4

Nikon Catalogue

The History of Nippon Kogaku 1600 - 1949

Coffee, beer and Nikon

for the Nikon Historical Society
9th Convention, at the JCII in Tokyo, Japan
February 22, 2004
updated 2014

for study only

Hans Braakhuis

Table of contents
1

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2History of Japan in brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3

Relations Japan - Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1 Dutch influence in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 How the coffee came to Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3 How the beer came to Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.4 How the camera came to Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5 Cameras imported by the Dutch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.6 Dutch time line in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4

Industrial revolution in Europe and Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.1 Industrial revolution in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2 Industrial revolution in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5Optical industry in Holland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.1 From craft to industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

6

Optical industry in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.1 Early telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.2 The start of the photographical industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.3 Japanese optical history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.4 An example of military influence in 1931 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

7Birth of Nippon Kogaku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.1 The Mitsubishi zaibatsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.2 The birth of Nippon Kogaku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.2.1 Iwaki Glass Seisaku. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.2.2 Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-sho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.2.3 Fujii Lens Seizo-sho. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7.2.4 Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.2.5 The Ohi plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7.3 European contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7.4 Co-operation with Canon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.5 E-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Front picture:
A statue of the Dutch V.O.C. vessel “De Liefde” at the entrance hall of the Mitsubishi Building.

That particular fact is called to Mitsubishi board
member’s minds nearly every day by passing, at theentrance of their main office in Tokyo, Japan, astatue of a model of the first Dutch merchant vessel
visiting Japan in 1600, named ‘de Liefde’. Every
morning, before going to their work, all officials arebowing in front of that monument. Until recently themonument had its place outside, but as bowing in
the rain wasn’t their favourite daily pursuit, theyplaced it in the main hall.

but as bowing in the rain wasn’t their favourite
daily pursuit, they placed it in the main hall

1Preface

The Nikon Historical Society’s 9th convention was on February 22, 2004 in Tokyo, Japan. Its theme will
be: ‘Journey to Nikon’s birthplace’. This gave me the opportunity to write a publication on the history of
Nikon Corporation.
More than likely Nippon Kogaku’s official place of birth is the office of Mr. Koyata Iwasaki, who was the
fourth president of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu. At the turn of the year 1916 his address was close to theTokyo Central Railway Station at Marunouchi 2-chome in the Chiyoda-ku district in Tokyo. The present
main office of the Nikon Corporation is just one bloc away.
It was Mr. Koyata Iwasaki who took the decision of the merger of the three firms, which gave birth to
Nippon Kogaku. And, above all, he raised the corporate starting capital.
Japanese-Dutch cooperation started already in 1600. Since 1635 the Netherlands was the only
western country which was allowed to do business with Japan. That fact explains why all optical
instruments were brought to Japan by the Dutch V.O.C. (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie). The
V.O.C. also exported Dutch inventions, like the binocular and the microscope, as well as European
pre-industrial era products. The V.O.C. wasn’t actually focussed on exporting Dutch products but justin doing business.
The Dutch and European industrial developments were of great importance to Japan. Many
telescopes, range finders and clocks were sold to Japan. It took a merchant vessel two years to sail toand from Japan. The Japanese were very interested in lots of new products of those tall people with
red hair and big noses. For Japanese the Dutch and the Britons are lookalike.
There are a lot of Dutch mysteries in Japan. I cannot explain why the Japanese and the Dutch are theonly people on earth who favour raw fish. Neither can I explain why the Japanese and the Dutch are
the only ones who can make drinkable coffee and beer. (Update: later I learned that the Belgians canmake much better beers)
Nowadays only three things in Japan remind us of the Dutch: coffee,beer and Nikon.
In this publication I will explain why the Japanese do have such a
wonderful coffee and beer. As a proof I would like to invite one ofconvention visitors to taste a bottle of this Dutch beer. The Dutch
brewery was founded around 1340 and still uses the original recipe. The
Japanese brand ‘Kirin” with the ”Original’ beer, is still using an original
recipe, too. It is up to the taster to determine differences between thetwo beers.
Since its foundation Nikon is a division or the Mitsubishi group. I’ve paid
most attention to the history of the Mitsubishi group and some important
divisions. The oldest division of the Mitsubishi group is, however, a forge
and workplace founded by the Dutch. Without the Dutch neither
Mitsubishi nor Nikon would probably even exist. That particular fact is called to Mitsubishi board
member’s minds nearly every day by passing, at the entrance of their main office, a statue of a modelof the first Dutch merchant vessel visiting Japan in 1600, named ‘de Liefde’.
Every morning, before going to their work, all officials are bowing in front of that monument. Until
recently the monument had its place outside, but as bowing in the rain wasn’t their favourite daily
pursuit, they placed it in the main hall.
The birth of Nippon Kogaku was a decision of time. That time had some historical, cultural and politicalaspects. If you’ll understand these aspects, than you’ll know how Nippon Kogaku was born.
Nippon Kogaku was founded during the first World War at the Japanese army’s request. I’ve made adescription of the role of the army and, particularly, the navy in Nippon Kogaku’s history.
From various periodicals, like the NHS Journal, many books and also museums, like the local JCII
Museum, and other informative sources I’ve tried to list as many Nippon Kogaku products as possible.
The 25- 40- 50- and 75-years anniversary books, published by Nikon Corporation, were of great help.
Being unfamiliar with the Japanese language and customs is, however, a handicap. I probably could
have listed more products in the overview of the 1885-1949 period. I am waiting for the moment that
the Nikon Corporation translate these important documents.
Because not all authors authorized me to quote them and to make use of their materials thispublication is limited. On the basis of international copyrights this publication may be used for nonprofit and study purposes only.
In this publication one may read two different opinions on the same subject. Quotations of all authors
may be found in the appendix.
Finally: I’ve tried to do my best. It’s the first time I’ve published a text in English, but, moreover, it’s thefirst text ever on the history of Nippon Kogaku in English. Herewith I invite everybody present today tohelp me to improve this historical survey.

Takayuki Kawai in 2001

Nico van Dijk and Hans Braakhuis

It is obvious that I cannot receive all credits of this work. Many friends assisted me in my research andwriting.
In particular I like to mention Nico van Dijk, a professional journalist, board member of the Nikon Club
Nederland and editor of its quarterly Magazine and Nikon collector, who did a lot of research and thefinal editing of the entire text. Particularly chapters 4, 5 and 6 (partial) have been written by him. See
also NHS Journal 71 for an article he wrote.
A substantial contribution came from Jeff Alexander 1.
Also thanks to Yoshio Inokuchi, who is working at the JCII Camera Museum.
Thanks for translating some Japanese texts: Wybe Kuitert and Noriko Nakamura.
Others contributors are:Peter Abrahams

John Millham

Tom Abrahamsson

Robert Rotoloni

John Baird

Christophe Sap

GoogleLes Seeligson

Takayuki Kawai

Steve Stayton

Bill Kraus

Mike H. Symons

Richard Lane

Akito Tamla

Peter Lownds

Jason Zoppel

Karl MantylaPeter Lownds and Hans Braakhuis

Akito Tamla in 1996

It goes without saying that all trade names of companies, brands and products, mentioned in thispublication, are the property of its official holders. Literal quotations (written in italic type) are made withreference to their respective authors.
A complete list of used texts is to be found at the endnotes and in the Justification chapter.
Corrections or additions are invited.

From 1949

2

History of Japan in brief

This time line 2 of the Japanese history is completed with some optical and other dates.
“40,000 BC Stone age in Aichi and Tochigi.
14,500 BC Jomon hunting and gathering society.
551-479 BC Start of Confucianism.
239
Chinese kingdom of Wei records the visit of an envoy from Himiko, queen of Yamatai.
400
Use of the Chinese character for writing.
500
Start of Buddhism.
700-900
Japan under influence of Chinese culture and politics.
710
Nara becomes the capital of Japan.
794
Kyoto becomes the capital of Japan.
1274
Mongol invasion.
1281
Second Mongol invasion.
1542
Firearms introduced by shipwrecked Portugese.
1549
Francisco de Xavier lands at Kagoshima to promote Christianity.
1585
Dirck Gerritsz on board a Portuguese ship is the first Hollander to visit the country.
1592
Hideyoshi sends army to Korea.
1600
First Dutch merchant boat “De Liefde” arrives at Nagasaki 3.
1603
Tokugawa Shogunate divides people into hereditary classes: lords (daimyo), samurai,
farmers, artisans, merchants.
1603
Most of the Dutch merchants merge to one company: the United East-Indies Company(V.O.C.) It was allowed to erect offices, houses and cargo stores at Deshima, an small
island in the Nagasaki harbor.
1614
Christianity banned.
1635
Interaction with foreigners restricted to Nagasaki.
1641
All foreigners, except Chinese, Korean and Dutch, are banned.
1720
Yoshimune removed the ban on Western learning. In 1736, he ordered the importationand eventual translation of Dutch astronomical literature.
1853
Commodore Matthew Perry steams into Edo (Tokyo) Bay and demands trade.
1868
End of the Shogun-Bakafu-System. Restoration of imperial rule (Meiji Restoration 1868 1912); Tokyo becomes capital.
1894-5
War with China.
1904-5
War with Russia.
1910
Annexation of Korea.
1911
During the civil war in China after the Chinese Revolution this country was in chaos.
Japan occupied lands north of the Chinese wall.
1914
Start of World War I. Japan joined the allied forces against Germany and therefore it could
occupy Shantung and all other islands north of the equator colonised by the German.
1927
The Chinese, by general Tsjang Kai Tsjek, re-occupied some of their countries.
1931
Japanese army invade Manchuria”.
1941
Japanese army attacks Pearl Harbor.
This time line shows that Japan has been invaded by other countries several times. That’s why theJapanese opened and closed their doors for foreigners several times in their history. By the way, theChinese are also foreigners for them. And China, almost next door, is a large country with many
inhabitants. So keep your door well closed.
From the sixth century up to the end of the sixteenth, Japan was strongly influenced by China.
Buddhism, the script, technology and the arts, all derived from the mainland. Yet over the course oftime all these attainments acquired a specifically Japanese character.
The first Europeans - the Portuguese - firstarrived in Japan in 1543, during a period of civil
wars. In 1600 national unity was restored, but
shortly after this, interference on the part of
Catholics once more endangered the country’s
political balance. As a result Japan was formallyclosed to the outside world in 1639. The only
diplomatic contacts were with China, Korea and
Ryukyu (Okinawa Islands), and the only western
influence permitted came from the Dutch trading
post of Deshima. Two centuries later, in 1854,
The United States compelled Japan to open its
doors to American merchandise. This ended along period of peace and relative prosperity.
Living on a relatively small island, the Japaneseknew that an successful industrialised country

Dutch ship enters harborneed food, cole, iron, oil, etcetera. Colonisation was ‘not done’ anymore but annexation could be
useful. Under emperor Mutsuhito (1867 - 1912) a political system was formed that gave all formal
power to the emperor. But in fact the real power was given to the civil servants. These civil servants
were highly influenced by the zaibatsu’s. Iwakura made a report in 1873 including a future outline of allsciences and for the use of these sciences from mining till medical treatment.
In 1930 the Cherry Society was founded, which
was a kind of a nationalist party. It believed in theemperor’s absolute power and was striving to end
the Western influence in Japan. It asked for a
military occupation of the northern Chinese
province Manchuria. That was the place were mostof the food, coal and iron came from. On
September 18, 1931 the Japanese troops
occupied, without an authorization of the Japanese
government, the Chinese town Moukden and later
entire Manchuria. After the Manchuria occupation
all political parties in Japan were forbidden. All
power came to civil servants who listened whatever
the zaibatsu’s whispered in their ears.
Dutch ship departs

By 1937 the production of industry and agriculture
doubled. High benefits to the heavy industry increased the production of military goods. At the end ofWorld War II Japanese influence was widened. If one take the Philippines as the centre and draw ancircle starting from just above Australia it will include Dutch New Guinea, French Indo-China,
Bangladesh, Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai in China and Manchuria.
After the World War II the United States wanted Japan to become an allied force in their fight against
communism. That’s why they spend a lot of money in starting up normal live in Japan. In 1951 the US
spent $ 600 million, which was increased in 1953 to $ 800 million. US support to e.g. Burma ($ 200
million) and the Philippines ($ 550 million) was given under the condition that these countries should
spend that money in buying Japanese goods.

3

Relations Japan - Holland

Probably the Portugese where the first foreign visitors to Japan. They where looking for an other routeto America, but evidently got lost. The Portugese, who tried to sell goods and Christianity, passed the‘roadmap’ to the Dutch who were just interested in trade. That’s probably why the Dutch were allowed
to stay.
3.1

Dutch influence in JapanThe life in Japan after the visit of the first Dutch merchant ship “De Liefde” is illustrated below 4.
“In 1600, a Dutch ship called the Love (in Dutch, De Liefde)
landed in Usuki Bay in Bungo Province (now Oita-ken[prefecture]). The arrival of the Liefde marked the beginning ofrelations between Japan and the Netherlands, which
commemorate their 404th anniversary this year. The survivingcrew of the Liefde included two people who went on to earn
important places in Japanese history: William Adams and Jan
Joosten van Lodensteyn.
Adams, an Englishman, was employed by a Dutch trading
company to participate in the exploration of eastern traderoutes. Upon his arrival in Japan, he met with Tokugawa
Ieyasu, who was on the verge of establishing the Tokugawa
shogunate, and became Ieyasu's advisor on diplomacy andtrade. Adams was given a residence in Edo (now Tokyo), as
well as lands in Hemi in Yokosuka, Kanagawa-ken that yielded
250 koku of rice a year (one koku equalled about 180 litres inthe Edo period). Adopting the Japanese name Miura Anjin, he
was granted the social rank of a samurai. A stone monument
commemorating the site of Adams' residence still stands in the
Nihonbashi district of Tokyo today. Anjincho is named after
Adams. Also, the Anjin Festival is held every year in April in
Hemi, where a memorial tower stands near the grave ofAnjin's Japanese wife, Oyuki.
Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn became Tokugawa Ieyasu's
advisor on military affairs, and reportedly taught Ieyasu how to
use the cannons onboard of the Liefde. Like Adams, he wasgiven a Japanese name (Yayosu) and a residence in Edo, close to Edo Castle (where the Imperial
Palace stands today). A metal objet presented by the Dutch government and decorated with a likenessof the Liefde now marks the site where Joosten's residence once stood. Joosten's neighbourhoodcame to be called Yayosu, a name derived from Joosten's Japanese moniker, and that name survives
today in a slightly modified form as Yaesu, the district on the eastern side of Tokyo Station 5.
statue of “De Liefde”

