The Rise of the Japanese Photo Industry

The Japanese authorities were caught in a conundrum. They understood the power the West offered but they feared the disruptive influence it represented. And so they closed the country, turned away ships, isolated the traders in Nagasaki harbor and as of 1633 Japanese were not permitted to leave Japan for the West without government approval.  But at the same time they hungered for the knowledge and power of these foreigners.

Restrictions were later lifted on the importation of books and scientific knowledge. Access to the Dutch trading post and the Dutch themselves was strictly limited but in spite of that all things Western became popular and sought after by the Japanese.

The isolation was reasonably complete for the rest of the 17th and the 18th centuries but by the beginning of the 1800’s the pressure on Japan was building. As trade with China grew Western ships were becoming common 

around the Japanese islands. US whalers were a common sight. In 1844 King William of the Dutch wrote to the Shogun urging an end to Japan’s Isolation before it was forced.

In the United States there was concern about the growing strength of foreign powers in the Pacific. Coaling stations were being established around the Pacific and the United States was late to the game. And the Japanese islands were noticed in Washington. Between 1790 and 1853 at least 27 American ships, including 3 warships, visited Japan only to be turned away. However a few US ships were trading into Nagasaki under a Dutch flag.

In 1851 the US Secretary of State wrote to the Emperor requesting “friendship and commerce” as well as coal for American ships. The letter was signed by President Fillmore. It went unanswered.

Then in 1846 US Commander James Biddle sailed into Edo Bay with 3 ships, one a warship, and asked that some ports be opened to trade and coaling. This approach was rebuffed. In 1849 Captain James Glynn sailed into Nagasaki Harbour and was allowed to trade. He filed a report suggesting a mission to Japan backed by a show of force.

Finally in 1853 Admiral Matthew Perry led a flotilla of ships including warships with a large contingent of Marines into Edo Bay demanding that trade talks begin. They were ordered to leave by the Japanese and Perry then threated to lead Marines ashore and march on Edo and the Imperial Palace. The Japanese felt they would not be able to resist such a show of force and agreed to talk. After an opening round of negotiations it was agreed to continue the talks the following year and Perry left for China on the 17^th of July.

While away news came to him that the Russians were at Nagasaki attempting to obtain trading privileges and the British and French said they too intended to descend on Japan. Perry wasted no time and returned to Japan in February of 1854 and by the time he arrived the Japanese had decided to accede to America’s requests. It was obvious that this pressure was only going to increase and Japan was in no position to oppose the western forces militarily

After weeks of negotiation on the 31^st of March Perry and the Japanese signed the “Convention of Kanagawa” which opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to US ships and agreed to a US  Consulate being opened in Shimoda.

In 1858 a second treaty was signed that opened the ports of Yokohama, Hakodate and Nagasaki to foreign trade and settlement.

A hand colored image of Seated Samurai by Felice Beato from about 1860. Beato created hundreds of image from Japan in the 1860’s and many can be found on the internet. These are beautiful interesting images and they are well worth an hour browsing them.

Largely unknown to the Americans these events and the growing pressure of the foreign powers around Japan caused great political upheaval in the country as the various factions of the government thrashed out how to handle this threat. In the end the supporters of the Tokugawa Shogun and the Emperor vied for power. In 1867 the Emperor Meiji assumed the throne and the next year the Shogun renounced power in favour of the Emperor. This has been called the Meiji Restoration and it marked the beginning of an incredible movement of the Japanese to bring themselves into the modern world.

The government realized that the West had much to offer Japan and they knew that without the power to resist they would be overrun. They knew that to survive against the West they needed the power and knowledge avilable from the outside world and they set out to learn and modernize on a national scale.

Emissaries were sent to Europe and America to learn as much as possible about the ways of the West. Teachers were sought to bring western knowledge to the islands, students were sent to apprentice and study in the west to bring experience and knowledge home. Engineers were brought in to build shipyards, Iron smelters, spinning mills. And the Japanese were good students.

