Camera Taiyōdō
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Preface[edit]
Aside from surviving cameras, there are very few documented details of this small post-WWII Tokyo camera shop that developed a manufacturing capability, and went on to sell models throughout most of the Western World between 1948 and 1963, firstly as Taiyōdō Koki and latterly as the Beauty Camera Company. An insight into the enterprise is only possible through rare surviving advertising material, and the recollections of veteran staff who worked in the main Camera Taiyōdō store prior to its closure in 2013.
History[edit]
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Camera Taiyōdō (カメラ太陽堂) was a shop at the Jinbōchō Crossing, Chiyoda, Tokyo, opened in 1947 by Kunio Doi[1]. It initially sold second-hand cameras. Advertisements offering to purchase and exchange equipment where placed in the January and July 1946 issues of Ars Camera[2] (a magazine for amateur enthusiasts) and local theatre programmes[3].
The beginnings of the company were recounted in a 2010 interview of the veteran staff of Camera Taiyōdō published by Senshu University of Chiyoda [4]. This document records the that Camera Taiyōdō added the manufacturing arm - Taiyōdō Koki (太陽堂光機㈱) - in 1948. The camera factory was located behind the Jinbōchō Crossing shop, the store entrance being on the front of a four-story facility, which is still known as the "Camera Taiyōdō Building" today[5].
In the early 1950s Taiyōdō Koki made various types of cameras beginning with sub-miniatures[6] followed by a 6x6 folder and SLR, but were best known for TLRs given names that were variations of Beauty (e.g. Beauty, Beautyflex[7], Beautycord). These were sold from their Tokyo shops mainly to US troops, exported to North European countries, the USA[8], Asia[9] and South America[10]. They were also rebadged for sale outside of Japan by the Dutch importer Fodor (Fodorflex), Miller-Outcult (Milo 35) and the United States Camera Corporation of Chicago (USC Auto 50), plus the mail-order giant Ward Montgomery (Wardflex) in the USA. Taiyōdō Koki also rebranded some of their products under the name "Gen" for sale in Canada[11], and "CSL Photoflex" (the market for which is a mystery).
According to page 104 of "The History of the Japanese Camera" [12], which list Japanese companies that became bankrupt, Taiyōdō Koki suffered a similar fate in September 1957. However, Lewis's claim is unqualified, and seems unlikely to be true since Taiyōdō Koki would have been the only 1950s Japanese Company to have survived bankruptcy, and did so with remarkable speed[13]. More significantly, Taiyōdō Koki published an article in the 23rd March 1957 edition of "Army Times"[14]. This described their plans for the manufacture and distribution of new models, and specifically a shift from TLRs to 35mm rangefinder cameras. The plans described were fully delivered over the following year, and by December 1957 the manufacturer had adopted a new name - the Beauty Camera Company ビューティカメラ㈱) - to match that of their products, as did many other better known companies of the time (such as Canon, Minolta, Nikon). There were no post-September 1957 changes of direction as one might expect of a company in need of reorganisation due to Bankruptcy.
In the early 1960s, the Beauty Lightomatic III was imported into the UK by Dixons. The last camera produced by the Beauty Camera Company was the 1963 Lightmatic SP. However, Camera Taiyōdō remained in business, at the same Jinbōchō Crossing shop, until 30th June 2013. Their closure was immortalised by numerous camera collecting Japanese bloggers [15].
Camera Taiyōdō is known to have operated other shops at various times, including Terminal 1 of Narita International Airport, the Tokyu Hotel, and another store at Shijuku Station in Tokyo[16]. Today there are still shops in Japan that trade under the name Camera Taiyōdō, but it is not known whether they have any connection to the original Tokyo store.
Taiyōdō Kōki models[edit]
Listed by type in date order
for 17.5mm film
- Meteor
- Vestkam
- Epochs
- Beauty 14
for 16mm film
- Spy 16
- Beauty 16
6×6 TLRs
- Beauty Flex (with geared-lens focusing & red-window frame counter/advance)
- II (two versions with 75mm and 80mm lenses)
- IIA
- IV (early & late versions)
- V (rebranded as the CSL Photoflex)
- Beauty (Beauty and Beautyflex (one word) with moving baseboard focusing & mechanical frame counter)
- Beauty (home market version of the Beautyflex S)
- III S (home market model with 75mm lenses)
- Beautyflex
- S
- T (rebranded as the Wardflex model 120, and rebadged as the Gen-flex)
- 28 (three model variations)
- K
- U
- D (four shutter variations)
- Copal MX
- Rectus MX
- Synchro-MX (rebadged as the Wardflex II, USC Auto Fifty, and rebranded as the SCL Photoflex)
- Synchro-MXV on Fodorflex rebadge only
- Beautycord (four models offered as lower specification alternatives to the Beautyflexes)
6×6 SLR
- Reflex Beauty I & II
6×6 folders
- Beauty Six (two models)
35mm viewfinder and rangefinder
- Beauty 35 (rebadged as the Gen 35, Milo 35 and Ward 35)
- Beauty 35 Super
- Beauty Canter (F2.8 and F1.9)
Beauty Camera Company models[edit]
35mm rangefinders
- Beauty Super II (Varicon S II)
- Beauty Super L (Varicon SL and Super L)
- Beauty Lightomatic/LM
- Beauty Lightomatic II
- Beaumat
- Beauty Lightomatic III/Beauty Lite III
- Beauty Lightmatic SP
References[edit]
- ↑ A company search will show that the last registered President of Taiyōdō Koki was Kunio Doi. It is not known whether this is the same person who first opened the shop and inspired the name of the 1951 "Doimer" lens (fitted to some Taiyōdō cameras), or a descendent.
- ↑ A scan of the first known Camera Taiyōdō advertisement in the January 1946 issue of Ars Camera on Flickr.
- ↑ A 1947 Imperial Theatre Opera Programme for a performance of Carmen and two Moulin Rouge Shinjukuza Theatre Pamphlets (No 10 & 12) with back page advertisements by Camera Taiyōdō.
- ↑ 2010 Senshu University of Chiyoda publication (doc in Japanese), and an English translation.
- ↑ Various Property Letting Agents' details confirming this can be found via an Internet search.
- ↑ Flickr scan of a side-by-side advertisement from the January 1949 issue of Kohga Gekkan showing Taiyōdō Koki as the manufacturer of the Meteor (mis-spelt Meteall) on the left, and Camera Taiyōdō the shop on the right
- ↑ Flickr scan of a side-by-side advertisement from the January 1951 issue of Photo Art showing Taiyōdō Koki as the manufacturer of the Beauty Flex II TLR and retailer of the Gelto DIII made by Gelto Camera Werke.
- ↑ Imported model names and volumes can be seen in the 1957 US Department of Commerce report at Google Books.
- ↑ Seen advertised by Sunder & Kapoor in volume 77 of the Illustrated Weekly of India.
- ↑ Advertisement in a 1960 issue of Jornal do Brazil newspaper.
- ↑ A copy of an advertisement for the "Gen 35" advert in a July 1957 edition of the Saskatchewan Leader-Post at Google Books.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ According to an advertisement dated December 1957 reproduced on page 269 of Kokusan kamera no rekishi (Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7.
- ↑ A copy of the Taiyōdō Koki article published in the 23rd March 1957 edition of the Army Times can be seen at the Internet Archive
- ↑ Example Blog - Stick to the photo: long-established "Camera Taiyodo" closed.
- ↑ Confirmed by staff in their 2010 interview by Senshu University (ref 4), and seen on the cover of a 1971 Camera Taiyōdō store catalogue.
External Links[edit]
Taiyodo Koki & the Beauty Camera Company
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