In 1633, the Tokugawa shogunate adopted a policy of national
isolation that continued until the signing of the Kanagawa
Treaty 221 years later in 1854. During that time, Japan
maintained contact with only three countries: China, Korea,
and the Netherlands.
The Dutch were restricted to an artificial island called Deshimathat was built in 1634 6 by the shogunate in Nagasaki Harbor.
This narrow pipeline provided the only access to "Western
Learning" (or, as it was more commonly called during thisperiod, rangaku, "Dutch Science"). The first area of interest to
Japanese scholars was Western medicine.
In 1771, Genpaku Sugita, Ryotaku Maeno, and otherJapanese physicians and scholars attended the dissection of acriminal's body at the Kotsukahara execution grounds in Edo.
Comparing their observations with the Tafel Anatomia, a bookof anatomical tables written in Dutch, they were deeply
impressed by the accuracy of the work and immediately set
about translating it into Japanese. In an era when no DutchJapanese dictionaries existed, they worked doggedly for three
years, beginning with the names of body parts and extrapolating from there with the greatest ofdifficulty. In August 1774, they completed their five-volume magnum opus, Kaitai shinsho, thus initiating
the era of Western Learning in Japan. The site in present-day Tokyo's Tsukiji district where Sugita andhis colleagues worked is marked with monuments that identify it as the birthplace of Western Learning
and Western medicine in Japan.
Sugita's pioneering work was continued
by others at various boarding schools
dedicated to Western Learning,
including Narutaki School (founded
outside Nagasaki by the German /Dutch doctor Phillip Franz von Siebold),
Teki School in Osaka, and Juntendo
School in Chiba. Beginning in 1857,
Japanese understanding of Western
medicine was given a more orderly andsystematic form by Johannes Lydius
Catherinus Pompe van Meerdervoort, aDutch naval medical officer who arrived
in Japan aboard the Kanrin maru, a shipthat the Tokugawa government hadordered from the Netherlands.
Medicine was not the only branch ofWestern Learning that captured theinterest of the Japanese. By the end of
the nineteenth century, they had
Deshima after Japanese woodblock 1780
assimilated an impressive body ofknowledge in such fields as physics,
chemistry, photography, astronomy, calendar studies, gunnery, castle construction and fortification,
shipbuilding, navigation, and military science, and had built the foundations for Japan's modern navy
and national defence.
There were three doctors employed at a Dutch trading post in Deshima who had a particularly strong
impact on the relationship between Japan and the Netherlands: the Germans Engelbert Kaempfer andPhillip Franz von Siebold, and the Swede Carl Peter
Thunberg. Kaempfer came to Japan early in the Edo
period (1603-1867); Thunberg in the middle years; andSiebold near the end. Besides teaching medicine, all threetaught natural history focussing on Japan's flora andfauna, and all three became well known in Europe for theirwork in disseminating their knowledge of things Japanese,
including its plants and animals, among their countrymen.
Siebold's written works, including Japan, Fauna Japonica,
and Flora Japonica, are particularly noteworthy for theircontribution to the systematic dissemination of Japanesestudies in Europe. As the foregoing illustrates, doctors ofdifferent nationalities came to Japan in the service of the
Dutch East India Company.
In 1853, Commodore Mathew Perry, a US naval officer,
arrived in Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) with a squadron offour gunboats and demanded that the Japanese open theircountry to the outside world. This led to the signing of the
Kanagawa Treaty in 1854, the following year. Once theAmericans had broken Japan's policy of seclusion, which
had been in place for more than 220 years, othercountries, including Great Britain, Russia, the Netherlands,
and France soon flocked to Japan to sign treaties of amity
and commerce of their own.
Although Japan did not open its doors until Perry's
Dutch lessons
gunboats sailed into Edo Bay, the Dutch had been
advocating a policy of free interaction for many years prior
to Perry's arrival. In 1844, the Netherlands King Willem II, acting on advice received from therepatriated Siebold, sent a letter urging the Japanese to adopt an open-door policy. The letter was
delivered to the magistrate's office in Nagasaki, and was forwarded to Edo, where it was ignored.
Beset by internal rebellion, the Tokugawa government feared that it would be toppled if it allowed
foreigners into Japan.
It was a curious move for the Dutch to advocate openness, since it would mean the loss of theirmonopoly over European trade with Japan. Willem's recommendation was based on the recognition
that continued isolation would work against Japan's best interests and might even lead to the same

type of colonization by Western powers that was already evident in the rest of Asia. When the letter
was sent, Great Britain and France had al-ready occupied and colonized Hong Kong, Burma, Vietnam,
and other countries.
In 1852, Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius, the head of the Dutch trading post at Deshima, warned theJapanese of Perry's arrival in one of the reports on the status of foreign countries that he regularly sent
to the central government. He had heard that Perry's squadron had been seeking news of Japan inIndia and Indonesia, and that they were preparing to sail to Japan.
Meanwhile, Western Learning had been disseminated throughout the country, and Japanese nationals
who advocated opening to the West had grown more active beneath an ostensibly calm surface. The
combination of this internal movement and reports received from the Dutch made it possible for the
Tokugawa shogunate to avoid what would have been a disastrous war with the United States. Unlike
its Asian neighbours, Japan was thus spared the fate of colonization and embarked on the road tomodernization.
From 1868 on, Japan
turned its energies toovertaking
andsurpassing the Westt h r o u g hmodernization. In theearly Meiji period(1868-1912), thenewly establishedJapanese government
invited foreign experts
from the US, GreatBritain, France,
Germany, and othercountries to teach.
From the Dutch, theylearned irrigation andcivil engineering
techniques, two areasin which the Dutch
excelled, as might be
expected from people
who live in a country
called "Netherlands,"
which means "LowCountry." (Onequarter of the
Dutch science
Netherlands land area
is below sea level,
and one-third is reclaimed land.) It was Dutch engineers who oversaw the first civil engineering
projects on Japan's main rivers and harbors.
The Asaka Canal, which runs from Inawashiro-ko (lake) (the fourth largest lake in Japan) through the
Koriyama Basin in Fukushima-ken, was designed by the Dutch engineer Cornelis Johannes Van
Doorn. The irrigation obtained from this canal enabled the Japanese to plant rice fields, thus creating
Japan's second most productive rice-growing area. The canal also permitted the development ofhydroelectric power that spawned industry and transformed the village of Koriyama (which had apopulation of 5,000 before the canal was built) into a thriving regional city of 350,000. The people ofKoriyama erected a monument to Doorn on the lake shore to express their gratitude.
Another Dutch civil engineer, Rouwenhorst Mulder, was responsible for the construction of the eightkilometre canal that connects Kashiwa-shi (city) and Matsudo-shi in Shiba-ken. By opening a water
passage between the Tonegawa (river) and Edogawa, the canal enabled much faster and safer
shipping from northeastern Japan to Tokyo. Although it is no longer in use, both sides of the canalhave been made into a waterside public park, with a monument erected with private donationscommemorating Mulder's work.
Near the centre of the Japanese archipelago, there are three rivers (the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers)
that converged in a single estuary, giving rise to frequent floods. Despite massive efforts on the part of
the Tokugawa shogunate to prevent flood damage, the problem was never completely solved. It was
up to the Dutchman Johannes de Rijke, who was a resident in Japan for nearly 30 years from 1873, todirect a construction project that separated the lower reaches of the rivers into three separate beds.
Today, the area at the lower reaches of the Kiso river contains one of Japan's largest nationallyadministered parks, where citizens can come to relax. In the park's central area, a bronze statue of de
Rijke was unveiled with great ceremony in 1988 in the presence of de Rijke's grandson and his wife.
Dutch influence even extends to Tokyo Station, which was built in the heart of the capital city 90 years
ago. The architect, Kingo Tatsuno, toured throughout Europe and is said to have taken the central
station in Amsterdam as his inspiration for the design. Both stations were built on low-lying, soft
ground, and both have a foundation reinforced by over 10,000 black-pine pilings. Plans to demolishTokyo Station's beautiful brick building because of its age and decrepitude met with fierce public
opposition, resulting in a restoration project in 2000.
Many Japanese think that the modernization of their country was achieved chiefly with the help ofcountries such as the US, Great Britain, France, and Germany, but the Dutch were providing Japan
with a continuous link to Western culture long before these other countries entered the scene. It is
legitimate to say that the Netherlands is the founding father of Japan's modernization.

2 microscopes and printed manual from Jan Paauw, Leiden, 1750 - 1800
Many Dutch words have made their way into the Japanese language, including kohi (koffie; coffee),biru (bier; beer), orugoru (orgel; music box), zukku (doek; canvas), hukku (hoek; hook), koppu (kop;drinking glass) and buriki (blik; tin). Lacking equivalents for these and other terms in their own
language, the Japanese simply incorporated them as foreign loan words and continue to use them
today”.
3.2

How the coffee came to JapanIn 1615, the first shipment of coffee arrived in Europe at Venice from Turkey. Coffee houses quickly
spread through Italy and to Vienna, then on to most of Europe. In the meantime the Dutch had
obtained coffee seeds from Malabar in India and planted them in their colony at Java. At that timecoffee was available from Mocha the main port of Yemen or from Java, giving rise to the famous blendof "Mocha-Java." In 1715 Louis XIV of France was given a single coffee tree brought from Java to
Holland, and then to Paris for him by the Dutch. The first greenhouse in Europe was then constructedto house the single tree, where it flowered and bore fruit. Around 1720 the first sprouts from this single
tree reached Martinique, a French dominion in the Caribbean, and the plant spread from there
throughout Central and South America, notably to Brazil which today supplies over one third of theworld's coffee.
In North America, European settlers brought tea to the New World. The Dutch had brought tea to New
Amsterdam (Manhattan and Staten Island) before the British bought the colony from the Dutch andrenamed it New York. When the British government imposed a tax on many items in America and thefamous 1773 Boston Tea Party made tea drinking unpatriotic, coffee came into favour.
It is not difficult to find good coffee in Japan. Though it has more of a reputation as a country of tea
drinkers, coffee is very popular in Japan. There are many small coffee shops selling a variety ofcoffees and teas. Cans of coffee are also available at literally millions of vending machines all over thecountry. Japan, traditionally a tea-consuming nation and home of the green tea that is fast proliferatingin tea markets across the West, might not naturally be considered a coffee-loving nation. But coffee isin fact more popular in both volume and value terms. Canned coffee, a Japanese invention,commands the biggest single share of the domestic soft drinks market at about 30 percent. Canned
coffee producers are: Coca-Cola (Japan) Co Ltd (Georgia); Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd.; Asahi BreweriesLtd. and Suntory Ltd.
“It is known that coffee was transmitted to Japan by trade at Deshima in Nagasaki in early stages of
the Edo period. Doctor Siebold who came to Japan in the last stage of the Edo period introduced
coffee as a medicine. But Japanese people didn't like coffee very much those days and coffee didn't
spread. At last, people of an upper class drank coffee in early time of the Meiji period. They liked
drinking coffee. Then, coffee generalized as a personal taste in Taisho and Showa” 7.
3.3

How the beer came to Japan

It's reported that even in the Edo Period, a good number of people had alreadycome into contact with Dutch beer. From that time, that taste for beer spreadwidely throughout the general population, most likely through the army. In 1853,
it is said that beer was first test-brewed in Japan by Koumin Kawamoto, a doctorof Dutch medicine, following a description in a Dutch book. Soon thereafter, in
1879 the Spring Valley Brewery, nowadays Kirin Brewery, part of Mitsubishi,
started to brew Japan's first beer.
3.4

How the camera came to JapanThe Dutch V.O.C. delivered a lot of goods to Japan. The V.O.C. was the world’s
first multi-national (stock holder’s) company! They started at March 20 1602. In
this pre-industrial time zone, they shipped a lot of Western inventions. In the
next, far from complete, list you’ll find an overview of only optical items the Kirin Original Beer
Dutch brought to Japan. From Japan the Dutch brought, among others, a lot ofsilk to Europe. For the V.O.C. the Holland - Japan trade was extremely profitable.
The first foreign telescope arrived in 1613 in Japan, when H.M.S. Clove ( a British merchant vessel)arrived in Hirado; its Captain John Saris presented a telescope to 'Tycoon Ieyasu'.
“In 1636, spectacle sales by the Dutch in Japan totalled 19,425, increasing to 38,421 in 1637.
Japanese opticians (megane-ya) became widespread in the 1700s, selling 'Dutch glass merchandise'(Oranda gyoku shinajina), including telescopes, magnifiers, spectacles, mirrors, flasks & glasses. As
lens making skills spread during this century, many of the goods sold as 'Dutch' were in fact of local
manufacture” 8
The following V.O.C. merchant vessels made the long trip from Europe to Japan:“1725 the “'t Casteel van Woerden” brought from Amsterdam four telescopes (each of four inches inlength) to the Governors of Nagasaki.
1726 the Japanese requested a telescope with eleven or twelve elements and a range of twelve miles,
noted in 1728 by the Dutch as not procurable.
1728 the “Rijgersbroek” brought a four inch telescope to the Governor of Nagasaki.
1729 the “t Casteel van Woerden” again brought an eight foot telescope from Holland, for steward
Saguemondonne.
1737 the “Enkhuysen” brought three telescopes of four foot length each, and the “Abbekerk” brought
three telescopes of five foot length each; all of which were a four-element telescope.
1741 the “Crabbendijke” brought two 6-inch telescopes to Governor Coeboeta.
1743 the “Polanen” brought an ivory telescope from Amsterdam to Governor Mattasiro Awa no Cammi
Samma.