During this period the Japanese military reformed itself on the western model and they bought modern weapons for Japan. Foreign officers were brought to Japan to oversee the training of the new modern military. And several battleships were bought from Britain while they learned how to make them on their own. It was an amazing undertaking and it was successful.

Without going into the details, in 1905 Japan engaged in a war with Russia both on land, in Manchuria, and at sea. Russia sent a fleet of 11 battleships and supporting ships from the Baltic Sea 18,000 nautical miles to the support of Port Arthur on the Russian east coast that was under seige by the Japanese. As the Russian fleet approached Japan they attempted to pass through the Strait of Tsushima where they were met by the Japanese fleet and almost completely destroyed. The Japanese had met a European nation and soundly defeated them. Japan had emerged as a modern nation and first rate power in the Pacific Ocean.

We have probably spent too much time on this history for our purposes but it is important to understand the nation and attitudes that ultimately led to Japan’s photographic dominance today.

Cameras Arrive in Japan

Cameras came early to Japan and were embraced by the Japanese every bit like they were in Europe and America. Apparently the first Daguerreotype camera arrived in in Nagasaki on a Dutch ship in 1848. Even though contact with the west was restricted Dutch traders brought things into the country they thought would appeal to the Japanese. Think about that: only about ten years after the camera was introduced in Europe it arrived in Japan. It was acquired by a Japanese nobleman, Shimazu Nariakira however the daguerreotype process was complicated and it took local Japanese several years to acquire the materials and master the process before they could produce their own images.

The first photographers were Europeans who took photographs to convey Japan to their home countries. Commodore Perry travelled to Japan with a daguerreotype photographer by the name of Eliphalet Brown. He took about 400 images recording this contact between the west and the Tokugawa Japanese but unfortunately most have been lost. Brown did not remain in Japan but others did. Orrin Freeman was an American photographer who opened a photography studio in Shanghai in 1859 but he quickly moved to Yokohama in 1860 and became the first Western professional photographer to establish himself in Japan. In addition to having a photo studio he taught photography to eager Japanese students. One of his acolytes, Ukai Gyokusen, bought equipment from him and established the first photo studio in Edo (Tokyo) in 1861

Another early foreigner was Felice Beato who was a well known adventuring English-Italian photographer. He moved to Japan in 1863, and in 1864 opened a photo 

studio in Yokohama. He sold albums of his pictures, took portraits, and taught photography to those Japanese eager to learn the trade. Several went on to be well known Japanese photographers themselves. Many of his images do survive and are available on-line.

Japan had a long history of wood block printing. Engravings were made on tightly grained blocks of wood and them inked and pressed onto paper. By making multiple blocks which could be inked in different colors polychrome prints were perfected. These became extremely popular in Europe and had a definite impact on the European artists of the day.

Monochrome prints were often hand colored which is not surprising considering the Japanese skill with colored wood block prints. Photographs of Japanese scenes were hand colored and sold as tourist souvenirs and an industry developed around these colored photographs and they became very popular in the last decades of the 19^th century.

By 1870 there were estimated to be over 100 professional photographers operating in Japan, most of them native Japanese. With the arrival of gelatin dry plates in the 1880’s amateur photography as a hobby became very popular and there was a demand for film, chemicals and cameras. Amateur photography became popular much as it had done in Europe and North America. And as in other countries camera clubs formed very quickly and photo magazines followed.

In Tokyo in 1873 Rokusaburo (Rokuemon) Sugiura was a businessman engaged in the chemicals trade. He was looking to expand the products he sold in his pharmacy called “Konishi-ya”. He decided that photography supplies for the new and growing hobby would be a good candidate. He began importing chemicals and equipment from the west and his business thrived. This is generally considered to be the beginning of the photography industry in Japan. Eventually he passed this business on to his younger brother and in 1878. Rokusaburo opened a new shop called  “Konoshi Honten” and by the 1880’s he was making his own cameras to sell along with his photo supplies.

