer
- Hansa Semi Rollette and Hansa Rollette Ref (1937)[5]
- Bakyna (1937)[6]
- Olympus Standard, Semi Olympus and Semi Olympus II (1937)[7]
- Optochrom range (1937–9)[8]
- Semi Proud (prewar) (1937–42)[9]
- Semi Prux (1940)[10]
- Semi Rody (1941–2)[11]
- Picny (1938)[12]
- Boltax (1938–42)[13]
- Bolty (1942)[14]
- Enlarging Zuiko 50/4.5[15]
Other
- Shinko enlarger (1942)
Notes
- ↑ Its address from 1937 to 1942 was Tōkyō-shi Kōjimachi-ku Kōjimachi 1–6 (東京市麴町區麴町一丁目六). Source: advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 62, 74, 89–90, 92–3 and 106.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 89, 93 and 106, advertisement reproduced in the Gochamaze website and advertisement reproduced in Nostalgic Camera by Toshio Inamura.
- ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 344.
- ↑ Advertisement dated February 1942 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 74. The Shinkoflex page of the JCII collection says Yamashita Shōkai (山下商会), probably by mistake.
- ↑ Extract of the catalogue of Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten dated April 20, 1937, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 84.
- ↑ Extract of the catalogue of Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten dated April 20, 1937, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 91.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 62.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 78–9.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 89–90.
- ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 90.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 89 and 106.
- ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Awano, p. 10 of Camera Collectors' News no. 332.
- ↑ Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 89, 92–3 and 106, and in Awano, p. 10 of Camera Collectors' News no. 332.
- ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 93.
- ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Nostalgic Camera by Toshio Inamura.
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.
- Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Picny" (ピクニー). In Camera Collectors' News no. 332 (February 2005). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha.