1747 the “Westcappel” brought two small telescopes to Japan, the “Beukesteyn” brought from
Amsterdam to Japan two cameras obscura, and the “Maarseveen” brought two telescopes to
Awa no Cammi Samma.
1749 the“Witsburg” brought from
Amsterdam four telescopes of fiveinches length each, to Awa no Cammi
Samma.
1749 the “Geldermalsen” brought to
Kawachi no Cammi Samma, theGovernor of Nagasaki, threetelescopes of eight inches length, fourtelescopes of seven inches length,
and three telescopes of six inches
length.
1754 the “Vlietlust” brought to the Shogun
and the Crown Prince six telescopes
made of black ivory, and three othertelescopes.
1756 the “Radermacher” brought for
Sacquemon Samma four copper
telescopes of four inches length andfour black ivory telescopes of four
inches length.
1757 the “Tulpenburg” brought two
telescopes for a 'Burgomaster'.
1759 two ivory telescopes of 2 1/4
Rhineland feet (1 Rhineland foot =0.314 m.) length, and two ivory
telescopes of 4 ½ inches length, were
Binocular telescope, Jan and Harmanus van Deijl,delivered to Awa no Cammi Samma.
Amsterdam 1789
1762 the “Overnes” brought a copper
telescope, seven feet in length, for the'Burgomaster' Setsje Dajou Samma.
1765 the “Burgh” brought ten small telescopes, requested in 1758, five from Hoorn in North Holland
and five from Amsterdam.
1771 again the “Burgh” brought from Amsterdam two copper telescopes of eight feet in length each to
the Chief Commissioner of the MoneyChamber in Nagasaki.
1794 the “Erfprins” brought a telescope for
the Shogun.
1795 the “West Capelle” brought atelescope for the Shogun.
1800 the “Massachusetts” brought two
telescopes for the Governor and one
for the Shogun.
1801 the “Margaretha” brought a 'sun
telescope with a steel mirror', and an'object-telescope' for the Governor of
Nagasaki.
1802 the “Samuel Smith” from Baltimore,
Maryland brought a ‘most beautiful
telescope, for day and night'.
1803 the American merchant vessel“Rebecca” brought three telescopes.
1804 the “Maria Susanna” brought for theGovernor Fita Bungo no Cammi
Samma, three large telescopes andanother, probably smaller sized
telescope.
Early European clocks in National Science Museum,
1806 the “Amerika” brought a 'large,
Ueno, Tokyo
splendid telescope' for the Shogun,
three telescopes for other authorities, and two small telescopes for the College of Interpreters.
1807 the “Mount Vernon” brought a telescope for authorities in Nagasaki.
1809 the “Rebecca” brought six telescopes.
1809 Japanese authorities requested that the shipment of 1810 include these items: The Shogun
requested a telescope conforming to a drawing submitted 13 years previously. The Governor of
Nagasaki, Magari Boeti Kay no Cammi Samma, asked for three telescopes conforming to a
drawing given three years previously, two day & night telescopes, and another telescope. The
Governor Tsoetia Kie no Cammi Samma requested two day & night telescopes. The College ofInterpreters requested a telescope. The 'Head-Burgomaster' Takasima Sviobij Sammarequested a book on the construction of telescopes and tools for polishing glass for telescopes;
both of Takasima's requests were repeated in 1814, 1818, 1819,
and 1820.
1813 the “Charlotta” brought the Shogun a telescope.
1813 Magariboete Kay no Cammi Samma received seventelescopes, the Governor of Nagasaki Tsotsia Kie no
Cammi received two telescopes, the College ofInterpreters received one telescope; and further note ismade of a splendid telescope of four feet in length, two
splendid telescopes with concave and convex mirrors, andanother telescope.
Records for 1814 to 1824 include 44 telescopes, including an'astronomical telescope' in 1819 for the Governor of Nagasaki.
1832 the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies requested
10 telescopes and 12 opera glasses, to be used as gifts to
the Japanese.
1835 a Japanese client requested that a telescope be sent for
repair to the Netherlands, which was fulfilled and returned
to Japan in 1837".
3.5

Cameras imported by the Dutch

The Daguerreotype process of photographic reproduction
discovered by Louis Daguerre in 1829. In 1848 the first
Daguerreotype equipment came on a Dutch ship to Nagasaki.
Mister Shunnojô Tsunetari Ueno (1790 - 1851) was the merchant Double frame nautical sextant, J.M.
who ordered this camera. The father of the photographer Kleman and Son, Amsterdam 1800
- 1825
Hikoma Ueno (1838 - 1904) bought this first camera set. He did
not received the order. By mistake, the equipment in the ship
freight was not unloaded. So, later in the year 1848, the same camera set came for the second time to
Japan. Probable the set was then sold to Samurai Daimyo 9 Nakaria Shimazu. The first Japanesephotographers with an Daguerreotype camera were:
Nariakir Shimazua from the Satsuma clan;
Daimyo Tokugawa Nariaki;
Sakuma Zôzan from Matsushiro - Daimyat in 1850;
Iinuma Yokusai from the Oogaki clan in 1852 andFurakawa Shunpei from Fukuoka Daimyat in 1856. 10
In 1857 a Dutch medical officer 11 started a school for medical and photographical science in Nagasaki.
One of his students was Hikoma Ueno who studied Chemic and Photography. At that time pictureswith collodion were possible. In 1862 Hikoma Ueno wrote a text book about chemistry. One chapter inthis book deals with photography.
“Relatively little is known about photography in Japan before 1868, which is the first year of the Meiji
Dynasty and the actual start of “modern” Japan. Daguerreotype cameras were imported, and there arerecords of wet plate cameras in Japan around 1857, but the country was isolated from the West duringmuch of the industrial revolution,
under a policy of the Tokugawa
Shogunate. Photography waspractised by a small group of “Dutch
scholars”, Japanese intellectuals
who pursued the western sciences
imported by Dutch merchant ships”
12.
The Dutch were allowed to set up asmall trading post at Deshima, anisland in the Nagasaki Harbour. It
was connected to the mainland bysmall dike. That dike was fenced
with a door and a wall, which had
two small holes. Through the firsthole the Dutch were able to look to
the Japanese and trough the second
hole the Japanese could look to theDeshima drawing by Keiga Kawahara 1810

Dutch. At Leiden University in the Netherlands one can read the “Siebold papers”, in which the author
describes what he saw in Japan 13.
As one can read in an earlier chapter the Dutch brought the first camera, telescope, binoculars,
microscope, etcetera to Japan. The study of Western science and technology was called "Dutch
science" by the Japanese. The term refers to the years before the restoration, when the Dutch were
the only Westerners in Japan, thus being the main source of Western knowhow.
3.6

Dutch time line in Japan

Dutch influence on the first Japanese photographers 14:“1646 The camera obscura arrives in Nagasaki via the Dutch settlement.
1788 Gentaku Otsuki, an apprentice ofGenpaku Sugita, describes in an essay
the camera obscura, hitherto called a"donkuru-kaamuru" in Japanese, basedon the Dutch pronunciation. He also uses
the term "shashin-kyo" (photo mirror) as aJapanese translation for "camera
obscura."1815 In a Dutch studies publication he issued,
Genpaku Sugita translates "camera
obscura" as "anshitsu shashin-kyo"(darkroom photo mirror).
1843 In Nagasaki, Shunnojo-Tsunetari Ueno
(1790-1851) (father of Hikoma Ueno), a
trader, brings a daguerreotype toNagasaki, but it was not unloaded. (Thedaguerreotype was first introduced in
Paris in Aug. 1839.)
1848 In Nagasaki, Shunnojo-Tsunetari Ueno
(1790-1851), a trader, imports Japan's Microscope connected to Camera Obscura, 1871
first daguerreotype camera from Holland(his second attempt), the only Western country Japan could trade with.
1849 Lord Nariakira Shimazu, daimyo of the Satsuma Clan in southern Kyushu, acquired adaguerreotype from Shunnojo-Tsunetari Ueno and experimented with it. He did not succeed sowell because the camera was probably defective. In 1858, Lord Shimazu perhaps took acollodion photograph of three women, titled "Three Princesses." The image is kept at the
Shimazu family museum (Shoko Shu-seikan) in Kagoshima.
1856 American consul Townsend Harris and Dutch interpreter Henry Heusken arrive in Japan. Until
1859, they are the only Western foreigners living in Japan outside Deshima, Nagasaki. Heusken
teaches basic photography to Shimooka Renjo in Shimoda. Shimooka later moved to Yokohama
and opened a photo studio in 1862.
1857 Naval doctor Julius L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort starts teaching photography at the Medical
Institute in Nagasaki, the centre of Dutch learning. Among his students were Hikoma Ueno,
Kuichi Uchida and Genzo Maeda. Meerdervoort and other foreigners introduce the wet-collodion
process around this year and up to 1859. The three treaty ports of Yokohama, Nagasaki, andHakodate become the centres of photographic learning in Japan.
1862 Hikoma Ueno (1838-1904) (father Shunnojo Tsunetari Ueno), after learning photography andchemistry under Dr. Pompe van Meerdervoort, publishes the treatise, Seimikyoku Hikkei which
described photographic techniques and the wet collodion process. Hikoma Ueno becomes oneof the first professional Japanese photographer by opening a photo studio in Nagasaki called
Ueno Satsuei-kyoku”.

universal geometric instrument Wytze Foppes Leeuwarden Netherlands 1751

4

Industrial revolution in Europe and Japan
4.1

Industrial revolution in Europe

Until the 17th century in Europe one could hardly find large scale industries. Most enterprises were
small and family run businesses. The owners were united in guilds which made them powerful. In
many churches all over Europe one can find, sometimes bombastic, altars erected with funds fromvarious guilds. Napoleon however dissolved almost all guilds around 1809.
The accelerated development intechnology and economy in the
period of 1760 - 1830 lead to aconcentration of industrial production
in factories. The stunning invention of
steam machines, - boats and - trains
made a centralisation of the
production possible. The mostimportant boost was given in the
British textile industry, where in thegiven period quite a number oftechnical inventions (e.g. powerloom) improved the production
process; the British steel industry
came next and gave its spirit tocontinental Europe during the 19th
century. By the end of that century
industrial revolution started in Russia
and Japan, while Great Britain got
engaged in a competition withGermany and the United States.
The production of iron was improvedby the use of cokes. And iron madeGregorian reflecting telescope, P and J Dollond, London, pre the production of railway bridges
possible, which improved the1789transport and distribution of various
goods. The clothing industry flourished and made cheap cotton accessible for all citizens. This socalled industrial revolution changed society radically. Home work came to an end. Around factories
cities arose and the workman’s class was growing. This industry proletariat became later a breeding
ground for communism.
Especially Great Britain was in a privileged position. It had cokes, steel and cotton. While continental
Europe was in war Great Britain expanded its influence in Africa and Asia.
Famous British inventions of that time were the steam machine of Newcomen, the blast furnace of
Abraham Darby, the shuttle of John Kay, the spinningmachine of Hargreave and Samuel Compton, the loom of
Edmund Cartwright, the first steam locomotive of Richard
Trevithick and the electrical telegraph of William Cooke.
Also in other parts of continental Europe (Southern
Sweden, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Belgium, France andNorthern Italy) steel-, textile- and food industries arose.
Famous inventors like Diesel, Daimler, Benz, Von Opel(car industry), Jacobsen, Poupe, Heineken, Artois,
Sedlmayr, Dreher (brewery), Von Thyssen, Cockerel,
Mannesmann, Puch (steel), Siemens, Philips, Faraday,
Marconi (electricity) and many others gave European
industry an enormous boost.
The industrial revolution also influenced various sciences(medicine, psychology, chemistry and sociology) and arts
(music, opera, sculpture and painting), but also war relatedindustries. Most optical industries were working forquarrelling European despots, producing telescopes,
binoculars and other optics for their army and naval forces.
The invention of the cinematographic film and camera’s
lead to the production and refinement of lenses forcamera’s, enlargers and projectors. But for that we had toBarr & Stroud, Glasgow, range
estimator 2

wait until the 20th century, as the first projection of a celluloid film was organized in Paris in March
1895 by the Lumière Brothers.
One year later, on June 9, 1896, the first ‘Cinématographe Lumière’ (film cinema) was opened in the‘Palais de Dance’, next to the ‘Kurhaus’ in the seaside resort Scheveningen, the Netherlands. Nine
years later the first ‘Biograph Cinema’ was opened in Wilton Road in London.
In the Netherlands agricultural revolution joined the industrial revolution. Steel works, coal mines andship yards were established in the second half of the 19th century.
As you may read in the chapter on ‘Optical industries in the Netherlands’ modern
glass production and research was mainly seen in the German speaking part ofEurope (Germany and Austria), although one should not underrate developments inFrance and England.
4.2

Industrial revolution in Japan

Industrial revolution in Japan started after the last shogun handed in his resignationin 1867.
The Japanese shogun dynasty, the so called Tokugawa, came to an end. Since the17th century Japan was only accessible for Dutch and Chinese merchants. In 1867
the Japanese emperor took up his residence in Tokyo (Meiji-restoration). During
the regime of emperor Mutsjito (1868-1912) Japanese industry was modernized.
Feudal conditions were abolished, education was reformed, the first railroad(Tokyo-Yokohama) was opened (1872), Gregorian calendar (1873) and general
conscription (1873) were introduced as well as the first political parties (1882) and a
new constitution (1889) were accepted. Although around the turn of the century awar with China and with Russia delayed the development of Japans industry, theoptical industry made the most of it. The Meiji-restoration gave ardent reformers
power to readjust Japan in a tearing rush. Old Japan was dismantled literally, abrand new Japan was put into place.
In Asia, Japan became the first industrial Leeuwenhoek
nation. In fact, the Japanese liked the idea of microscope 1670
industrialization so much that the government
made it a national goal in the late 19th century.
The Japanese economy is dominated, however, by a system which
doesn’t exist in the Western world.
The ‘keiretsu’ (Japanese for ‘money clique’) are the great familycontrolled banking and industrial combines of modern Japan. The
leading zaibatsu ( c alledkeiretsu after World War II) are Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Dai Ichi Kangyo,
Sumitomo, Sanwa, and Fuyo. They gained a position in theJapanese economy with no exact parallel elsewhere. Although the
Mitsui were powerful bankers under the shogunate, most of theother zaibatsu developed after the Meiji restoration (1868), when,by subsidies and a favourable tax policy, the new government
granted them a privileged position in the economic development ofJapan. Later they helped finance strategic semiofficial enterprises
in Japan and abroad, particularly in Taiwan and Korea ( a keiretsu
in Korea is called a ‘chaebol’). In the early 1930s the military clique
Mitsubishi building # 2
tried to break the economic power of the zaibatsu but failed. In
1937 the four leading zaibatsu controlled directly one third of all bank deposits, one third of all foreign
trade, one half of Japan’s shipbuilding and maritime shipping, and most of the heavy industries. They
maintained close relations with the major political parties. After Japan’s surrender (1945) in World War
II, the breakup of the zaibatsu was announced as a major aim of the Allied occupation, but in the
1950s and 1960s groups based on the old zaibatsu reemerged as keiretsu. The decision on the part ofthese groups in the post-World War II era to pool their resources greatly influenced Japan’s
subsequent rise as a global business power. Nikon Corporation is member of the Mitsubishi-group.
Mitsubsihi building # 1

Elsewhere in this publication you may read the history of the Japanese optical industry which, just after
the World War II became one of the world’s leading optical industries.

5

Optical industry in Holland

Little has been published on Dutch optical glass industries. Many Dutch scientists, however, wereinvolved in the development of optical glass, microscopes and telescopes.
Since 1270 the so-called “reading glass” was produced in the Arno Valley in Italy. Although thetechniques of making glass were kept secret by Venetian producers, due to the very good relations
between the Netherlands and Venetia glass production in the Netherlands started as early as the 14th
century. Spectacle lenses were among the first products. It is recorded that locally produced
spectacles were used by intellectuals in Haarlem around 1300. After 1500 the social status of aspectacle was changing as to take a spectacle stressed the physical handicap of the wearer. Wearing
spectacles in the presence of a noble person was even impolite. In the 19th century the tide wasturning and wearing spectacles was no disgrace.
In the Netherlands one has to wait until the 17th century to find written proof of optical inventions.
1595 Zacharias and his son Hans Janssen from Middelburg produced their first compound
microscope (which is a microscope that uses two or more lenses) and sold it in their spectacle
shop. It is recorded that they were instructed by an unknown Italian soldier.
1602 Foundation of the United East-Indian Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie - V.O.C.) in
the Netherlands, the world’s first multinational stock company, to coordinate trade activities with
Asia. The company was dissolved in 1798. Many optical instruments were exported and sold inJapan by the VOC.
1608 Hans Lippershey (1570-1619) applied for a patent on a telescope with concave and convex
lenses. His patent on a binocular instrument was denied as Jacob Metius from Alkmaar (andlater others) claimed to be the inventor.
1621 Astronomer Willebrord Snell van Royen - also known as Snellius (1580-1626) introduced his
refraction principle.
1636 Spectacle sales by the Dutch in Japan totalled 19,425, which figure was doubled a year later.
1654 Johan van der Wijck (a famous glass grinder from Delft) supplied Christian Huygens with special
grindstones.
1655 Christian Huygens (1629-1695) produced 2 telescopes; one with a focal length of 4 metres andone with a focal length of 7 metres; he discovered Titan (6th moon of Saturn) and the structuresof Saturn. Christian also discovered and described spheric lens aberrations, although he did notknow how to avoid them.
Christian Huygens is said to be less well known than his
father, Constantijn Huygens, a gifted poet and brilliant figurein the literary history of the Netherlands. Rembrandt, Hals,
Spinosa and Descartes were family friends. The last had aprofound influence on Huygens and drew him into
mathematics and Science. This is also the reason that there
is now a famous self-portrait from Rembrandt and his Nikon
rangefinder camera, first published at the NHS Utrecht
Convention in 1994, in the Netherlands. Around 1650
Christian Huygens was just an unknown whizz-kid. But after
Christian send some of his first microscopes to Japan with avessel of the VOC, once a present came back. Including asmall note: with this machine its possible to make drawings
with light. Christian did not know what to do with this very,
early rangefinder camera. So he thought, drawing with light,
I’ll give it to Rembrandt, he is also a gifted drawer.

