Shashin Kōgyō

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Shashin Kōgyō (写真工業) was a monthly Japanese magazine about optical and photographic equipment and the photographic industry, published from 1952 until 2008.

Shashin Kōgyō — whose title means "the photographic industry"[1] and the cover of whose first issue[2] reads "PHOTOGRAPHIC INDUSTRIES" — was first published by Kōgasō (光画荘) and dated June 1952. Starting with the February–March 1961 issue it was published by Shashin Kōgyō Shuppansha (写真工業出版社).

In recent years much of most issues has been devoted to older cameras; even in 2007 much more space was devoted to film than to digital equipment. Many articles are devoted to specific old cameras and lenses; these are often anecdotal and essayistic but can be detailed. For some years, the magazine has been running seemingly interminable series devoted to the minutiae of Leitz lens hoods, lens caps, and so forth. This can be hard to take seriously.[3]

The last issue of the magazine was released in December 2008. The publisher announced that the publication would cease "because of the sudden changes in the photographic world caused by the recent move to digital technology".[4]

Covers

Notes

  1. Or industries, plural: Japanese lacks the obligatory single/plural distinction of English.
  2. Reproduced within Shashin zasshi no kiseki.
  3. But their devotees may find equally bizarre the articles here about such gems as the Baby Virus.
  4. Shashin Kōgyō December 2008, p.130: 昨今のデジタル化による業界の急激な変化により.

Sources

  • Shirayama Mari (白山眞理). "Nihon no shashin/kamera zasshi" (日本の写真・カメラ雑誌). Nihon shashin-shi gaisetsu (日本写真史概説, "An outline history of photography in Japan"). Tokyo: Iwanami, 1999. ISBN 4-00-008381-3. P.42.
  • Shirayama Mari (白山眞理). Shashin zasshi no kiseki (写真雑誌の奇跡, "Traces of camera magazines"). Tokyo: JCII Library, 2001. P.15.