He was an ambitious man and in 1902 he established a new business of making his own brand of photo plates and paper. In 1903 he introduced the “Cherry” hand held box camera which was the first mass produced camera made in Japan. It had a magazine of six 2” x 3 ¼” plates. Simple to operate and cheap to buy it was widely popular in the domestic market. It had a single meniscus lens and fixed aperture and no focusing. But it could take a decent picture. This was followed by improved models and this line of cameras sold into the 1920’s.

The company was passed on to his son who changed the name of the company to “Konishiroku Honten”. Further cameras and film products followed including the first Japanese color film in 1940 and in 1946 the company produced a camera it called the “Konica”. Eventually the company name was changed to match the names on the cameras.

Ryuzo Fujii Was always interested in optical devices and while on an official visit to  England as a Japanese Naval engineer he had the opportunity to study optics using technical books about optics he acquired from Germany. In 1909 together with his brother Mitsuzo Fujii he founded a company, Jujii Lens Seizo-Sho, to repair imported optical equipment for use by the Imperial Japanese Navy. He acquired optical measuring and calibration equipment, glass grinders and polishing equipment, lathes and other optical equipment. He was soon producing his own optical equipment that compared well with western imports. He produced telescopes, microscopes and photographic lenses.

With the First World War foreign supplies of instruments and raw materials began to dry up as Europe became self absorbed in that terrible conflict. The Imperial Navy turned to home grown industries for supplies. It even launched its own production of sextants, periscopes and other optical equipment for its own use.

As part of the drive to modernize the first optical research laboratory was set up in Tokyo in 1906. In 1915 the Maritime Institute of Technology began experiments with optical glass and were soon producing their own to replace expensive foreign imports.

In 1917 with the prompting of the Imperial Japanese Navy three of Japan’s principal optical companies, Iwaki Glass Seisaku-Sho, Jujii Lens Seizo-Sho and Tokyo Keiki Seisaku-Sho came together to form a new Company to be called Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushikigaisha (Japan Optical Industries Corporation). The Navy had let it be known that they were looking for a Japanese company to supply them with optical equipment, prisms for binoculars, telescopes, mirrors and microscopes. The demands of the Navy were larger than any one of these companies could have managed alone.

Early optical products of Nippon Kogaku were based on German designs. In 1919 the company brought 8 German technicians to Japan to assist and teach. As a result Nippon’s designs and organization followed German practice. By 1930 Nippon was the leading manufacturer of optical equipment in Japan. The company began producing its own cameras with the name “Nikon” however it was not until 1988 that Nippon Kogaku changed the company name to match the camera.

Asahi Optical Company was established in 1919 as a lens manufacturer. Later they were to add cameras to their product line. And so it went. Japan in the first third of the 20^th century was a creative driving center of learning and development of every sort. As we consider the origins of Canon, therefor, do not be surprised that in this environment a few men in a small apartment set out to produce Japan’s first 35mm camera, a camera as good as a Leica, which was the world leader at the time, but at a cheaper price, for the everyman in their home market. And they were not unique. They were simply a part of the times.

The camera market in the 1930’s was well represented with Japanese cameras of all types. However, as elsewhere, they were mainly simple affairs priced for the average person. Of course there were higher end professional cameras but they were plate cameras or large roll film cameras and they were too expensive for the average person.

At the top of the wish list of Japanese photographers were the German Leica II’s and Contax I’s. But these were a dream that was out of reach of the average Japanese photo enthusiast. And there was no home grown camera that could compare.

The history of cameras is littered with stories of men who loved to tinker, to take things apart to see how they worked, who liked photography and wanted to build a camera of their own. Leica’s Oskar Barnack was such a man. And so to was Goro Yoshida.

This is the briefest comment on what was an amazing story but I think it important to have some idea of how the Japanese camera industry came to be and the environment in which the originators of Canon came together.