1656 Establishment of glass melting furnace in Den Bosch.
1665 Christian Huygens went to Paris and became a founding member of the French Academy andwas granted a pension and an apartment. This pension is the only salary Christian ever earned.
1668 Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) - the Father of Microscope - learned to grind and polishglass and started making simple microscopes; he is known to have made more than 500
microscopes in his lifetime. His microscopes were able to magnify up to 300 X!
1670 Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) produced optical systems, like a single lens microscope (using
so-called bead-lenses).
1672 Christian Huygens introduced his ray of light principle.

1673 Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek began corresponding with the English
Royal Society which published 375 of his papers over the next fifty years.
1676 Samuel van Musschenbroek (1639-1681) introduced the use of adiaphragm to improve image quality.
1678 Christian Huygens used a condenser lens, which was improved by
Nicolaas Hartsoeker and - later - used by the British microscopeproducer Wilson.
1679 Nicolaas Hartsoeker (1654-1725) set up as an optical instrument
maker and wine merchant.
1680 Christian Huygens became member of the prestigious Royal
Society in London.
1685 Christian Huygens published a technique of grinding glass
manually.
1690 Johan van Musschenbroek (1660-1707) introduced a focussing
method using a barrel with ball bearings (later known as the
Musschenbroek Nuts).
Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek
1694 Nicolaas Hartsoeker published his ‘diopter essay’. In that same
year he invented the so-called screw barrel telescope.
1770 Jan van Deyl (1715-1801) invented the achromatic microscope lens.
1798 Liquidation of the V.O.C.
Little was done to improve the microscope and other optical instruments until the middle of the 19th
century when great strides were made and quality instruments like today’s microscope emerged.
1770 Glass production on an industrial scale started in Leerdam and later in Maastricht, Delft andSchiedam.
1878 Merchants Jeekel and Mijnssen set up a glass factory in Leerdam. Still known for its bottles andartistic glass.
1889 The first Dutch camera was build by Abraham Dirk Loman.
1904 Johan Steenbergen started a small camera factory in 1904 in Meppel. In 1908 he moved toDresden to study optics. As an apprentice he gained experience at the Ernemann camera
works. In 1913 he founded IHG (Industrie und Handels- Gesellschaft) in Dresden, which factory
produced various camera’s. At the Leipziger Messe in 1936 he presented the world’s first single
lens reflex (SLR) camera, the Kine-Exakta. Since 1972 the factory became state property(German Democratic Republic) and used the name Pentacon. After the unification of both
Germany’s in 1990 Pentacon was liquidated and its brand name Praktica was taken over by Jos.
Schneider Precision Mechanics Co. In 1998 Pentacon GmbH took over (or back) the productionof Praktica camera’s.
1924 The micro-cinematographic artist Jan Cornelis Mol based his film on blood circulation on thefindings of Van Leeuwenhoek.
1938 Frits Zernike (1888-1966) was a professor at the University of Groningen from 1915 to 1958. In
a study of diffraction gratings, he noted that he was able to discern materials of different
refractive indices despite their transparency, and discovered the phase contrast principle.
Zernike built a microscope based on that principle and received theNobel Prize in 1953.
1939 The optical industry (Optische Industrie de Oude Delft) was established.
Dr. Albert Bouwers, director from 1941-1968, improved (in 1941) the
mirror lenses and invented the Super Technirama 70 millimetre wideangle film projection (by a self designed anamorphic lens), used byWalt Disney in 1959 at his premiere of the cartoon ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
In the late 1940's, just after World War II, many camera producers in the
Netherlands, were (re)established, like
Foka/Fodor Alberts), Rotterdam
Nefotaf (Nederlandse Fotografische Apparaten Fabriek), Weert
Nedinsco (Nederlandse Instrumenten Compagnie), Venlo,
Philips, Eindhoven
Prinsen, Amsterdam
Tahbes, Den Haag
Vena, Amsterdam.
They tried to present their products on the European camera market, but noneof them survived (as a camera producer).
However, Maus Gatsonides, a gifted engineer and rally driver since the early
1950's, became famous all over Europe with his Gatsometer camera: a
Christian Huygens
special camera linked with a speedometer for checking speed. Gatsometer microscope, Den Haagalso produces red light camera systems and traffic enforcement systems
1689
using Nikon camera technology.

The Netherlands nowadays does not have a serious and therefore competitive national optical industry.
Nevertheless it hosts famous Japanese producers of fine optics, having their European Headquarters
in the Netherlands, like
Nikon Corporation
Canon
Hoya.
5.1

From craft to industry

It was not until the latter stages of the Industrial Revolution, however, that mechanical technology formass production and in-depth scientific research into the relationship between the composition of glass
and its physical qualities began to appear in the industry.
A key figure and one of the forefathers of modern glass research in the world was the German scientist
Otto Schott (1851-1935), who used scientific methods to study the effects of numerous chemicalelements on the optical and thermal properties of glass. In the field of optical glass, Schott teamed up
with Ernst Abbe (1840-1905), a professor at the University of Jena and joint owner of the Carl Zeiss
firm, to make significant technological advances.
Another major contributor in the evolution towards mass production wasFriedrich Siemens (1826-1904), who invented the tank furnace. This rapidly
replaced the old pot furnace and allowed the continuous production of far
greater quantities of molten glass.
The history of the manufacture of Optical Glass can be divided into threeepochs:Pierre Louis Guinand's (1748-1824) discovery of the stirring process in 1798
and perfected in 1805;
The work of Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott circa 1882, andThe development in England during the Great War (WWI).
The method of manufacture is practically the same at the present time as in
Guinand's day, any improvement being one of degree rather than of kind.
Thus the glass is melted in special pots and furnaces, stirred after founding,and allowed to cool in situ. When cold it is broken up and examined.
Defective glass is rejected, and the good glass is moulded into slabs, prisms
or lenses, and finally annealed. Optical glass has to conform to a rigorous
specification. It must have certain specified optical constants, must be freefrom striae, bubble, strain, and colour, and must be durable.
The manufacture of optical glass is based upon continuous research into theproperties of glass. The effects of composition upon density, refractive
index, melting properties, durability, freedom from colour, and de-vitrification
tendencies, have to be studied upon a small scale, and the results translated
into terms suitable for works practice. The whole manufacture indeed isresearch upon a manufacturing scale.
Carl Zeiss microscope
1878

6

Optical industry in Japan

In 735 a group of merchants sent from Japan to China returned with astronomical instruments. In 875
an observatory, which possibly may be the earliest astronomical observatory in Japan, was establishedat Asuka in the Nara Prefecture.
In the Genna era (1615-1623) Tohichi Ikushima made atelescope, which caused the Tokugawa Shogunate to prohibit
telescope manufacturing because of its possible military
applications.
During the Kioho era (1717-1735) Nizayemon Mori, an optician in
Nagasaki, made an astronomical telescope, and/or a
Sokugohyogi (type of transit instrument) for the eighth Shogun
Yoshimune Tokugawa.

Old astronomical observatory
6.1

In 1859 observation towers were built on the coast at Kosetoura,
Nomo and Noroshi Yawa, equipped with telescopes to view thearrival of foreign ships.

Early telescopes“In the early 1700s, Japanese manufactured telescopes were becoming
more common, and the general public would have seen only domestic
models, but quality was inconsistent and imported telescopes werepreferred, although Mitaku Yorai indicated that not all imports were sofavoured: 'China has failed to supply any of outstanding quality', continuing,'every now and again an inability to see much with a Japanese one is to bemarked...Nagasaki plays the leading role (supplying telescopes to) show
the moon up close'. In the 1770s, Swedish scientist Charles Thunberg
described how lookouts were given telescopes and placed on mountains
near the sea to spot distant ships.
Circa 1790, Iwahashi, Zenbei, from Kaitsuka, Izumi, made an astronomical
telescope, using an octagonal tube, circumference 27 centimetre, length
Early Japanese
about 270 centimetre, installed in the Government observatory, andtelescope, National
reported to be as good as or better than imported models. By 10th moon of1795, he had a larger telescope. Zenbei was an optician who became an Science Museum Ueno
active astronomer, observing the sun and other objects, and is also noted
for making telescopes for a famous cartographer, Tadataka Ino.
Circa 1800, Goryu Asada ground lenses for a telescope that he used to observe the satellites ofJupiter. His 'Asada school' used European methods & modern instruments to obtain data, using
specialized instruments, such as a transit to measure longitude and a quadrant to measure latitude. In
the early 1800s, Japanese artisans mastered lens production and telescope building, and the range ofJapanese made instruments expanded to include transits, quadrants, and further telescopes, withrelatively few Dutch imports of telescopes and sextants. Smoked glass was made in Japan after
1800, and in the 1830s, solar observer Kunitomo Tohbei made an astronomical telescope judged
better than any of the Dutch imports.

Kunitomo telescope

Tohbei Nootoo Kunitomo, (1778-1841) was a famous gunsmith in Omi, 14th
heir of a gun smithing business, and a telescope maker and amateur
astronomer. He first used a telescope circa 1821-2, a Dutch instrument
owned by a nobleman (Iba describes it as a Gregorian reflector at the Tokyo
Observatory). In 1832, he began work on a
Gregorian of 7 centimetre aperture, fabricating allparts except the brass tube, with a parabolic mirror,
completing it in 1833 after many difficulties, andbeginning observation & sketching of the sky (animage of the telescope is found in Yamamoto).
Kunitomo made many speculum mirrors, studying
the metal in old mirrors and deciding on an alloy of
65% zinc and 35% copper, and using a grindstonethat was oval in shape. He fabricated eyepiecelenses of quartz crystal, using split bamboo tools

and pine rosin.
1836 was a year of famine in Japan, and Kunitomo sold some of histelescopes and drawings of the sun to assist his neighbours. He fabricated'many' telescopes, which were given and sold to friends and patrons.

Kunitomo drawings

Hazama, an astronomer at Osaka, bought a Kunitomo telescope and found it to be 'twice as efficient'
as a Dutch telescope. A Kunitomo telescope and various parts survived in the home of a descendent
as of 1937; where K. Nakamura of Kwasan Observatory tested two mirrors and found them excellent.
However, the eyepieces he used caused chromatic aberration which Kunitomo was unable to correct.
The 1874 transit of Venus was photographed by Hikoma Uyeno in Nagasaki on December 9, which isconsidered the first celestial photography in Japan.
In the late 1800s, assistance from Western nations was provided for the astronomical measurements
used to determine latitude and longitude for mapping. The Japanese Navy built Kanshodai
Observatory in 1874". 15.
The National Science Museum 16 in
Tokyo (at the Ueno Park) has a special
departm ent with early optical
instruments. It shows some earlyJapanese telescopes and observatory
instruments. In August 2004 it will open
a new annexe with more optical items. I
learned in this museum that the makingof telescopes in Japan in the Edo
period lagged far behind European
countries, some of the first skilled
telescope makers were Mr. Kunitomo
and Mr. Iwahashi.
6.2

T he
start
of
the
photographical industry

Barr & Stroud 4½ Feet Type FA2
Range Finders became well known in
the 19th century. They were introducedby Barr & Stroud (optical instrument
engineers in Glasgow, UK since 1860)17
in 1888 and the very high techoriented Japan Navy immediatelyordered them. The first one, bearing
Admiral Togo on the bridge of batlleship Mikasa, He has anserial number 4, was installed on a
Zeiss binocular. On the background an Barr & Stroud
Japanese battle ship in 1894. By May
rangefinder (picture 75 Year history)
27, 1905, every single battle ship ofJapan’s Imperial Navy was equipped with this range finder, in fact every single cannon! So this will
have cost Japan a lot of Yen.
“Delving far back in to the records, itturns out that lens polishing was
being done in feudal Japan in theancient days of the Tokugawa
Shogunate, before Commodore
Perry knocked this island nation’s
doors open to the Western
civilization. Production on anindustrial sale started in 1907 withthe establishment of the Fujii Lensf a c t o r y w h i c h m anufac tur ed
binoculars for the civilian market aswell as for use by the Imperial
Japanese Navy. But it was not until
the First World War that the opticalindustry really began spreading its
roots. By this time the Navy hadlaunched its own production of
sextants, periscopes, and otheroptical precision instruments. The
Navy also established its own
research laboratory.
Probably the biggest factor spurring
the industry on at this time was theabrupt stoppage of lens glass
imports because of the German

Admiral Togo on the bridge of batlleship Mikasa, He has an
Zeiss binocular. On the background an Barr & Stroud
rangefinder

wartime blockade. The industry had until the relied solely on these imported raw materials for the
manufacture of finished products. In desperation, optical instrument manufacturers searched far andwide for other sources and, to their pleasant surprise, found an abundant source right in their own
backyard; this was in 1921.
Five years later, with several firms already in the lens-making business in addition to Fujii, yet anothernew establishment hung to sign that was to become one of the most famous names in the industry
both at home and abroad. It was Nippon Kogaku, makers of the post-World War II Nikon cameras,
Nikkor lenses, and a wide range of diversified optical instruments.
Up this point we have been talking about the beginnings of lens and optical instrument making. It
wouldn’t be accurate to trace the origins of the camera industry as such this far back, although, for therecord, a handful of Japanese began dabbling experimentally in camera making in the 1880s.
The first camera bearing the made-in-Japan tag hit the market in 1903. Several years before Henry
Ford came out with his Model T. It was named the Cherry Camera (Cherry Portable) and it was an
Meishi 18 format box camera, manufactured by the Konishiroku Photo Industrial Company, Limited 19, afirm generally recognized today as the oldest Japanese manufacturers in the industry not only ofcameras but of a complete line of photographic film and printing paper. One of its best-known products
today is the Konica 35-millimetre camera. Konishiroku Shasin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha was founded in
1873. It was also known as Rokuosha. In 1928 they produced a four element lens in Tessar style. In
1931 they produced with Jena glass an 135 millimetre f/4.5 lens called Hexar. The design was a
success, some said equal of the Zeiss Tessar” 20.
6.3

