Doi (株式会社ドイ, Kabushiki Kaisha Doi) was a large Japanese retailer and distributor, best known outside Japan as the company that revived the Makina in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Doi in the 1940s and 1950s
Doi Shōten (土居商店) was already active as a retailer or distributor in 1941 and 1942. Its address was Higashi-ku Zaimoku-chō (東区材木町) 10, in Osaka, and it sold a number of cameras made by Riken Kōgaku Kōgyō.[1]
In 1951, the company was advertising its distribution of the Elegaflex and of Elega (ヱレガ) items, and its address was Kita-ku Sonezaki-naka (北区曽根崎中) 1–32, in Osaka.[2] Slightly later advertisements for the Elegaflex say that its distributor is the Tokyo-based Nittō Shashin Yōhin, for which this is given as the Osaka address.[3] It is not known if Doi was absorbed by Nittō or if it moved to Tokyo and changed its name at the same time.
Doi Kimio (土居君雄), son of the Mr Doi of Doi Shōten, started a branch in Fukuoka (福岡市博多区冷泉町) at some time around 1956. In 1959 this became Doi (株式会社ドイ, Kabushiki Kaisha Doi).
Notes
- ↑ Advertisements dated January 1941 to July 1942 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, pp. 64, 83 and 104, here in the Gochamaze website and here in Nostalgic Camera by Toshio Inamura.
- ↑ Advertisement placed in Asahi Camera (September 1951), reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 122.
- ↑ Advertisements dated November 1952 to July 1954 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 123.
Sources / further reading
- Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7.
- Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Makina 67: Ribaibaru shita jabara-kamera" (マキナ67：リバイバルした蛇腹カメラ, Makina 67: A bellows camera revival). Chapter 10 of Zunō kamera tanjō: Sengo kokusan kamera jū monogatari (ズノーカメラ誕生：戦後国産カメラ10物語, The birth of the Zunow camera: Ten stories of postwar Japanese camera makers). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1999. ISBN 4-257-12023-1.
Links
In Japanese:
- Advertisement by Doi Shōten, published in the 29 July 1942 issue of Asahi Graph, reproduced in the Japanese camera page of the Gochamaze website
- Advertisement by Doi Shōten dated 1942, reproduced in Nostalgic Camera, a page of old Japanese advertisements by Toshio Inamura