Japanese optical history

This time line contains information based on a variety of sources 21:“1857 Naval doctor Julius L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort starts teaching photography at the Medical
Institute in Nagasaki, the centre of Dutch learning. Among his students were Hikoma Ueno,
Kuichi Uchida and Genzo Maeda. Meerdervoort and other foreigners introduce the wet-collodion
process around this year and up to 1859. The three treaty ports of Yokohama, Nagasaki, andHakodate become the centres of photographic learning in Japan.
1862 Hikoma Ueno (1838-1904) (father Shunnojo Tsunetari Ueno), after learning photography andchemistry under Dr. Pompe van Meerdervoort, publishes the treatise, Seimikyoku Hikkei which
described photographic techniques and the wet collodion process. Ueno Hikoma becomes oneof the first professional Japanese photographer by opening a photo studio in Nagasaki called
Ueno Satsuei-kyoku.
1864 Kokichi Kizu opens a photo studio in Hakodate (Hokkaido), one of the ports which were opened
to foreigners.
1865 Kuichi Uchida, who studied under Hikoma Ueno, and Shinsuke Nakagawa both open a studio in
Osaka.
1865 Yohei Hori (Masumi) opens a photo studio in Kyoto.
1866 Rihei Tomishige opens a photo studio in Yanagawa, Fukuoka Kyushu.
1870 The number of professional photographers in Japan exceed 100.
1871 Tokichi Asanuma establishes Asanuma Shoten, a photo supply shop in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.
1873 Matsugoro Asakura is sent to Austria by the Japanese government to study the manufacturing of
optics. He returned to Japan in 1875 and started to build a lens factory with government
approval. Matsugoro died before finishing the factory, which was completed in 1876, producing
ophthalmic lenses using imported glass. His son, Kametaro Asakura, developed a photographic
lens after 1883, exhibiting it in 1890, the first known Japanese made multi element photographic
lens (there were earlier singlet objectives).
1873 Konishi-ya, forerunner of Konica, is established in Kojimachi, Tokyo. It later moves to Honcho in
1876 and changes its name to Konishi Honten.
1876 Students of Matsugoro Asakura complete the lens factory and start to produce ophthalmic
lenses with imported glass. (Glass melting technology was still undeveloped in Japan.)1877 The number of professional photographers in Tokyo alone exceed 100.
1879 "Shashin Shimbun," a weekly photo by Zenshin-sha, is published with albumen prints pasted on.
Publication ceases after 10 issues.
1883 Matsugoro Asakura's son, Kametaro Asakura, developed a photographic lens at his factory in
Yotsuya Denmacho and displayed the lens at the 3rd National Industrial Exhibition in 1890
where it won 1st prize. This was the first photographic lens produced in Japan, except for simple
single-element lenses.
1892 Take a look at a row of Japanese cameras an you’ll notice shutters bearing the name of“Seikosha”. This firm opened for business in 1892 as a manufacturer of watches and clocks, andits scale of operations and exports today make it easily the biggest of its kind in the Far East. In
1930 they started making shutters, and today almost all Japanese cameras are equipped with
Seikosha shutters.
1902 Konishi Honten establishes Rokuoh-sha in Tokyo, a division dedicated to produce
photosensitive materials (dry plates, etc.) and later photographic equipment.

1903 The Cherry Portable, the first portable Japanese camera, is made by Konishi Honten (forerunnerof Konica). The box-shaped camera used a magazine which held twelve 2 1/4x3 1/4 inch dry
plates. Konishi Honten went on to make various other cameras. Paper-backed roll films were still
not made in Japan. Only sheet film and glass plates were being made in Japan. Imported rollfilms were still very expensive and usually arrived in poor condition because there were no
refrigerated cargo holds.
1903 Japan's first photographic paper, the Sakura Hakkin type paper, is marketed by Konishi Honten.
1907 Kuribayashi Seisaku Sho, the forerunner of Petri Camera, is founded as an photographic
accessory manufacturer. The first camera was made in 1919, the first lens in 1942. There wasan bankruptcy in 1977, closed down in 1979.
1907 Konishi Honten markets Japan's first single-lens reflex camera, the Sakura-reflex Plano with a
Tessar f/6.3 lens. Priced 225 yen.
1908 Ryuzo Fujii establishes the Fujii Lens Seizosho factory. Ryuzo was a Mechanical Engineeringmajor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and became a naval engineer. He was sent to Europe
for three years to study optical design and lens manufacturing in Europe (mainly Germany). He
returned to Japan in 1901 and quit the navy in 1908 to start his company. His younger brother
Kozo joined the company after quitting his job at the Aichi Cement Company. They studied the
production of prisms and lenses in a rented dirt-floored entrance hall of a house. In March 1909,
they moved to a new factory in Shiba, Tokyo and equipped it with the latest lens manufacturing
equipment from Germany. It became Japan's first modern lens factory.
1909 The Japanese Army had in this year already established an optical research laboratory 22 in
Tokyo, and in 1909 a repair facility was further established in order to service optical weapons
belonging to the Japanese army. Combined with the experience gained in maintaining
instruments such as field binoculars and cameras, the facility also began producing telescopes
and microscopes for a variety of applications. Shortly thereafter, production expanded to include
prisms for binoculars and even lenses for photographic cameras. By the outbreak of the FirstWorld War in Europe, however, the question of self-sufficiency in optical munitions had yet to beseriously considered. Japan’s armed forces were almost entirely dependent upon overseas
suppliers of optical weapons, and this supply was sharply limited during the war as the
combatant powers suspended their exports of munitions in general.
1911 Rokuoh-sha markets Japan's first pocket-size camera called the "Minimum Idea." Its relatively
affordable price of 9 yen and 50 sen creates a Minimum Idea boom among amateurs.
1915 The Japanese Navy starts to develop optical glass manufacturing since glass imports from
Germany stopped due to World War I.
1917 Nippon Kogaku K.K. (forerunner of Nikon) was established in Tokyo as
a munitions optical instrument shop to meet the needs of the Imperial
Japanese Navy. The company was a consolidation of three companies:
Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-sho's optical division, Iwaki Glass Seisaku-sho,and Fujii Lens Seizo-sho.
1918 The significance of this over-dependence upon foreign suppliers was
not lost upon the army or navy, which made serious efforts after 1915 toaddress the problem of domestic production of both optical glass andoptical munitions. In 1918 navy researchers at the Tsukiji Arsenal, southof Tokyo, began to produce seven types of optical glass in quantities of
up to 300 kilogram melts in an effort to compensate for the interruptionof German imports—theretofore Japan’s primary supplier.
1919 Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kaisha (forerunner of Asahi Optical Company,
Ltd., maker of Pentax cameras) is established in Tokyo by Kumao
Kajiwara as a manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. Although it was not Nippon Kogaku head
until much later that it added cameras to its line of products. In 1923 office building ca 1917
Asahi produced their first photographic optic, the Aoco motion picture
projection lens. In 1929 Asahi began to manufacture lenses for still photography and by 1943 thecompany was a major supplier of lenses for other camera manufacturers, like Minolta andKonishiroku. After the war, most of the factories where destroyed. In 1948 Asahi Opticalreopened with manufacturing binoculars for export.
1919 Takachiho Seisaku-sho, the forerunner of Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., is established as a
microscope manufacturer. In 1936 Olympus made its first photographic lens, a 75 millimetre
f/4.5 copy of the Zeiss Tessar. Olympus also made lenses for Mamiya, Elmo, Aires and Walz.
1920 Shigejiro Nishimura & Sons, in Kyoto, began by making reflectors, managed by K. Nakamura of
Kyoto Imperial University. As of 1931, Nishimura had produced one 10 inch f3.8 photographic
reflector, three 8 inch, three 6.5 inch, twenty five 6 inch, and over two hundred 5 inch & smallerreflectors, all with mirrors by K. Nakamura. In 1929, Nakamura made a 6 inch refractor, on a
mount designed by Nakamura, which was the first equatorial refractor built in Japan (followed
closely by a Nippon Kogaku 6 inch equatorial of Zeiss design)”.
1921 The Osaka Industrial Material Testing Laboratory starts research on optical glass melting.
Completely independent from the Navy, this Laboratory belonging tot the Department ofAgriculture and Commerce. Prior to this time optical glass was imported from Germany, Franceand England.
1921 Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K. hires eight German engineers and scientists on a 5-year contract.
They worked on optical design, product design, and lens and prism grinding and polishing. One

of them, Heinrich Acht, extended his stay until 1928. He produced samples of photographic
lenses, the first ones to come from Nippon Kogaku. Kakuno Sunayama took over lens design
after Acht and improved upon Acht's 50 centimetre f/4.8 lens in 1929, calling it "Trimar." In thesame year, he later produced the "Anytar" 12 centimetre f/4.0 lens based on the Carl Zeiss
Tessar lens.
1922 The Astronomical Herald published articles by Masamitsu Yamazaki on making reflecting
telescopes, which resulted in an amateur telescope making movement, numbering over 200 by
1931. (The Herald is the monthly of the Nihon Tenmon Gakkai, Japan Astronomical Association)
1924 Masashige Tomioka founded Tomika Kogaku Kenkusho in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo todevelop photographic lenses. In 1932 the laboratory became a manufacturing facility, Tomioka
Kogaku Kikai Seizosho, and made original lenses for camera companies. Today they produce
most Yashica lenses.
1925 In June, Konishiroku Honten Co. introduces the Pearlette camera, an imitation of the highly
successful Vest Pocket Kodak. It had a bellows and an imported lens and shutter. It used 127type roll film. The Pearlette line was in production for 20 years and was improved over time.
1926 Seizo Goto founded Goto Optical, in Komazawa, Tokyo, in August of that year.
1928 Kazuo Tashima establishes the Nichi-Doku Shashin Shokai company, the forerunner of Konica
Minolta Camera Co. The corporate name was changed to Molta Goshi Kaisha in 1931 and to
Chiyoda Kogaku Seiko K.K. in 1937 when the company began lens production. The name alsochanged to Chioda Kogaku Seiko Kabushiki Kaisha. The first Minolta Rokkor lens was an 200
millimetre f/4.5 for an portable aerial camera in 1940. By order of the Imperial Japanese Navy,
Minolta started to develop and produce optical glass at Itami, near Kobe. In 1942, the company
was ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy to manufacture optical glass near Kobe. The 75
millimetre f/3.5 Rokkor lens, modelled after the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, fitted on the Minolta Semi
IIIA camera in 1946 was the first Japanese lens with anti-reflection coating.
1931 Nippon Kogaku Kaisha, in Shiba, Tokyo, had produced
hundreds of refractors by 1931, as large as 8 inches,on equatorial mounts. Prototype 20 inch fork mounted
reflectors had been made.
1931 Hirowo Mohri of Konishiroku Honten Co. produces af/4.5, 4-element H-type lens with Jena glass. The lens,
named "Hexar," was based on the Carl Zeiss Tessar
lens. "Hex" is for Rokuemon Sugiura where "Roku"means six. The lens was a success and claimed equal
performance to the Tessar lens. The "Hexar" label wasused on Konishiroku's top-quality lenses up to 1959,
when the lenses were renamed Hexanon.
1931 Military & Naval optical instruments were made by
Government Optical Works.
1932 Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K. manufactures its first Nikkor photographic lens. This was later
mounted on the Hansa Canon camera in 1936. All lenses from Nippon Kogaku were labelled"Nikkor" from this year on. And all pre-World War II Canon cameras were fitted with Nikkor
lenses..
1932 Tokyo Optical (Tokyo Kogaku Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha) began in 1932, under the direction of theImperial Japanese Army. The optical division of the Seikosha factory of Hattori Tokei, a clock
and watch manufacturer , was merged with Katsuma Kogaku Kikai Seisaku Sho. The newcompany was formed to manufacture photographic lenses and precision optical and mechanicalinstruments 23. By 1934, it had produced two triplet photographic lenses, the State and the Toko,in f/6.3 and f/4.5 apertures. The designer, Ryoii Tomita, made an 50 metre f/0.7 design in 1944,
which was later sold to the US Occupation forces. After the WWII they made Topcon single lensreflexes and Topcor lenses.
1933 In November, Seiki Kogaku Kenku Sho (Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory), theforerunner of Canon Inc., is established by Goro Yoshida (1900-1993) and Saburo Uchida(1899-1982). They are soon joined by Takeo Maeda and they produce the prototype Kwanon 35
millimetre camera six months later. The production model introduced in 1935 was called "Hansa
Canon." It used a Nikkor lens from Nippon Kogaku. Yoshida left Seikos Kogaku in the fall of1934, less than a year after setting up Seikos Kogaku.
1934 Fuji Photo Film Company (Fuji Sasin Film Kabushiki Kaisha) is established in Jan. to produce
photosensitized materials. In 1938, it announced that it would develop all photographic
equipment including the melting of optical glass and lenses. During World War II, it made aerial
cameras and lenses. After the war, it concentrated on optical glass and studio camera lenses,
named Rectar. In 1954, all lenses were named Fujinar or Fujinon.
1935 In April, the "Super Olympic" with a lens shutter is marketed by Asahi Bussan (forerunner of
Ricoh). This is the first 35 millimetre camera made in Japan.
1935 In May, Mitsubishi Paper Mills and Konishiroku complete joint research to develop Japan's firstpractical fiber-based photo paper.
1935 In June, Takachiho Seisaku-sho, forerunner of Olympus Optical Company, makes its first
photographic lens, a 75 millimetre f/4.5 modelled after the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. "Zuiko" wasthe name chosen by the company for its lenses.

1935 In July, the Semi Minolta, Japan's first 6x4.5 centimetre format camera using 120 roll film ismarketed by Molta Goshi Kaisha.
1936 The Riken Optical Industries Limited established. Heir mass production method for making
Ricoh’s and Ricohflexes today provide part of the reason why it is Japan’s largest manufacturerof popular priced cameras.
1936 In September, the Hansa Canon,
Japan's first 35 millimetre rangefinder
camera with a focal-plane shutter is
produced by Seiki Kogaku Kenkusho(forerunner of Canon) and sold by
Omiya Photo Supply Co., Ltd. It had a
Nikkor 50 millimetre f/3.5 lens and a
pop-up viewfinder. The Hansa Canon
was an imitation of the Leica II. The
name "Hansa" was a trademark of
Omiya Photo Supply Co., Ltd. Seiki
Kogaku, a virtually unknown company,
still had no distributor for the camera so
it gave sole distribution rights to Omiya
and permission to incorporate the"Hansa" trademark.
1936 In November, Japan's first 2 1/4 square(6x6 centimetre) format camera, theMinolta 6, is marketed by Molta Goshi
Hansa Canon
Kaisha.
1937 In August, Canon forerunner SeikiKogaku Kenkusho (Precision Optical Laboratory) incorporates into Seiki-Kogaku Kogyo K.K.
(Precision Optical Industry Co., Ltd.). This is Canon Inc.'s official year of founding. The newcompany is headed by Saburo Uchida one of the original founders of the Laboratory.
1937 Konishiroku Honten changes its name to Konishiroku Co., Ltd. and began making aerial
cameras and X-ray photographic equipment.
1940 In January, the Leotax camera is sold by Showa Kogaku Seiki. It was a copy of the Leica 35
millimetre camera except for the rangefinder which was not coupled to the lens.
1940 On July 7, camera production was restricted for military purposes only, stunting the growth of theJapanese camera industry.
1940 In September, Mamiya Koki Seisakusho produces the first Mamiya Six camera.
1941 In July, the Zenkoku Shashin Kikai Seizo Kogyo Rengokai association of photo equipment
makers is formed to negotiate with the government on photography equipment matters such as
official pricing revisions and equipment procurement and exportation.
1941 Mamiya Camera Co. was founded, and earned its first laurels with the Mamiya Six, a folding typecamera whose most outstanding recent innovation is a device which permits the back of thecamera to move back and forth for focussing instead of the traditional lens-movement
focussing”.
1944 Due to a military supply company law enacted in Dec. 1943, most of the major Japanese photo
equipment and materials manufacturers are forced to co-operate in the war effort.
1945 During the first few years after the war ended in 1945, Japan faced severe shortages of raw
materials. Camera companies were short on materials and capital to rebuild. They had to think
about sheer survival rather than developing new cameras. Thus, the first Japanese cameras
after the war were pre-war carry over.
1945 In December, the domestic manufacturing of film and cameras was restarted. However, theproduction volume was still low and most of the output went to supply the Occupation Forces,leaving little for the rapidly-increasing domestic demand. In large cities, a black market for film
and cameras appeared.
1947 Camerabug American soldiers of the Occupation Forces commented that there were too many
names to remember with regard to Canon cameras: lenses by Serenar, cameras by Canon, andthe manufacturer was Seiki-Kogaku Kogyo. Company president Takeshi Mitarai took this toheart and changed the corporate name to Canon Camera Company Ltd. on Sept. 15, 1947. This
name was later modified to Canon Camera Company Inc. in early 1951. The present corporatename of "Canon Inc." was adopted in 1969.
1948 Chinon Industries, Inc.'s forerunner, Sanshin Seisakusho, is established by Hiroshi Chino to
manufacture lens barrels and mounts for cameras such as Olympus, Ricoh, and Yashica. It
started manufacturing lenses from 1959. The corporate name was changed to its current one inJan. 1973. After being dissolved after the war which destroyed most of the factory, Asahi Optical
Co. was restarted. It made binoculars for export.
1949 In April., Canon Camera Company markets the Canon IIB 35 millimetre rangefinder camera
having a viewfinder which could switch magnifications to match the field of view for the 50
millimetre, 100 millimetre, and 135 millimetre interchangeable lenses. This useful and uniquefeature helped to establish Canon's reputation for the following 10 years. The camera remainedin production for 3 years.

1949 Takachiho Seisaku-sho is renamed Olympus Optical Company, Ltd. (Olympus Kogaku Kogyo
K.K.)”.
6.4

An example of military influence in 1931

“Domestic lens manufacturing in 1931 was a goal of both the photographic industry and the Japanesemilitary. Under official auspices, a number of firms were engaged in optical research including:
Nippon Kogaku Kabushiki Kaisha;
Konishiroku Honten / Rokuosha;
Oriental Shashin Kogyo;
Takachihi Kogaku Kikai Seisakusho, now Olympus;
Tokyo Kogaku Kikai K. K.;
Molta Goshi Kaisha, originally Nichi Doku Shashinky Shoten, now Minolta;
Tomioka Kogaku Kenkusho;
Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kaisha;
Inoue Kogaku andYamazaki - Shuzando.
The first lenses were shown with the first Japanese between-the-lens shutters. In 1931, Konishiroku
Honten / Rokuosha produced with German glass, what is generally considered the first Japanesephotographic lens 24, the Hexar 105 millimetre. F/4.5 a four element lens in the configuration of the
Tessar. In the same year, Nippon Kogaku completed a 120 millimetre. Anytar lens for the 6.5x9
centimetre. format. which was never commercially produced. That year Asahi Optical completed athree element triplet, the Coronar 105 millimetre f/4.5, which was sold by Molta Goshi Kaisha with its
Eaton and Happy Hands cameras. Asahi Optical had begun in 1929 to prepare photographic lens
production; by 1934 it had become a specialized lens producer, and is believed to have made the lensfor the Pearlette, the first camera of complete Japanese manufacturer” 25.

7

Birth of Nippon Kogaku

Before Nippon Kogaku was born, its parents, brothers and sisters already belonged to the Mitsubishi
zaibatsu. The start of that zaibatsu is described below.
7.1

The Mitsubishi zaibatsu

In 1857, at the request of the Tokugawa Shogunate Government, a group of Dutch engineers,
bringing their own tools and machines, arrived at Nagasaki and started with the construction of afoundry: Nagasaki Yotetsusho. Nagasaki Yotetsusho was the first naval and merchant ship repair plantin Japan 26. Nagasaki Yotetsusho is nowadays the oldest firm inside the Mitsubishi zaibatsu.
In 1860 this foundry wasredesigned into ironworks andwas r enam ed " N a g a s a k i
Seitetsusho." This ironworks
was completed by the Dutch in
1861. In 1868 the ironworks
Nagasaki Seitetsusho, wastaken over by the Meiji
Government and put under thecontrol of Nagasaki prefectural
judiciary. On July 4, 1884 theMitsubishi Company leased theworks from the Japanese
Government. Three years later,
Nagasaki Seitetsusho 1870
in 1887, the Mitsubishi Company
purchased the whole works from the Japanese Government. In 1893 the works was renamed
Mitsubishi Shipyard of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha. In 1917 the works was transferred to the control of
Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Ltd.
“Mitsubishi founder Yataro Iwasaki was born in 1834 in the village of Inokuchi on
the island of Shikoku. Yataro started a shipping company in October 1870 under
the name Tsukumo Shokai, and that was the beginning of Mitsubishi. The
company grew rapidly while undergoing a number of name changes: to
Mitsukawa, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Steamship, Yubin Kisen (Postal Ship)
Mitsubishi.
In 1885, Yataro Iwasaki lost control of his shipping company in the wake of apolitical struggle that had buffeted Japan's marine transport industry. The
company merged with a rival and became Nippon Yusen (NYK Line), which
would return to the ranks of the Mitsubishi companies in later years.
Though Yataro lost his shipping company, he had established other businesses
that formed the foundation for the Mitsubishi organization. One, Mitsubishi
Yataro Iwasaki
Kawase-ten, was a financial exchange house that also engaged in warehousingbusiness. It was the forerunner of today's Mitsubishi Bank and Mitsubishi Warehouse & Transportation.
Yataro Iwasaki also had purchased a coal mine and a copper mine and had leased a Nagasaki
shipyard from the government. He had participated in establishing the insurance company that now is
Tokio Marine and Fire. He even headed up the school that became the Tokyo University of Mercantile
Marine.
Yataro Iwasaki died 1885. Yanosuke Iwasaki succeeded his older brother, Yataro, as the head of the
Mitsubishi organization in 1885. The following year, he incorporated the Mitsubishi operations as amodern corporation. Yanosuke set about rebuilding the organization around its mining and shipbuilding
businesses. He also expanded the organization's positions in banking, insurance, and warehousing
and thus laid the foundation for future growth and development.
Yanosuke Iwasaki ceded the Mitsubishi presidency to
Yataro's son, Hisaya Iwasaki, on the occasion of areorganization of the company in 1893. Hisaya Iwasaki
divided the Mitsubishi organization into semi autonomous
divisions. Those divisions were banking, marketing, coalmining, metals mining, real estate, shipbuilding, andadministration. Among the Mitsubishi companies establishedwhile Hisaya was president were businesses that now are
Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Asahi Glass, and Mitsubishi Cable
Industries.
Hisaya Iwasaki

Some of Hisaya's private investments are part of today's Yanosuke Iwasaki

Mitsubishi companies. He purchased the Kobe Paper Mill, which is today's Mitsubishi Paper Mills. And
he backed the founding of Kirin Brewery.
His cousin Toshiya Iwasaki founded Asahi Glass, Japan's first successful
manufacturer of plate glass. Mitsubishi management modernized further when
Yanosuke's son Koyata succeeded Hisaya as president in 1916.
Koyata Iwasaki, a graduate of Cambridge University, incorporated the divisions assemi autonomous companies. He steered Mitsubishi to leadership in such sectors as
machinery, electrical equipment, and chemicals. The companies that later became
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries developed automobiles, aircraft, tanks, and buses. And
Mitsubishi
Electric became a leader in electrical machinery and in home appliances.”27
Toshiya Iwasaki
Other Mitsubishi companies before 1920
year
1857

name
Nagasaki Yotetsusho Foundry

1868

Spring Valley Brewery

1868

Takashima Coal Mine

1870

Tsukumo Shokai

1875

Kobe Paper Mills Co.

1879

1881

The Tokio Marine InsuranceCo., Ltd.
Yokohama Specie Bank
LimitedMeiji Life Insurance

1884
1884
1887
1888
1907
1907
1911
1916

Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Co.
Nagasaki Shipyard
Tokyo Warehouse
Nippon Oil Company Limited
Nippon Cable Co., Ltd.
Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.
Tokyo Cable Mfg. Co.
Tokyo Steel Works

1917

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo
Kabushiki Kaisha
Edogawa Barium Industry Co.,Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
name

1880

1918
1921
year

later names
Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery
Works
Japan Breweries Co. Kirin Beer
Corp.

Mitsukawa, Mitsubishi; Mitsubishi
Steamship; Yubin Kisen (Postal
Ship) Mitsubishi
Japan Paper Making Co., Ltd.;
Mitsubishi Paper Mills

founder
Dutch engineers;
Yataro Iwasaki
William Copeland +Emile Wiegand;Hisaya Iwasaki
Goryota; Thomas
Glover; Hisaya
IwasakiYataro Iwasaki
Thomas and John
Walsh; Hisaya
IwasakiHisaya Iwasaki

The Bank of Tokyo

Hisaya Iwasaki

Meiji Fire Insurance; Tokio
MarineMitsubishi Honsha, Ltd.
Nagasaki Zosensho
Mitsubishi Logistics

Taizo Abe; Hisaya
IwasakiHisaya Iwasaki
Hisaya Iwasaki
Yanosuke Iwasaki
Hisaya Iwasaki
Hisaya Iwasaki
Toshiya Iwasaki;
Hisaya Iwasaki
Hisaya Iwasaki;
Koyata Iwasaki

Tanaka Iron Works; Yahata SteelWorks; Wanishi Iron Works;
Japan Iron & Steel Co.,Ltd.;
Mitsubishi Iron; Fuji Steel; Kyusyu
Steel; Tokyo Steel; Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries, Ltd.; Mitsubishi
Steel Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Nippon Kogaku; Nikon
Corporation

Koyata Iwasaki
Koyata Iwasaki

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
later names

Koyata Iwasaki
founder

So the Mitsubishi zaibatsu was able to offer the Japanese Government a variety of Japanese goods,
like steel, coal, oil, glass, means of transport, munition, etc.

7.2

The birth of Nippon Kogaku

Mitsubishi zaibatsu’s fourth president, Mr. Koyata Iwasaki, decided to form Nippon Kogaku and raised
the necessary funds for an operating capital of 2,000,000 ,= Japanese Yen.
The Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha was started up in Tokyo on July 25, 1917 as an
optical instrument shop in order to meet the needs of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The aim was to put
an end to the import reliance of the Japanese industry and army in this field. The company was formed
through the consolidation of three smaller firms: Iwaki Glass Seisaku-sho, Fujii Lens Seizo-sho, andthe optical division of Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-sho.
The Nikon Corporation is stating nowadays that the acquisition of Fujii Lens Seizo-sho (Fujii Lens
Works) took place after that Iwaki Glass and Tokyo Keiki merged.
Koyota Iwasaki
7.2.1 Iwaki Glass Seisaku
The Iwaki Glass Seisaku-sho 28 had been operating since 1881 29. In 1885 they made a mirror for asearchlight. And designed 60 centimetre and 75 centimetre (hobutsenankio) searchlights for the
Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 and 1915 respectively. In 1914 Iwaki Glass started experiments to
produce optical glass. After that they had also the capability of melting optical glass. An other part of
Iwaki Glass stayed in business after 1917. Since 1955 it was working together with Asahi Glass(founded in 1907 by Toshiya Iwasaki, the second son of the second president of Mitsubishi
Corporation). Iwaki Glass has for many years set the pace with innovative specialty glass products,
especially heat resistance glass as its core business. On January 1, 1999 Iwaki merged with Toshiba
Glass, one of leading glass manufacturers, to form “Asahi Techno Glass” (ATG 30). Maker of headlightglass, bulbs, electronic and industrial glass materials, cookware, and ceramics.
7.2.2 Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-sho
Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-sho, a metal factory, has been established in 1896 in Koishikawa, Tokyo as
Japan's first measuring instrument manufacturing plant. It started with the production of pressuregauges, followed in 1901 by compasses, depth sounders, and other navigation instruments andequipment. Since 1913 the optical branch of this firm also produced rangefinders. Only the optical
department of Tokyo Keiki became part of Nippon Kogaku. Even today Tokyo Keiki still exist. Since
1990 they are known as Tokimec 31. Nowadays they are producing: Marine Systems, Hydraulic
Equipment, Fluid Measurement Equipment, Web Inspection System and RF (microwave) devices.
7.2.3 Fujii Lens Seizo-sho
In 1909 32 Fujii Lens Seizo-sho opened a factory (after renting a dirt floor room in a residence, forresearch work) in Tokyo. Ryuzo Fujii graduated in mechanical engineering from Tokyo Institute ofTechnology and became a naval engineer. Assigned to study science in Europe, he spent three years
in Germany studying optical design and lens fabrication. His younger brother Kohzo (or Mitsuzo)
graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in applied chemistry, and became director and manager ofthe Aichi Cement Company. In 1908 the two brothers started their own company, which they called
Fujii Lens Factory. In March 1909, they created Japan’s first modern optical plant in the Shiba districtof Tokyo, which they equipped with German fabrication equipment and Zeiss measuring instruments.
In 1909 Fujii Lens began repairing military products. The Fujii Brothers were the first binocular
manufacturer in Japan, producing their first model with prism in 1911. This was the Fujii Brothers
Victor 8x20 33 34. This binocular was sold to the Imperial Navy. Galilean field glasses might also havebeen made. The Imperial Army and Navy placed enormous orders for telescopes and binoculars, withwhich one was able to measure exact distances. The WWI brought on difficulties in obtaining theGerman optical glass used in these early models,
but
production
Lensplan written by Ryuzo Fujii
continued. 6x15 and(picture 75 Years)
6x20 binoculars were
exported to Russia andEngland.
“During the first year it
performed opticalresearch. As it
happened, Fujii´sbrother Kohzo, who hadearned a degree inc hemistry, became
interested an soon left
his job to join the new
Fujii Lens Seizo Sho
company. They had aCarl Zeiss microscope new plant constructedin the spring of 1909
1925

Fujii Bros. Victor 6x30

located on a lot nearly 13,000 square feet in Tokyo´s Toshima-ku section. It was a modern two-story
building with an total work area of 1279 square feet. To equip their new plant they imported lens
grinding and polishing equipment from Europe, and optical measuring instruments made by Carl Zeiss.
The first floor featured the metal fabricating and rough lens grinding shop. The final assembly andrepair shop, with the two lens polishing and one lens element rounding and centering machine, waslocated at the second floor.
During the first two years Fujii Lens specialized in fixing imported optical instruments for the JapaneseArmy. In addition to Ryuzo´s training in Germany, the company gained much knowledge about
construction methods and design foreign-made optical instruments. It is important to understand that at
this time Fujii Lens did not have the equipment or skills necessary for the production of optical glass.
Their emphasis was on grinding and polishing lens elements , as well as the fabrication of related
metal parts. For projects requiring optical glass, Fujii Lens uses glass imported from Germany or madeby the Japanese company Kato Kogaku located in Tokyo. In 1910 Fujii Lens designed and made prismbinoculars which were placed on the market the following year. Produced in a test run, thesebinoculars had an 8x20 field and were called `Victor`. It is assumed that they were sold to theJapanese military.
There are indications that in the same year Fujii experimented with photographic lenses. As it is now
understood, the company never actually manufactured any of these lenses. The probable reason forthis was that the demand for domestic binoculars was greater than the need for photographic optics. I
n Japan at that time photography was not widespread, and besides, any Japanese made lens would
have to compete with high quality lenses imported from Germany.
With the successful test run of Victor binoculars, the Fujii Brothers decided in 1912 to venture int themass production of optical instruments. Their production of binoculars was to be increased, and theyplanned also to begin melting optical glass. The new glass shop was a direct result of the experienceand knowledge gained by the company. To house these activities, a much larger second building wasconstructed.
In 1913, with its increased manufacturing capacity, Fujii Lens brought out a variety of prism andGalileo-type binoculars. These binoculars were called (interestingly enough!) “Nihongo”, and had 6x24
and 8x24 fields for the prism models. Later in the same year the company introduced a refractive-typetelescope” 35.
“An earliest NK binocular is marked: Fuji Bros. Tokyo. On the Left marked: "S.I." Magnification 6, No.
75213. It appears to be 6X21 or 6X22 design. Marked with British broad arrows on front prism covers. I
have not heard of Fuji Bros. or NK supplying England with binoculars in the early years, but it isinteresting to speculate based on this one example. Have you seen others with the British military
marking?” 36.
7.2.4 Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
The activity of the three factories covered fields such as measurement techniques, manufacturing of
optical glasses and lenses, in fact three basic branches necessary to manufacture optical equipment.
Having been founded in the late 19th century, the three companies had by then adequate
manufacturing experience.
The newly consolidated company Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
started up with some 200 employees and produced optical equipment. It had
to fulfill the optical needs of the Imperial Japanese Navy as well as the Army.
Its first products were also used in the scientific and industrial world. By thetime the Ohi plant (still being the main plant of the conglomerate) became
fully operative in late 1918, World War I came to an end, but it did notchanged the government’s intention to establish an independent opticalindustry.
Mister Yoshihara Wada was the first president. But Jeff Alexander says that:
Kahei Wada, the head of Keiki Seisaku-sho, was selected during theincorporation to stand as the combined firm’s first president.
Yoshihara Wada
It is not affordable to stop the production capacity of Tokyo Keiki, Iwaki Glassand the later joined Fujii Lens. Because of the huge number of employees, there must be an big
production. And there was no import of German glass. So I suppose, that with the optical glass
production of Iwaki Glass a lot of binoculars and other optical instruments could have been made since1917. But Richard Lane 37 says that Nippon Kogaku started with optical research and production firstbegan in 1918,
7.2.5 The Ohi plantIn 1918 it opened the Ohi
factory in Shinagawa, south ofTokyo. In the same year
Nippon Kogaku build anexperimental glass melting
furnace, which lead to thestart of the production of
optical glass. The researchand design department
nowadays still uses thesepremisses. In 1922 Nippon
Shiba factory 1923
Kogaku bought a NaxosUnion optical grinder in Germany. Nippon Kogaku establisheda glass research facility on the same Ohi premisses in 1923. It
Ohi factory 1996
also built a glass melting furnace with a capacity of 350 kilo,
followed by a glass melting furnace with a capacity of 500 kilo in 1927. In 1920 a BOA tester, a device
to test the axle of a cannon barrel was made. In 1924 Nippon Kogaku built and installed a concussion
machine for testing, with forces up to 10 G. The first successful experiments with melting with the useof electricity were performed in 1930. In the basement of the factory No. 1 a deep freezer was installed
in 1935.
7.3

European contacts

Ryuzo Fujii travelled in 1918 to Europe, mainly to Germany. He had contacts with Carl Zeiss Jena andthe glass factory of Schott Bros. To form a joint venture with Carl Zeiss wasn’t a success, althougheven today Nikon Corporation is still buying Schott glass. According to some sources Nikon
Corporation tried twice in its history to buy the Schott company.
In 1921, eight German scientists & engineers were hired by Nippon Kogaku K.K. for five years:
Heinrich Acht, (the principal engineer) product design and drafting;
Ernst Bernick, mechanical engineering;
Hermann Dillmann, optical computing;
Max Lange, optical design;
Albert Ruppert, prism grinding and polishing
Adolf Sadtler, lens grinding and polishing;
Otto Stange, product design and drafting and
Kurt Weise, lens grinding and polishing 38.
Max Lange and Adolf Sadtler died in Japan, five others went back to Germany
in 1926, but Heinrich Acht stayed in Japan until 1928. The Germans did anefficient job in different fields ranging from organisation to optical design.
Heinrich Acht extended his contract for another three year period and he was incharge of managing optical design until the end of his stay.
In those days there was in fact just one very good optical firm in the world: Carl
Zeiss (including Schott) from Germany. I’ve never discovered where these eight
German engineers worked before they came to Japan. They received theirinvitations in 1919, which is one year after the World War I and at that time
Germany was facing a high unemployment rate.
There is no personal record of these 8 gentlemen. Because two of them died inJapan and the others went back rather quickly most of them might have beenolder than 50 or 60.
As we can read in several books of Nippon Kogaku’s history (50 & 75 years)
and other documents Nippon Kogaku
was and is still very proud of its German
engineers. This proud may lead to theassumption that the Germans might
Heinrich Acht andhave been former employees of Carl
notes about an optical
Zeiss, as one isn’t proud to employ
plan written on 1924some unemployed German engineers
06-04 (picture 75
but one will be proud to steel them fromYears History)
the “horses mouth”. There are two othersources:“I know Zeiss sent a team out to Nippon Kogaku in the 1920s”
39: Stephen Sambrook.
“It is interesting to consider if N.K. obtained the production
rights (or license) from Zeiss to produce this artillery telescope
40
Lenses made by H. Acht (picture 75 in the early 1920s”
Years History)

One of the first tasks for the group was redesigning Nippon Kogaku binoculars, resulting in the Luscar,
Mikron and Atom models of 1921. The German group also helped Nippon Kogaku in 1921/22 to design
and produce some refractor type telescopes, like the 5 centimetre, 10 centimetre and an 50 centimetre
reflector models, for astronomical use. In 1922 they constructed another telescope with an 50
centimetre mirror. The German team also assisted in the production of photographic lenses. The firstwas an 50 centimetre anastigmatic triplet lens.
In that same period, Kakuya Sunayama started up as a engineer for optical items. With help of theGerman team he became the most promising candidate for the optical design department.
In 1928 Kakuya Sunayama visited for a period of 8 months several optical industries in Germany,
France, England and the Netherlands. Maybe he has been assisted on parts of this tour by Heinrich
Acht, as Mr. Acht travelled back to Germany on the same ship. After his return to Japan Mr. Sunayama
became head of the commercial photographical lenses design department.
In 1929 Sunayama designed and improved a 50 centimetre f/4.8 aerial lens, called the Trimar, and afirst experimental version of the 12 centimetre f/4.5 Tessar type for 6.5x9 plate cameras, called Anytar.
7.4

Co-operation with Canon“Goro Yoshida (1900-1993) was one of the two founders of Seiki Kogaku Kenkyusho in 1933. Mr.
Yoshida was the first person to turn his attention to the production of Japanese small precision
cameras. Despite of several Leitz patented ideas, Mr. Yoshida had various ideas in order to develop
new focal distance adjusting mechanism. The first idea was “a camera with an attached rangefinder”
with registration number 220536. In November 1936 Yoshida registered more ideas: 230748; for adevice on a camera that adjust the position of the object lens according to the shooting distance.
245135; a device on a camera that adjust the object lens automatically to the shooting distance.
254037; a device that adjust freely the ratio of the rangefinder movement and the ratio of the focussing
movement of the lens in the middle of the coupling section. These last three ideas were made in aperiod that Yoshida already left Seiki Kogaku. His ideas were not used by Seiki Kogaku.
The other founder of Seiki Kogaku was Saburo Uchida. They were soon joined by Takeo Maeda andthey produced the prototype Kwanon 35 millimetre camera in 1934. Also in 1934 Saburo Uchidaconsulted his older brother Ryonosuke Uchida, about getting hold of high performance lenses for small
precision cameras and solving the problem of focus adjustment mechanism. Ryonosuke, a graduate of
the Naval Academy at Edajima, had been a navy officer and was an expert on gunnery. When he wasmaking fuses for shells at Nippon Kogaku, he was the supervisor in that division at the Ohi factory. He
recommended that Uchida seek assistance from Nippon Kogaku on this matter. By the end of thesummer in 1934, Uchida, together with Maeda Takeo, visited Nippon Kogaku. They took with them theprototype Kwanon camera in a nice silver box. At Nippon Kogaku, Shigeji Yamamoto, the sales section
manager, and Noboru Hamashima, the chief of the civilian supplies, received the Uchida party. Later
Sunayama, the design division director, joined the meeting. Uchida asked for co-operation andSunayama agreed. Sunayama must have been eager to give full support to the realisation of the firstJapanese 35 millimetre camera, which Seiki Kogaku was about to perfect. Sunayama had beenpouring his passion into developing lenses for 35 millimetre cameras. The Nippon Kogaku lens that
had no prospect of selling,
finally found a marketing
channel” 41.
Nippon Kogaku agreed to cooperate with the company
which was later named Canon.
It designed and manufactured
coupled rangefinder
mechanism, which were
mounted in cameras. Those
cameras were already fittedwith shutters, so Nippon
Kogaku in fact did the finishing
touch. Nippon Kogaku had
already succeeded in designingand manufacturing 35
millimetre camera lenses, andthus, by installing its lens, wasable to complete the camerathat Yoshida had dreamed
about.
In Arakawa’s “Forty Years”
there is a remark saying that“with support from ourcompany, Seiki Kogaku was founded in November, 1933. After a considerable struggle it succeeded in
manufacturing a small camera” 42.
Eiichi Yamanaka, who entered Nippon Kogaku in 1931 and who worked in the civilian supplies design
department, was given the task to design the focus adjustment mechanism. This marked the beginningof Nippon Kogaku’s involvement in of 35 millimetre cameras mechanism.
Yamanaka’s idea brought about the unique focus adjustment mechanism that distinguishes the Hansa
Canon camera. The application for a patent on this invention was submitted on June 27, 1935, in thename of “a device which adjusts the position of the object lens in a camera to accommodate theshooting distance”. The inventor was Eiichi Yamakana, the applicant was Nippon Kogaku, and theregistration number was 229211".
“Nippon Kogaku, at that time, had already established its position as the largest optical equipment
manufacturer in Japan with advanced manufacturing system specializing in military equipment. Since
Saburo Uchida's brother, Ryonosuke Uchida, was once an auditor at Nippon Kogaku, Saburo Uchida
was introduced to Toyotaro Hori, the executive vice president and the counsel of Nippon Kogaku.
Those days, under Nippon Kogaku's policy to enter the civilian product market, Hori was in charge ofstudying non-military products. He was interested in the application of high-grade lenses for civilianuse. The timing of the request for co-operation by Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory was
perfect. Recognizing benefits on both sides, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory and Nippon
Kogaku came to an agreement to develop the "Hansa Canon (Standard Model with Nikkor 50
millimetre f/3.5 lens)" with the full support of Nippon Kogaku. The first Canon camera under this joint
development was introduced to the market in February l936 (although some have said that the actual
date was October l935). In manufacturing the "Hansa Canon," Nippon Kogaku was responsible for thelens, the lens mount, the optical system of viewfinder and the rangefinder mechanism, while Precision
Optical Instruments Laboratory was responsible for the main body including the focal-plane-shutter, therangefinder cover as well as the assembly of the camera body. The "Hansa Canon (Standard Model),"became Canon's first commercial camera. Later, the name of the "Kwanon" changed to "Canon" 43.
Why would Canon choose a lens made by its rival for their first camera? The simple fact is that half acentury ago Canon and Nikon weren't rivals. Back then, it took both companies to produce a quality
camera. So the lenses produced by Nippon Kogaku K.K. were the first lenses (made in Japan) evercapable of replacing high quality foreign-made lenses. Although the know-how and the technologicalaspect of the lens design came from Europe. A legacy of lens-making technology left by Heinrich Acht,
an engineer who came to Nikon from Germany in the 1920s - which enabled Kakuya Sunayama, thehead of Nikon' s Design Departments to attempt to develop a camera lens. After innumerable trials,
Mr. Sunayama finally succeeded in creating a high quality lens in 1932 44.
“When in 1935 Seiki Kogaku started manufacturing their own cameras, Nippon Kogaku began
supplying them with finished optical lenses in metal tubes. Seiki Kogaku placed these tubes into lens
mounts ready for mounting onto the required cameras. Early in 1939. Seiki Kogaku purchased 2 lens
generators, 5 lens polishing machines and an lens checker or Vertometer. Mr Ryozo Furukawa, a lensdesigner was transferred to Seiki Kogaku from Nippon Kogaku. Mr. Furukawa’s job was to help set up
these optical machines in the Nakane-cho Meguru factory. He had previously worked at Nippon
Kogaku under Mr. Kakuya Sunayama, their chief lens designer” 45.
Robert Rotoloni mentions in his article about “Who made what?” in NHS Nikon Journal 46, that hethinks that Nippon Kogaku also provided Seiki Kogaku with lenses after 1947. The common 5
centimetre f/3.5 Nikkor on most of the Canon S-II body’s before 1947 are similar with the later 5
centimetre f/3.5 Serenar on Canon S-II body’s between 1947 and 1949.
The first lens for a 35 millimetre film format camera, a 5 centimetre f/3.5 - was produced in July 1935
by Nippon Kogaku, and built in the Hansa Canon camera. Somewhat later a 5 centimetre f/4.5 wasproduced.
In August 1937 a 5 centimetre f/2 Nikkor lens, and later in January 1939 a 5 centimetre f/1.5 Nikkor
lens were produced for the Canon cameras.
There is an nice article about “the earliest Nikkors”from Hayato Ueyama in NHS Journal 22.
In 1939 Seiki Kogaku made its first lens, an 50 millimetre f/1.5 Seiki Serenar for an X-ray camera.
Then in 1940 Seiki Kogaku made an 75 millimetre f/4.5 lens for military purpose.
At this moment, the Canon Corporation says on their web site 47: that the Serenar 35 millimetre f/3.5(1950) was the first photographical lens they made.
“Before joining Seiki Kogaku in 1939, Ryozo Furukawa worked under the head lens designer at Nippon
Kogaku, Mr. Kakuya Sunayama. During this period of time, the 5 metre f/3.5 Nikkor was designed forthe Kwanon, which was renamed the Hansa Canon camera. In June 1934 Seiki Kogaku presented
Nippon Kogaku with an German 5 centimetre f/3.5 Elmar lens, which was examined by Sunayama.
The first 5 centimetre f/3.5 was completed in December 1934. Made entirely from glass melted at
Nippon Kogaku, it was patterned after the Zeiss Tessar. In January 1935, Furukawa checked theperformance of the then new 5 centimetre Nikkor against that of the 5 centimetre Elmar and found theperformance of the German optic to be better than that of the new Nikkor lens. This comparison cameas a surprise to Sunayama and Furukawa, since they believed that their Nikkor was the world’s
number one copy of the original Zeiss Tessar lens. This situation was complicated even more by thefact that the Tessar-based Elmar was the product of a much smaller company: Ernst Leitz from
Wetzlar. Subsequent improvements in optical glass allowed this situation to be corrected in May 1937,
when Nippon Kogaku improved the performance of its 5 centimetre f/3.5 Nikkor. It has been thoughtthat because Sunayama was really never satisfied with the optical performance of the original 5
centimetre f/3.5 Nikkor, he went on to design the sharp 5 centimetre f/4.5 Nikkor. Not introduced until
1939, this lens and its companion 5 centimetre f/2.8 Nikkor were designed during 1935-36 before theperformance of the 5 centimetre f/3.5 was improved as a sharper alternative” 48.
7.5

E-mails

Onderwerp:
Datum:
Van:
Aan:
CC:

RE: permit for publication
Tue, 20 Jan 2004 11:42:14 +0100"Leigh R." <leigh@nikonbv.nl>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>
Schaefers

Dear Mr Braakhuis, Many thanks for your continued efforts in promoting Nikon. Actually your request
should firstly be directed to us via Inca BV Haarlem, plus my colleague here at Nikon Europe BV.,
Ms Yvonne Schaefers handles such requests & matters. I will pass on your request, however pleasecontact Inca BV and Yvonne later (now on vacation until next week), on how we can proceed & assist
you with your request. Thank you in advance & best regards, Richard Leigh (Nikon Europe)-----Original Message----From: Hans Braakhuis [mailto:hans.braakhuis@planet.nl]
Sent: maandag 19 januari 2004 20:45
To: Leigh R. (Nikon Europe)
Subject: permit for publication
To Richard Leigh,Dear Sir,
As you might know the Nikon Historical Society's 9th convention will be held on February 22, 2004 in
Tokyo, Japan. On that occasion I am working on a publication about the history of Nippon Kogaku,
covering a period between 1600 and 1949.
This publication won't be a commercial product but just a convention handout. For illustration purposes
only I would like to ask your permission to use approx. 10 pictures from the Nikon 75 Year History(1993) book. I also would like to make use of some quotes from that book and the Nikon 50 Year
History book (1968). Both pictures and texts can be scanned from both books, which are in my library.
I will certainly make a special note in my publication about your permission and possible additional
information.
I would like to thank you in advance.
sincerely yours, HB. (enclosed: table of contents and chapter 7 and 8 without pictures)
No permit received. HB.
Onderwerp:
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Re: permit to use some text
Mon, 24 Nov 2003 16:53:08 -0600
Jason Gregory Zorbas <jgz816@mail.usask.ca>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Dear Hans Braakhuis, Unfortunately the copyright remains with Jeff, so as the editor of Gateway, myhands are tied. The best thing to do would be to track Jeff down and I'm sure that he would be very
pleased with your interest. If I can help in any other way, let me know. Sincerely, Jason Zorbas, B.A.,
M.A. Ph D Candidate, University of Saskatchewan, Editor, Gateway, jgz816@mail.usask.ca, (306)966-1843
Onderwerp:
Datum:Van:

Re: Nikon Article
Fri, 05 Dec 2003 22:56:43 -0800 (PST)
jwscott <jwscott@interchange.ubc.ca>Aan:hans.braakhuis@planet.nl

Dear Hans, Many thanks for your message and your inquiry. I have seen the NHS web site and I was
impressed by the members' passion for Nikon's history and its products. I would be pleased to permit
you to reprint passages of my article in your publication - but you will also need the written permissionof a company that later published the article in a print journal. The journal "Japanese Studies", out of
the University of Melbourne, Australia, published an updated, edited, and corrected version of thearticle in Winter 2002, and their parent company, Carfax Publishing Inc. requires written permission for
any reproductions. I would prefer if the JS version of the article was used in your publication.
Academic articles are not typically published in more than one place, however, Carfax and JS did nothave any difficulty with my article appearing in a graduate-student online journal such as the BC Asian
Review as well, which was very accommodating. I have included the bibliographic details below, as
well as links to the Japanese Studies web site and the Permissions web page. You shouldn't have any
trouble finding a copy of the journal at a university library near you, and I think copies can also bepurchased online through the JS web site, but I'm not sure. I would send you a reprint, but I am inJapan right now, and I don't have a copy handy.
Please let me know how your article is coming along, and its themes, etc. Anytime you feel comfortablesending me a draft, I would be pleased to see it. Also, can you send a few details about the JCII
museum? Many thanks. Your project sounds very interesting.
Best regards, Jeff Alexander, Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of History, Affiliate, Centre for Japanese
Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, jwscott@interchange.ubc.ca
Bibliographic Entry: Nikon and the Sponsorship of Japan’s Optical Industry by the Imperial JapaneseNavy, 1917-1945, Japanese Studies, Vol.22, No. 1, 2002.
Japanese Studies Web Site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/customer.html
JS Permissions Web Site: "Requests for permission to photocopy or republish material must be
received in writing via mail, fax, or online submission. For further information, please visit:"http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/permissions.html.
“I did a request for permission on December 22, 2003, but received no answer yet: H.B.”
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Re: NHS Convention in Tokyo
Sun, 23 Nov 2003 06:16:22 -0500 (EST)CARRLANE@aol.com
hans.braakhuis@planet.nl

Hello Hans, I would certainly approve your including the information from the previous issues of thejournal. Since the articles were published by Bob Rotoloni, I would get his permission to use theinformation from the previous issues as well. I saw your previous list of binoculars forwarded fromPeter Abrahams. Did you receive my input I sent to Peter? I'm looking forward to you list. I would
appreciate a copy of your list produced so far. Regards, Rich Lane
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Re: Nikon 250
Mon, 24 Nov 2003 20:13:39 -0800
Peter Abrahams <telscope@europa.com>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Hello Hans, Is your project only for pre-WWII NK? If yes, then you might have a complete list of
binoculars, or at least all the models that I know about. This is because I have never seen a pre-WWII
NK catalogue. I've only seen examples of binoculars and some pictures in books. Hopefully themeeting organizers in Japan can help. It is very difficult otherwise. I hope you are not upset when you
see the 250. It is not locked up or even in a room, it is at the very top of one of the big stairs, where thepublic does not go.
Aan:
hans.braakhuis@planet.nl
Van:
Jason Zoppel <zzopit@yahoo.com>
Ontvangen op:
donderdag 1 januari 2004 om 16:57 uur
Onderwerp:
Aero Nikkor lens, photos
Bijlage(n):AERONIKKOR1.JPG, AERONIKKOR2.JPG,
AERONIKKOR3.JPG
Sorry for the delay, the lens was packed away with my other camera bits.
This is the Aero-Nikkor that I mentioned on the Nikon HS website. It was in
my Grandfather's estate with some other WW2 items he brought back.

Thank you for the info on the SK-100, this confirms other findings. While at the Nikon HS event inTokyo I would appreciate if you could ask some of the other collectors what they think this lens may be
worth. I hope to determine it's value and perhaps sell or trade it to another collector. Regards, Jason
Zoppel.

Onderwerp:
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Re: Nikon History 1600 - 1949
Sat, 03 Jan 2004 11:30:16 -0600
Robert Rotoloni <rotoloni@msn.com>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Hans, This is a very interesting paper. This is a very detailed item! I am sure it will be very wellreceived the members at the convention. Yes, you can excerpt from the Journal as long as you credit
the author, the Journal and the Society I am OK with that. I would want your paper to be as complete
as possible. See you there Hans. take care Robert
Onderwerp:
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Re: NHS Convention Tokyo
Wed, 07 Jan 2004 05:03:57 -0800
John Baird <jbaird> 49
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Hans, Looks great...please use whatever you need. If you need any help, please don't hesitate tocontact me. Best regards, John Baird
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Re: NHS Tokyo Convention
Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:47:07 -0500 (EST)Johnamillham@aol.com
hans.braakhuis@planet.nl

Hello Hans, Thanks for the E-mail. I'm sorry to say that I can't add much to your history of the Nikon
microscope. I do have some comments to make, but it's not a lot! I look forward to the convention andwill see you there. Regards - and Happy New Year, John
Onderwerp:
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Re: the last 50 days before the NHS Tokyo Convention
Sun, 04 Jan 2004 14:18:17 -0500 (EST)TTAbrahams@aol.com
hans.braakhuis@planet.nl

Hans, impressive list that you put together. I have an addition for you - the 5cm f:3,5. Looking forward
to Tokyo and we, Tuulikki and I, will see you there. All the best, Tom A
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NHS Tokyo
Mon, 05 Jan 2004 11:42:36 -0500
Kraus <Bildot@comcast.net>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Hi Hans, thanks for the message about your planned publication for the convention. I will review it
shortly, as asked. Happy New Year, and looking forward to seeing you in Tokyo, Bill Kraus
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Re: NHS
Mon, 05 Jan 2004 09:31:19 -0800"Mike H. Symons" <msymons6456@telus.net>
Hans Braakhuis <hans.braakhuis@planet.nl>

Hi Hans; Now your messages are getting through. Yes, the bottom JPG is an "Hotaikyo Camera 96 or
also known as the Artillery Telescope Camera", and yes, I give you full approval to use any of my text
on this camera. PS- Happy New Year by the way! I look forward to meeting you in Tokyo. Cheers, andnice hearing from you. Mike

7.6

Notes

1.
Jeff Alexander, a PhD Candidate, Dept. of History, Affiliate, Centre for Japanese Research,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On October 26, 2001 he spokeat the Centre for Japanese Research, in the Conference Room of the Institute of Asian Research (CKChoi) Building, 1855 West Mall, Vancouver, Canada. The title was: “Japan's Optical Industry during
the 1920s, 1930s, and the Post WWII Era”. Jeff Alexander also made a publication named: Nikon and
the Sponsorship of Japan’s Optical Industry by the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1917–1945 . The article
was published first in the BC Asian Review (BCAR), this is a refereed on-line journal of research on
Asia, number 13 of 2002. The journal "Japanese Studies", issued by the University of Melbourne,
Australia, published an updated, edited, and corrected version of the article in Winter 2002 , Theirparent company is: Carfax Publishing Inc. Bibliographic Entry: Nikon and the Sponsorship of Japan’s
Optical Industry by the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1917-1945, Japanese Studies, Vol.22, No. 1, 2002.
2.

See the article from Philip Greenspun: http://www.photo.net/japan/timeline

3.
The arrival date of “De Liefde” 19 April 1600 is based on the Julian calendar. It was 29 April of
the Gregorian calendar we use today, and 16 March of the 5th year of Keicho in the Japanesecalendar.
4.
See the complete article from Kono Makoto (look on the www for his book)
The first V.O.C. office was at Hirado on Kijusju Island in 1609. The Deshima office started in 1641.
See: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Liefde_%28galjoen%29
5.

Because of the Dutch ambiance, I always use the Yaesu Hotel in this area.

6.

On www.voc-kenniscentrum.nl/gewest-japan.html it says that Deshima was build in 1641.

7.

From http://www1.tcue.ac.jp/home1/english/students02/class09/group02/History.html

8.
Screech, Timon: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: Thelens within the Hearth, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996, Chapter 7, pp 212-253, The
View From on High. Screech, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London.
9.

Lord.

10.

According to: Ryûichi Kaneko in Japanische Photographie 1860 - 1929, page 11.

11.

Johannes L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort.

12.

According to Yoshiro Tanaka, in chapter one from The History of the Japanese Camera.

13. See: www.sieboldhuis.org. A lot of Siebold’s papers and collectables can be seen at the
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands ( http://www.rmv.nl ).
14.

See the complete article from Philbert Ono at: hppt:/www.photojpn.org.

15.

See Peter Abrahams article: The History of the Telescope in Japan.

16.

See their homepage at: http://www.kahaku.go.jp/english/.

17.

Glasgow based company which is now part of Pilkington Optronics.

18.

Meishi format is 57x83 millimetre plate format (2¼ x 3c Inch).

19.

Or Konishi Honten, now Konica Minolta.

20.

From the April 1957, page 140, in The Japanese Photo Industry Magazine from 1958.

21.

from Philbert Ono’s site, the Jeff Alexander article and The evolution of the Japanese camera.

22.

50 Years history of the Nikon Company, page 56. Gojunen no ayumi / 50-nenshi

23.

There is an similarity with the founding of Nippon Kogaku.

24. So the Heinrich Acht 1921 lenses for Nippon Kogaku were not seen as Japanese lenses by thisauthor.
25.

From the Masao Tanaka and Hajimu Miyabe chapter 5 in The history of the Japanese camera.

26.

This is the Dutch connection with the Nikon Corporation.

27.

See the article at: www.mitsubishielectric.ca/corporate/our_history.html.

28. They made at that time ordinary sheet glass and no optical glass. I could’nt find any connection
between Asahi Glass and the glass melt from Nippon Kogaku. A nice Dutch connection in recent times
is that Asahi Glass designed “Huis te Bosch” , a Dutch village at Kyushu, Nagasaki.
29.

Other authors say 1878, 1880 or 1883?

30.

See: http://www.atgc.co.jp.

31.

See for more information about Tokimec: http://www.tokimec.co.jp/english/whats/history.htm.

32. In the Japanese Photo Industry 1958 it says: Production on an industrial scale started in 1907
with the establishment of the Fujii Lens Factory, which manufactured binoculars for the civilian market
as well for use by the Imperial Japanese Navy (page 140).
33. The Fujii Bros. Victor No. 5x6 and a prewar Nippon Kogaku “Nikko” Orion or Luscar binoculars
have a lot of similarities. See an article at: www.cameraguild.co.jp/nekosan/binos.htm.
34. There is an picture and small article of this binoculars in NHS Nikon Journal 73, page 21 fromBob Thompson.
35.

See the complete article from John Baird in NHS Journal 29.

36.

Steve Stayton.

37.

NHS Journal 82, Nippon Kogaku logos 1918 - 1945, page 6.

38.

On other places I found other names: for example Max Lang and Karl Weise.

39.

Stephen Sambrook in an e-mail list on the subject of binoculars, by Peter Abrahams.

40.

Richard Lane: NHS Journal 82 page 7.

41.

Extracted from “The Nikon story” from T. Arakawa, translated in NHS Nikon Journal 47.

42.

Arakawa; The founding, chapter 2.

43.

See the Canon article: www.canon.com/camera-museum/history/canon_story/1933_1936.

44.

See: Canon Lens Serial Numbers in British Photographic World Magazine, May 2003.

45.

See: www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/nikon_canon.htm.

46.

See NHS Nikon Journal 79, March 2003, page 1, 2 and 3.

47.

canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/index.htm.

48. From John Baird: What If, a reading paper from the NHS 4 Convention in Utrecht, Netherlands
in 1994.
49.

I changed the email address.